
Using AI to Get More Out of the Meta Ads Library with Joshua Canter
From Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect by Reverbal Communications
April 1, 2026 · 1h 1m · Episode 51
About this episode
Joshua Canter discusses using AI to enhance research on political ad spending through the Meta Ad Library.
Josh Canter is vice president of digital advocacy at McGuire Woods Consulting, where he uses digital tools to influence legislation and shape public policy. His work spans multi-million dollar ad campaigns, interactive platforms, organic content, and full-scale omnichannel strategies — all focused on driving real-world impact. His work has been featured in the New York Times and Wired, and he's worked on campaigns and advocacy efforts around the world. Josh is also one of the more creative AI builders working in politics right now. He connected Claude directly to the Meta Ad Library API to generate deep, contextualized research reports on political ad spending — automatically. In this episode we get into exactly how he built it, what it can do, and where this kind of AI-powered campaign research is headed. TOPICS COVERED What is the Meta Ad Library? How Josh connected Claude to the Meta API Building a repeatable research skill in Claude Why you still need a human to gut-check AI output AI as oppo research tool for campaigns Other tools Josh is building (AEO checker, AI topic explorer, zip code tool) Facebook groups as a political black box Will AI level the playing field for…
People in this episode
Guest: Joshua Canter
Topics covered
- AI in politics
- Meta Ad Library
- digital advocacy
- campaign research
- political advertising
- AI tools for campaigns
Keywords
- AI
- politics
- Meta Ad Library
- campaigns
- digital advocacy
- advertising
- research tools
- Claude
- ChatGPT
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: McGuire Woods Consulting, New York Times, Wired
Products: Claude, Meta Ad Library, ChatGPT
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