The new era of digital ads in Europe – Learnings from our first six weeks advertising under the TTPA

It’s official: We’ve now been running ads in the EU under the new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation for more than a month. This is a big milestone, and proof that compliant, responsible advertising in Europe is not only possible, but happening.

I’ll be honest: Getting here hasn’t been easy, and we’ve learned a lot. TTPA has reshaped how targeting works in the EU, and, as with any new regulation, it is taking time for the programmatic advertising ecosystem to adapt. But after months of collaboration, testing, and persistence, we are building a reliable and compliant path to run ads – and results are starting to come in.

Recap: Electica’s journey to get TTPA compliant ads live in the EU

• As a quick reminder, Electica specializes in programmatic advertising, the automated buying and selling of digital ads across the internet, outside of social media platforms.
• Programmatic ads show the right message to the right audience group, at the right time – across websites, apps, and other online platforms, within the targeting and compliance restrictions set out in TTPA.
• Our compliance framework is robust and includes upfront eligibility checks, compliant targeting limitations, on-ad disclaimers, ad transparency notices, data handling, data transparency with the EU commission, and more.
• Even in the wake of Meta and Google’s departure from political advertising in the EU, programmatic ads remain a viable, TTPA-compliant ad strategy, thanks to their diffuse network of ad inventory buyers and sellers across the internet.

Lessons for political / issues organizations looking to launch ads in the EU

We launched our first compliant political campaigns on behalf of our clients in mid-October, just days after the October 10 implementation date for TTPA. Since then, we’ve learned a lot. In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to share some lessons which we hope will be useful for our clients and partners, as well as other organizations within the movement, looking to launch ads soon:

Lesson 1: Apps dominate initial inventory supply

• To place ads, you need ad inventory. Usually, lots and lots of it to properly scale a campaign. It is fair to say that TTPA-compliant inventory quantity and quality is still maturing.
• We are bringing TTPA-compliant inventory partners on board every week, but depending on the campaign there is sometimes a lack of specialized inventory in certain places.
• Most of the early adopters among suppliers are mobile apps – things like Candy Crush, Solitaire, weather apps, etc. This has required some getting used to for campaigns used to being able to target the top-10 news websites in each country, for example.
• So far, results actually look quite promising in terms of performance on these apps; preliminary clickthrough rates are actually higher than historical averages, and video performance is solid.

Lesson 2: Targeting limited to Geographic, contextual, whitelists.

• Advertisers have fewer allowable targeting strategies under the TTPA. But some solid options – namely geographic, contextual, and inclusion lists of specific websites – are still permitted.
• Of those, geographic targeting is performing exactly as expected so far. We can target by region, city or even down to post-code levels across most of the EU.
• Since much of the inventory supply we can access so far is app-based, it makes tactics like keyword contextual or site-category targeting harder to execute – for now.
• We’re working with a lot of our partners to think about how they can leverage publicly available post-code level data like income, age, education level, or voter-turnout rates for their campaigns (while staying clear of any prohibited “special categories”).

Lesson 3: Mobile-first ad creative is more important than ever.

• Because we’re dealing with a more limited supply of inventory, certain creative channels and/or sizes have been limited.
• Advertisers should anticipate needing to try out several different sizes and aspect ratios in order to increase the ability to scale their campaigns.
• Given the app-inventory dominance noted above, keep in mind that most users will be viewing content on their phones! Prioritize display ad sizes and video formats (eg. square or vertical) that look good on mobile devices.

Lesson 4: It takes longer to get ads live under the new requirements.

• We used to regularly be able to have a client come to us on a Monday, and have their ads live by Wednesday. It takes a bit longer now.
• Organizations should expect to have to fill out new forms (which may require getting the Operations and Finance teams involved).
• Creative approvals that used to be completed in hours may now take a few days, and ads may be slow to get rolling as individual publisher networks slowly approve content.
• Try to get in touch 1-2 weeks before your desired launch date to make sure you have plenty of time to get things ready.

What we at Electica expect in the coming months

All of this change is pretty much what we expected during the early stages of a rollout like this, and what we were prepared for.

Every week, we’re speaking with more suppliers that are allowing compliant political inventory. The ecosystem is clearly moving in the right direction – toward greater transparency, accountability, and ultimately, scale. Over the coming months, we expect things to continue to get easier as more publishers and ad partners get more comfortable with the realities of the new regulation. And of course, we’re watching closely to see whether any of the new apparent loosening of privacy rules under the Digital Omnibus might impact things.

If you’re looking to get ads live in the EU in the coming weeks, it’s absolutely possible. But it’s also important to set realistic expectations: We can get campaigns running, but depending on your campaign, we may have to work through some issues with you, and we ask for your patience.

Our Commitment

We’ll always be transparent about what’s working and what’s still ramping. Our job is to help our partners across the EU navigate this new landscape – and to make sure campaigns move forward responsibly and effectively.

If you’re ready to explore EU campaigns under TTPA, let’s talk. We can help you establish your foothold in this evolving landscape – because in this new TTPA era, maintaining your voice in the conversation (even at reduced scale) preserves a critical connection with the audiences who need to hear from you.

Quick disclaimer to appease the lawyers: We’re not legal advisors, TTPA interpretation is still evolving in real-time, and you should definitely verify everything with your own compliance team before launching any campaigns.