A first campaign, end to end

You have checked that your message is political advertising and that someone else publishes it for payment. If you are not sure yet, start with do I need a transparency notice? This post follows one advertisement from the first screen of the registration form to the label on the finished ad.

PolAds calls you the advertiser, whom the Regulation calls the sponsor. Your job is to provide, and ensure the accuracy of, the information Article 7(3) lists for the label and the transparency notice, such as who you are, who pays, the dates and where the money comes from, before or during the period the advertisement runs. The publisher's job is to make the advertisement available with both (Articles 11 and 12). The publisher itself ensures the accuracy of the amounts, how they were calculated, the repository link, the complaint mechanism and the reach (Article 12(2)).

Before you start

Have these ready:

• who the advertiser is, and for an organisation or public authority its VAT number
• who pays, how much and in which currency
• whether another entity ultimately controls the advertiser
• the election, referendum, law or regulatory process the advertisement is linked to, if any
• the publisher, the medium, the language, the ad message and the dates if you know them

Then sign in and go to register. The form takes you through the registration step by step. The progress bar shows six stages, and this post groups Advertisements and Funding details into one step.

Here is which step fills which part of your transparency notice.

Step 1: Get started

The first time you register, a short introduction explains the rules and what you will be asked for. Click Continue.

Step 2: Advertiser

Who is the advertiser? Choose I am the advertiser, or I am registering on behalf of another entity if you file for a client, which filing on behalf of a client covers.

Choose whether you register as an Individual, an Organisation (private) or a Public authority (state body, ministry, municipality). An organisation or public authority enters its VAT number and can have its registered details filled in from the EU VIES register. The first time you register, these details become your account profile.

Then two questions shape the rest of the form:

• Are you the paying entity? If someone other than you or your controlling entity pays, the notice must identify them (Article 12(1)(b)).
• Does the advertiser have an entity that ultimately controls it? If so, the notice names that entity too (Article 12(1)(a)).

If you pay yourself, you declare your EU eligibility here. If others pay, you declare it in the funding details, and each payer declares its own. In the last three months before an election or referendum, political advertising services pertaining to it may only be provided to a sponsor that declares it meets one of the conditions in Article 5(2). PolAds checks those declarations when you submit.

Step 3: Campaign

A campaign groups advertisements with a shared purpose. Pick an existing one or click Create new campaign.

Then say what the advertisement is linked to. The notice must indicate a linked election, referendum, legislative or regulatory process where applicable (Article 12(1)(g)). Pick an election from the official EU list, enter the details manually, or tick the box that says the advertisement has no clear and substantial connection to any of them. For an election or referendum, add the link to official information about how to take part (Article 12(1)(h)). If no official page exists, you can confirm that instead.

Step 4: Advertisements and funding details

Each advertisement has two parts. The ad details come first:

• Country of the publisher and Medium, which narrow the list of publishers
• Publisher, or Can't find your publisher? Invite them if it is not listed
• Language of this advertisement, which sets the language of the notice and the label, because the notice must be written in the language of the advertisement (Article 12(3))
• Ad message, which is published on the notice
• Start date and End date, which are optional because the publisher can set them at sign-off

Click Continue to funding details and declare the amounts, their origin and any benefits in kind. The funding step explained walks through it. You are not asked about targeting. For online and outdoor formats, the publisher answers those questions when it signs off.

Click Add payer, then Register advertisement to save it as a draft. Add more advertisements to the campaign if you need them, then confirm the campaign total.

Step 5: Review and submit

Review and submit shows everything you entered, with an Edit link for each section. It also shows your transparency label, with Copy text and Download QR code.

Settle the registration fee with a credit or by card (see pricing), tick the declaration that the information is truthful, accurate and complete, and click Submit.

After you submit

The notice goes to the publisher and shows With publisher. It is not public yet. The publisher then does one of three things:

• Authorise & publish: it confirms or sets the dates and, for online and outdoor formats, answers the targeting questions. If it changes something you entered, you approve the change first.
• Send back for correction: you receive its comment and use Correct & resubmit, at no extra charge.
• Reject (the button reads Delete Transparency Notice): the notice is deleted and you are told by email.

A notice becomes public once the publisher has signed it off and the start date has arrived. Every notice has a PA-ID, a short code such as K7QPX, and its address is polads.eu followed by that code. The PA-ID and the link never change.

The label on your ad

The label tells people that the advertisement is political, who the sponsor is, any controlling entity, the linked election or process, whether targeting was used and where to find the notice (Article 11(1)). The PolAds label follows the template in Impl. Reg. 2025/1410 Annex II, and its link and QR code lead directly to the notice (Annex I, section 1, point 6).

Once the publisher has signed off, My Transparency Notices offers Copy label text and Download label as SVG, PNG or JPG, or the QR code on its own. For radio and podcasts only the text is offered. Hand the label over with your advertisement. Displaying it is the publisher's obligation, and labels must be prominent and stay in place if the advertisement is shared further (Article 11(3)).

While the advertisement runs

If something changes, file an amendment, as described in amending a live notice. If someone reports the advertisement, the report goes to the publisher, who must tell you about measures that affect your advertisement (Article 15(9)).

Sources

• Reg. (EU) 2024/900, Article 5(2)
• Reg. (EU) 2024/900, Article 7(3)
• Reg. (EU) 2024/900, Article 11(1) and 11(3)
• Reg. (EU) 2024/900, Article 12(1)(a), (b), (g) and (h)
• Reg. (EU) 2024/900, Article 12(2)
• Reg. (EU) 2024/900, Article 12(3)
• Reg. (EU) 2024/900, Article 15(9)
• Impl. Reg. (EU) 2025/1410, Annex I, section 1, point 6
• Impl. Reg. (EU) 2025/1410, Annex II