How to get verified to run political ads on Facebook and Instagram

How Meta’s approval fits together

Campaigns talk about “getting verified” as if it were one thing. Behind those three steps is a chain of five links, and an ad cannot run until every one of them is in place:

1. PeopleEveryone who creates or edits the ads confirms their own identity: US government ID, US home address, two-factor authentication. The ID is never published.
2. A PageThe committee’s Facebook Page, with someone from the committee holding full control — the identity your ads appear under.
3. A disclaimerThe “Paid for by” name and proof your organization exists, created by a Page admin. This is where most committees stall.
4. An ad accountWith the committee’s payment method, linked to the approved disclaimer.
5. Each adDeclared as a social issues, elections or politics ad, then reviewed one by one.

Three things about that chain matter more than anything else in this guide.

Finishing one link tells you nothing about the others. The classic failure is a committee that confirmed the candidate’s identity in August, assumed it was “approved,” and found out the week of launch that the disclaimer was never created — at which point Meta won’t even let the ads be built.

The disclaimer is the committee’s, permanently. It carries the address, phone number and email Meta shows with your ads, and keeps in its public Ad Library for seven years. It is owned by Page admins — the person who created it, plus any co-owners — and Meta’s help says that removing the admin who created it can deactivate it and pause every ad that uses it. So a committee principal creates it with committee contact details, a second committee admin is added as a co-owner, and nobody is removed from the Page until your ads run on a disclaimer owned by people who are staying.

Your media buyer needs access, not your identity. The people at your agency who build and manage the ads confirm their own identities, which stay private. The committee then grants the agency partner access to the Page and ad account, and the agency runs the ads inside the committee’s account, under the committee’s disclaimer — removable at any time.

Which verification route is yours

When you create the disclaimer, Meta asks who paid for the ads and how to confirm them. In the US there are five options. Understand one thing before you read them: four of the five need an email address on the same domain as your website. Pick your route before you open the form, because each needs things you may not have yet.

Meta has also offered a disclaimer that prints the authorized person’s own legal name. It is never right for a committee; skip it.

Deciding in thirty seconds

1. Registered with the FEC? Use the FEC route.
2. Not federal, but you have an EIN? Use the EIN route. Almost every committee has one — the bank required it to open the committee account, and it’s on your bank paperwork and the IRS letter that assigned it. If your only email is Gmail or Yahoo, fix that first (Part 3); it takes a day.
3. No EIN? Ask your treasurer before you assume. If the committee truly has none, the contact-information route still puts your committee’s name on the disclaimer — with the same website and domain email.
4. Only if you can’t get a domain email in time: the Page-name route, with committee-owned contact details you are comfortable seeing in public for seven years — then replace it with a confirmed disclaimer once the domain email exists (Part 8).

The website-and-email domain rule

This is the requirement that surprises committees most, and the one that most often turns a clean application into a scramble. For every route that puts your committee’s name on the disclaimer, three things have to line up:

1. A live website that represents the committee, on its own domain.
2. Your exact name on its homepage. The name you put after “Paid for by” has to appear, letter for letter, on the homepage of the website you give Meta — or the disclaimer is rejected.
3. An email address on the same domain. Meta may send a confirmation code to it, so someone has to be reading it.

And it has to stay that way. If the website goes down after approval, Meta can deactivate the disclaimer — and your ads with it. Turn on auto-renew for the domain and keep the site up through Election Day.

Why Meta asks for it. Anyone can create a Gmail account in any name in thirty seconds. Only the people who control a domain can create an address on it, so a matching email is a cheap, strong signal that the person applying really speaks for the organization.

How to fix it in a day

1. Buy a domain in the committee’s nameAny registrar works — Cloudflare, Porkbun, Namecheap, GoDaddy — for roughly $10–20 a year. Register it with a committee email, pay with the committee’s card, and turn on auto-renew, so it can’t lapse mid-campaign or walk away with a volunteer.
2. Put a real website on itLive over https://, showing the committee’s exact registered name on the homepage, your “Paid for by” disclaimer, and the same contact details you’re about to give Meta. A parked page or a “coming soon” splash invites a rejection. On Electbase, your “Paid for by” line renders in the footer of every page, homepage included — make sure it uses the exact name you’ll give Meta. Custom domains are included from the Grassroots plan up; on Kickoff your site lives at yourname.electbase.com, which is Electbase’s domain, not yours. Connect your own from the dashboard’s Custom domain card (how).
3. Create an address on the domain that someone actually readsSet up a mailbox (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho, Fastmail) or, if you only need to receive mail, free forwarding at your registrar or through Cloudflare Email Routing, so info@yourcommittee.org lands in the treasurer’s inbox. Send it a test message before you rely on it.
4. Use a role address, not a person’s nameinfo@, treasurer@ or ads@ survives staff turnover, and it will be public. jane.smith@ becomes a problem the day Jane leaves the campaign.

Information checklist: what to have in hand

Gather all of this before anyone opens Meta’s forms. Most rejections are mismatches — a name spelled one way on the registration and another on the application — and every rejection restarts a review. Type into the worksheet and print it, or download the PDF and write it in. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.Write it in, and keep this page with your campaign records.

Task checklist, in order

Work top to bottom. The times are what each step usually takes; the waits are Meta’s, and nothing speeds them up once you’re in the queue — which is why the first two groups happen on day one.

• Day 1 — Get the committee ready
• Confirm the committee’s exact legal nameFrom the registration, and check that the IRS name on the EIN matches it.Treasurer · 10 min
• Domain, website and domain email in placeCommittee-owned domain on auto-renew; a live site with the exact name on its homepage; a role email on the domain that receives mail (Part 3).Committee · 1 day
• Choose two committee people to authorizeThe treasurer, a senior staffer or — for a candidate’s own committee — the candidate: people who will be around through Election Day. One of them will create the disclaimer. An independent committee keeps any candidate it supports, and that candidate’s campaign, out of its Page, ad account and disclaimer.Committee · 10 min
• Get the wording approved in writingThe legal name for Meta’s “Paid for by” line, and the full in-ad disclaimer your law requires, from the treasurer or counsel.Treasurer · 1 day
• Day 1 — Start the long wait: identity
• Check each person’s Facebook accountProfile name matches their ID exactly; the account is in good standing and they can log in. No nickname or duplicate accounts.Authorized people · 10 min
• Turn on two-factor authentication — and leave it onMeta requires it, and turning it off later disables the authorization, and with it your disclaimers and running ads.Authorized people · 5 min
• Confirm identityAt facebook.com/id: ID, a few security questions, and a US residential address. Do it today.Authorized people · 15 min
• Watch the mail for Meta’s letterA code usually arrives in 5–10 business days. Enter it the day it comes; if nothing arrives in 10 business days, request a new one.Authorized people · up to 2 weeks
• Media buyer’s staff confirm their own identitiesEveryone who will build or edit your ads needs their own authorization. Theirs, not yours.Media buyer · same wait
• Week 1 — Set up the accounts while you wait
• Page readyNamed for the committee, with both authorized people holding full control.Committee · 15 min
• Business portfolio in the committee’s nameAt business.facebook.com, with the committee’s address and domain email. Add the Page to it.Committee · 20 min
• Ad account with the committee’s payment methodUS dollars, your local time zone, the committee’s card or bank account. Both authorized people get full control.Committee · 15 min
• Instagram connected, if running thereThe committee’s Instagram professional account linked to the Page and added to the business portfolio.Committee · 10 min
• Once identity clears — The authorization
• A committee admin creates the disclaimerPage → Settings → Issue, electoral or political ads: the committee’s legal name, your route, the committee’s contact details.Authorized person · 20 min + up to 1 day
• Answer Meta’s code right awayA code sent to the domain email or committee phone that sits unanswered is a stalled application.Whoever reads the inbox
• Link the ad account to the approved disclaimerWithout this, the disclaimer can’t be chosen when an ad is built.Authorized person · 5 min
• Assign the Page ownerMeta requires US Pages that run these ads to show an owner. Assign the approved disclaimer; with an EIN, FEC or government-domain disclaimer the owner shows as confirmed.Authorized person · 5 min
• Add your backup as a disclaimer co-ownerMeta lets more than one Page admin own a disclaimer. Add the second committee person.Authorized person · 5 min
• Authorize Instagram, if its name differs from the Page’sSame settings screen; review can take up to 72 hours.Authorized person · 5 min + wait
• Before you need it — Prove it works
• Grant your media buyer partner accessBusiness settings → Users → Partners, using their Business ID. Share the Page and ad account only. You keep ownership.Committee · 10 min
• Run one small test ad end to endPolitical category on, disclaimer selected, legal disclaimer in the creative — through review to recorded delivery.Media buyer · 1–2 days
• Keep it workingKeep the authorized people on the Page, 2FA on, the domain renewed and the website up, and answer any request from Meta to reconfirm identity.Committee · ongoing

Every step, in order

Meta moves its menus often, so treat the paths below as what to look for rather than a promise of where it sits this week. If a screen doesn’t match, search the Page’s settings for “ad authorizations” or “issue, electoral or political ads.”

A. Identity: each authorized person

1. Get the account right firstLog in to the personal Facebook account of the person being authorized, on a computer. The profile name should be their real name exactly as it appears on their ID — a mismatch is one of the most common reasons confirmation fails.
2. Turn on two-factor authenticationSettings → Accounts Center → Password and security → Two-factor authenticationAn authenticator app or text messages. Leave it on for good: turning it off disables your authorization, and with it your disclaimers and running ads.
3. Start identity confirmationfacebook.com/id → Start identity confirmation → Running ads about social issues, elections or politics → United StatesUpload a clear photo of an unexpired US passport, driver’s license or state ID card, answer the security questions Meta generates, and enter the US residential mailing address where the person actually receives mail. Avoid PO boxes and forwarded addresses — Meta may not accept them, or its letter may not arrive.
4. Enter the code from Meta’s letterMeta usually mails a letter with a code to that address, which takes about 5–10 business days. Enter it at the same place the day it arrives. If nothing has come after 10 business days, request a new code there.
5. If the security questions failMeta offers a notarized form instead. Download it from the same identity flow — only Meta’s form is accepted — sign it in front of a notary, and upload it.
6. Repeat for the backup person, and for your media buyer’s staffEvery person who will create or edit your ads goes through this on their own account.

B. The accounts: Page, business portfolio, ad account

1. Check the PageThe committee’s Facebook Page should carry the committee’s name. Both authorized people need full control of it — only a Page admin can create a disclaimer.
2. Create a business portfoliobusiness.facebook.com → Create a business portfolioFormerly called Business Manager. Meta doesn’t strictly require one for political ads, but it is how you add partners and keep ownership clean. Name it the committee’s exact legal name and use the committee’s domain email and address.
3. Add the PageBusiness settings → Accounts → Pages → AddIf someone else’s portfolio already owns the Page, have them transfer it or grant access; don’t create a second Page.
4. Create the ad accountBusiness settings → Accounts → Ad accounts → Add → Create a new ad accountCurrency USD, your local time zone, and the committee as the business the ads are for.
5. Add the payment methodBilling and payments → Payment settingsThe committee’s card or bank account, so the spending shows on the committee’s statements where the treasurer can report it.
6. Give people accessBusiness settings → Users → PeopleBoth authorized people get full control of the Page and the ad account.

C. The authorization: disclaimer and ad-account link

1. Open the political-ads settings as a committee adminSwitch into the Page → Settings → Issue, electoral or political adsOn a computer, as an authorized person with full control of the Page. Ads Manager also sends you here if you try to build a political ad without a disclaimer.
2. Create the disclaimerEnter who paid for the ads — the committee’s legal name exactly as registered and exactly as it appears on your website’s homepage. Don’t type “Paid for by” (Meta adds it), and don’t use a URL or an acronym unless it genuinely is the committee’s name.
3. Choose your route and enter the detailsEIN, FEC ID, government domain, contact information, or Page name (Part 2). For the EIN route: the EIN, then the committee’s website, an email address on the same domain, its phone number and its mailing address.
4. Enter the confirmation codeMeta sends an automated code to the phone or email you entered. That is why both have to be ones someone on the committee is watching.
5. Upload documents if askedIf Meta can’t match your EIN automatically, it asks for proof: an IRS-issued letter such as the CP 575 or a 147C showing the legal name and EIN. A tax form you filled in yourself isn’t accepted.
6. Wait for reviewMeta aims to review disclaimers within 24 hours. If it’s rejected, the notice says why — fix that one thing and resubmit, rather than changing everything at once.
7. Link the ad accountIn the same settings, link the disclaimer to every ad account that will run the ads. An unlinked disclaimer can’t be selected when an ad is built, and ads without one are rejected.
8. Assign the Page ownerMeta requires US Pages that run these ads to show who owns them. In the same settings, assign the approved disclaimer (or a verified business portfolio) as the Page’s owner. With an EIN, FEC or government-domain disclaimer, the Page shows a confirmed owner.
9. Add a co-ownerMeta lets more than one Page admin own a disclaimer. Add your backup committee person, so the disclaimer doesn’t hang on one account.
10. Authorize Instagram if its name is differentIf the Instagram account’s name doesn’t match the Page’s, use the “Authorize your Instagram account” option on the same screen. Review can take up to 72 hours.

D. Before launch: prove the chain works

1. Grant partner access to your media buyerBusiness settings → Users → Partners → Add → Give a partner access to your assetsEnter the Business ID your buyer sends you, and share the Page and the ad account. They work inside your account; you can remove them at any time.
2. Build a test campaignIn Ads Manager, turn on the special ad category Social issues, elections or politics at the campaign level, then pick your approved disclaimer. Put your legally required disclaimer in the creative itself.
3. Run it small, all the way throughA few dollars for a day is enough. You want an approved ad with recorded delivery — proof that identity, disclaimer, ad account and payment all connect — weeks before the ads that matter.

Mistakes that stall campaigns

Fixing it after the fact

If the chain was finished in a hurry, the ads can run — but clean it up before it hardens into the public record. Order matters: removing the person who created a disclaimer can pause every ad using it, so build the replacement first — and keep your live ads running while you do.

A consultant’s details are on your disclaimer, or it shows the Page’s name

1. Set up the committee’s domain email, website and phone (Part 3).
2. Have a committee person confirm their identity and take full control of the Page.
3. That person creates a new disclaimer in the committee’s legal name, with the committee’s details, through the route Part 2 gives you — EIN for most state and local committees, FEC ID for federal ones — and links the ad account to it.
4. Once it’s approved, make copies of your running ads that use the new disclaimer (duplicating an ad and choosing the new disclaimer is quickest) and let the copies pass review. Only when they are delivering, pause the originals. Your ads never go dark.
5. Assign the new disclaimer as the Page owner and add a committee co-owner. Then remove the old disclaimer from the ad account and, if you’re parting ways, the consultant’s Page role.

Do it before the pre-election restriction. The copies are new ads, and from about October 27 in 2026 Meta blocks new political ads. During the restriction, leave your running ads alone and make the switch after the election.

Ads that already ran stay in the Ad Library under the old disclaimer. That record can’t be rewritten — the best reason to get it right the first time.

An authorized person is leaving

If they created the disclaimer, removing them can pause your ads. Authorize a replacement, move your ads to a disclaimer owned by someone who is staying (as above), and only then remove them.

Identity confirmation was rejected

Check the profile name against the ID, retake the photo in good light with all four corners visible and no glare, and make sure the ID hasn’t expired. If the security questions were the problem, use Meta’s notarized form. Resubmit once, carefully, rather than several times quickly.

An ad was rejected for a missing disclaimer

Almost always one of three things: the special ad category wasn’t selected, the disclaimer wasn’t chosen on the ad, or the ad account isn’t linked to the disclaimer. Fix it, then request review.

Meta asks you to reconfirm

Meta periodically asks authorized advertisers to reconfirm their identity. If the request lapses, disclaimers are disabled and ads pause. Answer it the week it arrives.

Once you’re approved: the rules that still apply

• Declare every political ad. Every campaign and every boosted post about a candidate, election, ballot measure or social issue needs the Social issues, elections or politics category and your disclaimer. That includes voter-registration and get-out-the-vote ads, and issue ads that name no candidate. Meta’s US social-issue categories are civil and social rights, crime, the economy, education, environmental politics, guns, health, immigration, political values and governance, and security and foreign policy.
• Put the legal disclaimer in the ad. Meta’s “Paid for by” label does not satisfy federal, state or local disclaimer law. Your law may dictate exact wording, size and how long it stays on screen — Arizona, for example, sets a minimum size and on-screen time for video. Our guide to “Paid for by” disclaimers covers the landscape; your treasurer or counsel owns the words.
• Disclose digitally created or altered media. If an ad contains a photorealistic image or video, or realistic audio, that was digitally created or altered to show a real person saying or doing something they didn’t, a realistic person or event that doesn’t exist, or altered footage of a real event, you must say so when you build the ad. Cropping and color correction don’t count.
• Everything is public for seven years. Each ad goes into Meta’s Ad Library with its “Paid for by” name, spend and impression ranges, and who saw it by age, gender and location. Reporters and your opponents read it. So can you: check your opponent’s ads weekly.
• Washington is different. Meta does not accept ads about Washington state or local officials, candidates, elections or ballot measures that run in or target Washington. Authorization doesn’t change that.
• Mind the final week. Meta blocks new political ads before Election Day (below). Anything you want running in the closing week has to be live and delivering before the window opens.

The 2026 calendar

Working backward from the November 3, 2026 general election:

Questions we get

Can our consultant or agency get verified to run political ads for us?

Partly. The people at your agency who build and manage your ads confirm their own identities — Meta requires that of everyone who creates or edits these ads, and their IDs are not published. But the “Paid for by” disclaimer, with the contact details Meta publishes alongside your ads, should be created by someone on the committee with full control of your Facebook Page, using the committee’s own information. Then give the agency partner access to the Page and ad account.

Can we use a Gmail address to get verified for political ads on Meta?

Only for the weakest option. Every route that puts your committee’s name on the disclaimer — tax ID (EIN), FEC ID, government domain, or contact information with a website — needs an email address on the same domain as a live website that shows the committee’s exact name on its homepage. The one route that accepts Gmail or Yahoo prints your Facebook Page’s name after “Paid for by” instead, and does not mark you as a confirmed organization.

Do we need an FEC ID to run political ads on Facebook?

No. An FEC ID is one way to confirm your organization, and it only exists for federal committees. State and local committees, PACs and ballot-measure committees normally use their EIN — the federal tax ID the bank asked for when the committee account was opened — together with a website and an email address on that website’s domain.

How long does Meta political ad verification take?

Plan on two to three weeks from a standing start. Identity confirmation often requires a letter with a code mailed to the person’s home address, which takes about five to ten business days. Meta reviews the disclaimer within about a day after that, and every ad is reviewed separately when you submit it. A rejection anywhere restarts that step, so start well before your first ad needs to run.

Is the contact information on a Meta political ad disclaimer public?

Yes. The address, phone number and email behind your “Paid for by” disclaimer are available in Meta’s public Ad Library with your ads, and Meta keeps political ads there for seven years. Use the committee’s own contact details — never a staff member’s or a consultant’s personal phone or email.

What happens to our ads if the person who created our disclaimer leaves?

Meta’s help says that removing the Page admin who created a disclaimer can deactivate it and pause every ad that uses it. Have a committee principal create the disclaimer and add a second committee admin as a co-owner. If someone who owns it is leaving — a consultant included — move your ads to a disclaimer owned by people who are staying before removing anyone.

Does Meta’s “Paid for by” label satisfy our state’s disclaimer law?

No. Meta’s disclaimer is the platform’s own transparency label. Federal, state and local law set their own disclaimer requirements for the ad itself — wording, size and how long it stays on screen — and those still apply. Put the legally required disclaimer in the creative, and treat Meta’s label as an addition to it.

What this guide was checked against

• Meta Business Help Center — Get authorized to run ads about social issues, elections or politics
• Meta for Government & Nonprofits — Troubleshooting disclaimers for ads about social issues, elections or politics in the United States, and its guide to creating US disclaimers
• Meta Business Help Center — roles needed for these ads, sharing approved disclaimers, confirming identity with a notarized form and authorizing an Instagram account
• Meta Transparency Center — Ads about social issues, elections or politics
• Meta — How Meta is preparing for the 2026 US midterm elections (February 19, 2026)
• Meta — disclosure policy for digitally created or altered political and social-issue ads (in effect since January 2024), and its policy for advertisers in Washington state
• Federal Election Commission — Advertising and disclaimers
• Our own experience taking committees through authorization in the 2026 cycle