I don't know what various countries' norms are, but if people aren't used to political ads and are generally suspicious of the concept, an ad may have negative utility.
I know if I saw a paid ad for a candidate that would make me want to vote against them.
Paper flyers in your mailbox, and billboards in people's gardens, are some very common forms of advertisement during elections I've seen in multiple countries in Europe
I feel like paid, targeted ads on platforms everyone uses are extremely insidous, because an incumbent or major political party will always have more funds than an e.g. an upstart party, and targeting is generally bad as it's easy to play into people's preconceived notions that way, instead of presenting your position or the change you advocate for.
Edit: replaced "incumbent" with "incumebt or major political party"
I don't know, watching how USA's elections unfold with ads I don't see much real information, it's a whole lot of noise with ads not beholden to any kind of truth. One can claim anything in those ads, attack politicians not even based on what they say or what their platform states as far as it's not clear cut libel and/or defamation, plaster some fearmongering and lies on an ad and run with it to damage opponents.
The less noise there's for this kind of bullshit, the better. I'm really happy that every place I've lived so far doesn't have more sources of noise during elections.
It's probably a very minor impact to Google's ad bottom line.
I know if I saw a paid ad for a candidate that would make me want to vote against them.
I feel like paid, targeted ads on platforms everyone uses are extremely insidous, because an incumbent or major political party will always have more funds than an e.g. an upstart party, and targeting is generally bad as it's easy to play into people's preconceived notions that way, instead of presenting your position or the change you advocate for.
Edit: replaced "incumbent" with "incumebt or major political party"
Based on the political ads I've seen over the years, people are better off hearing from non-paid sources.
The less noise there's for this kind of bullshit, the better. I'm really happy that every place I've lived so far doesn't have more sources of noise during elections.