Our agency gives us a tCO2e figure for the whole campaign — should we still record spend?

You can use either unit, but not both — if the tCO2e figure already reflects the full campaign, record that instead of spend to avoid combining a supplier-calculated result with your own spend-based estimate for the same activity.

How should we treat sponsorship spend (e.g. sponsoring an event) — is that advertising?

Sponsorship is often reported here as a form of advertising spend if it is genuinely a promotional/marketing activity; if it more closely resembles a donation or community investment with no promotional return, consider whether it belongs in a different category of your accounts instead.

What if our campaign invoice mixes outdoor, print and digital placements?

Ask your agency for a channel-level spend split; record the non-digital portion here and the digital portion under Digital advertising, since the two entries use different units and typically map to different levels of confidence in the resulting figure.

Do internal design and creative costs (not media spend) count here?

No — this entry is for the media placement/campaign spend itself, not the creative production cost; check whether creative services are better recorded under Business services if you need to capture that separately.

We noticed some test or placeholder entries in the sub-type list — should we use them?

No, ignore any clearly non-production sub-types; use the "Advertising: Average" or "Advertising campaigns" sub-types for genuine spend where a more specific match is not available.

Activity data·Sector & specialist

How to measure emissions from Advertising

Advertising activity data covers non-digital or aggregated advertising campaigns — outdoor, print and broadcast — recorded as spend or a pre-calculated tCO2e figure under Scope 3 Category 1. It complements Digital advertising, which handles online and impression-based formats. Split mixed-channel invoices where possible so digital spend is recorded separately, and use agency-supplied tCO2e figures instead of spend when available.

Scope: Scope 3 Category 1
What activity data you need: tCO2e, $ Spend, £ Spend
Activity data: Sector & specialist

What counts as Advertising

Purchased advertising services other than digital advertising — for example outdoor, print and broadcast campaigns, or advertising spend reported in aggregate where a channel-level breakdown is unavailable. Excludes digital advertising formats such as social media impressions or digital radio/TV placements (see Digital advertising).

Advertising captures non-digital or aggregated advertising activity, complementing Digital advertising which covers online, impression and airtime-based formats. Because many organisations receive a single campaign invoice covering multiple channels, this entry accepts spend or a pre-calculated tCO2e figure where an agency or media owner has already reported one — but where you can split spend by channel (digital vs non-digital), do so and record each portion against the correct entry rather than defaulting everything here.

How to collect the data

Agency or media-buyer invoices are the primary source, typically reported as campaign spend; some larger media owners or agencies now provide a pre-calculated tCO2e figure for the campaign, which can be used directly as an alternative unit where you trust the methodology behind it. Where a single invoice spans multiple channels, request a channel-level breakdown so digital spend can be recorded separately under Digital advertising.

What activity data you need

Collect the most specific physical unit available. Unit definitions are in Appendix I — Description of Units.

tCO2e
$ Spend
£ Spend

Which emission scope it falls under

Advertising activity data typically maps to Scope 3 Category 1 under the GHG Protocol. Confirm organisational boundary and ownership before reporting.

Scope 3 Category 1

By emission scope

Scope 3 Category 1

Compliance frameworks

Compliance & reporting frameworks

Sub-types available in the platform

All 9 sub-types available in the platform.

Advertising campaigns
Advertising: Average
Advertising: Average: UK
Eman's Subentity
Sample
Sample_12
Sample_check
Sample_desc
Test

Common questions

Our agency gives us a tCO2e figure for the whole campaign — should we still record spend?: You can use either unit, but not both — if the tCO2e figure already reflects the full campaign, record that instead of spend to avoid combining a supplier-calculated result with your own spend-based estimate for the same activity.
How should we treat sponsorship spend (e.g. sponsoring an event) — is that advertising?: Sponsorship is often reported here as a form of advertising spend if it is genuinely a promotional/marketing activity; if it more closely resembles a donation or community investment with no promotional return, consider whether it belongs in a different category of your accounts instead.
What if our campaign invoice mixes outdoor, print and digital placements?: Ask your agency for a channel-level spend split; record the non-digital portion here and the digital portion under Digital advertising, since the two entries use different units and typically map to different levels of confidence in the resulting figure.
Do internal design and creative costs (not media spend) count here?: No — this entry is for the media placement/campaign spend itself, not the creative production cost; check whether creative services are better recorded under Business services if you need to capture that separately.
We noticed some test or placeholder entries in the sub-type list — should we use them?: No, ignore any clearly non-production sub-types; use the "Advertising: Average" or "Advertising campaigns" sub-types for genuine spend where a more specific match is not available.

Next step

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Related in this cluster·Sector & specialist