Political campaigns increasingly use targeted advertising on social media platforms to reach voters. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of political microtargeting practices on Facebook and Instagram across 95 countries during 113 national elections. By analyzing the Meta Ad Targeting dataset, the study explores targeting strategies of 54,000 political advertisers who ran 2.5 million ads between August 2020 and December 2022. The findings indicate that election campaigns worldwide use targeted advertising, with most campaigns allocating spending to a single targeting criterion. In wealthier countries and those with proportional electoral systems, more money is spent on microtargeting by combining multiple criteria. Targeting strategies vary along ideological lines, but parties use microtargeting regardless of political ideology. The study offers the first comparative analysis of political microtargeting on Meta platforms for countries across all continents. Methodologically, a semi-automatic method is introduced to identify political advertisers using multiple data sources. The study highlights the need for more research beyond the global north and has important implications for policymakers seeking to regulate political microtargeting. The research addresses three questions: how widespread is political microtargeting, and what targeting and exclusion strategies do political campaigns use? Are there differences in targeting and exclusion strategies across countries and political parties? The study finds that political microtargeting is widespread, with location-based and socio-demographic targeting being more common than interest-based or custom audience targeting. The use of multiple targeting criteria is less common, but in some countries, such as Jordan, Canada, France, the US, Israel, and Germany, microtargeting is more prevalent. The study also finds that in countries with proportional electoral systems, more money is spent on microtargeting, while in majoritarian systems, more money is spent on untargeted ads. The study highlights the importance of understanding country and party contexts in explaining differences in targeting strategies. The findings have important implications for policy makers and other stakeholders seeking to develop regulations to address the challenges posed by political microtargeting techniques.Political campaigns increasingly use targeted advertising on social media platforms to reach voters. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of political microtargeting practices on Facebook and Instagram across 95 countries during 113 national elections. By analyzing the Meta Ad Targeting dataset, the study explores targeting strategies of 54,000 political advertisers who ran 2.5 million ads between August 2020 and December 2022. The findings indicate that election campaigns worldwide use targeted advertising, with most campaigns allocating spending to a single targeting criterion. In wealthier countries and those with proportional electoral systems, more money is spent on microtargeting by combining multiple criteria. Targeting strategies vary along ideological lines, but parties use microtargeting regardless of political ideology. The study offers the first comparative analysis of political microtargeting on Meta platforms for countries across all continents. Methodologically, a semi-automatic method is introduced to identify political advertisers using multiple data sources. The study highlights the need for more research beyond the global north and has important implications for policymakers seeking to regulate political microtargeting. The research addresses three questions: how widespread is political microtargeting, and what targeting and exclusion strategies do political campaigns use? Are there differences in targeting and exclusion strategies across countries and political parties? The study finds that political microtargeting is widespread, with location-based and socio-demographic targeting being more common than interest-based or custom audience targeting. The use of multiple targeting criteria is less common, but in some countries, such as Jordan, Canada, France, the US, Israel, and Germany, microtargeting is more prevalent. The study also finds that in countries with proportional electoral systems, more money is spent on microtargeting, while in majoritarian systems, more money is spent on untargeted ads. The study highlights the importance of understanding country and party contexts in explaining differences in targeting strategies. The findings have important implications for policy makers and other stakeholders seeking to develop regulations to address the challenges posed by political microtargeting techniques.