Labor splurged more than $11m across Google and Meta platforms to win votes, far surpassing its opponents – including billionaireClive Palmer– and outstripping political foes in key seats in the lead-up to polling day.
New data showed the major parties have poured cash into boosting targeted messages to social media users in tightly contested electorates, including marginal seats in Bennelong, Brisbane, Boothby, Blair and Bullwinkel.
Political advertising on social media will continue even as polling booths open on Saturday morning. Electoral advertising laws only impose a blackout period on broadcast TV and radio.
Advocates have pushed for changes to the decades-old laws, which stop legacy media outlets airing political ads two days before the election, but do not extend toFacebook, Google, YouTube, the TV catch-up services and podcasts.
Guardian Australia analysis, using data from Populares’ ad tracker, showed political parties and affiliated groups spent more than $39m for political ads since 28 March across Facebook,YouTubeand Google search.
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Labor’s pages – including candidate and MP accounts – totalled $11.4m, about 29% of that bill, booking $4.2m worth of Meta ads, $6.8m on YouTube and more than $400,000 in ads onGooglesearch and display.
The Liberal party’s pages trailed Labor, spending $7.1m – about $3.8m onMetaads and $3m on YouTube.
Palmer is no stranger to splashing cash at federal elections and his new minor party,Trumpet of Patriots, racked up a big ad bill.
While the mining billionaire spent a comparatively small $1.2m on Meta ads, he spent more than $5.5m on boosting hundreds of YouTube ads.
The ads primarily featured the Hunter candidate, Suellen Wrightson, speaking about the party’s “commonsense” policies.
Teal independents, which includes Climate 200’s page and their candidates, amassed a $3.5m bill with $2.6m on Meta ads.
The Greens and Nationals gave no advertising money to Meta, instead booking ads on YouTube worth $316,400 and $212,150 respectively.
Third-party groups spent big trying to influence the election’s results. Progressive groups including It’s Not a Race and the Clean Energy Council spent close to $2m on online political ads.
Unions, including Australian Unions and the United Workers Union, followed closely behind with $1.6m on Meta and Google ad placements.
The rightwing advocacy group Advance has asked supporters to dig deep tounseat the Greensand Labor. Analysis showed Advance spent about $1.6m on online political ads.
Other rightwing groups, suchBetter Australiaand the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, spent a cumulative $1.5m promoting their ideas to social media users.
Redbridge pollster Kos Samaras said political parties might spend large on social media but without adapting to the online world, it could end up as “burnt money”.
“You can spend an enormous amount of money selling a beer that no one wants to drink,” he said.
While the overall figures demonstrate political parties are willing to spend more than ever on online campaigns, further analysis shows their advertising is increasingly targeted to influence battleground seats.
And it was Labor again spending most on that front. At the top of the list is Bennelong in Sydney’s inner north. Labor and the Liberals are fiercely contesting the marginal electorate on the ground and online.
Labor spent $270,000 on targeted Google advertising to those living in the seat, more than double the Liberals. Unions and Advance have also boosted their messages in Bennelong, spending $49,200 and $8,250 respectively.
Political parties and groups have spent more than $350,000 on YouTube advertising in five other seats too: Blair, Brisbane, Bruce, Chisholm and McEwen.
Boothby and Paterson are among the few seats where the Liberals have outspent Labor. The opposition has boosted $165,700 worth of ads compared with Labor’s $140,600 in Boothby while Labor spent $10,000 less than the Liberals’ $84,350 in Paterson.
In Melbourne’s inner-north seat of Wills, where the Labor incumbent Peter Khalil is fighting off the Greens, Labor has spent $268,300 on Google ads while the Greens have spent just $600.
Targeted advertising was effective for influencing local battles but still had to consider the audience’s values, Samaras said.
While the Trumpet of Patriots spent $5.5m on YouTube and Google, it paid $69,000 in targeted advertising for one seat – Hunter.
In the 2022 federal election, the Australian Communications and Media Authority received 34 complaints alleging election ads were shown during the blackout period. The majority of these complaints were for ads shown on streaming services, where the blackout rules do not apply.
Free TV Australia, which represents the broadcasters, this week called for the blackout period to be removed. Its chief executive, Bridget Fair, called it “a relic of the 1980s”.
“It’s absurd that broadcasters are banned from airing political ads in the final days before an election” she said.
“It creates an uneven playing field.”
The University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre told a parliamentary inquiry into the 2022 election it was “crazy” that restrictions on election ads did not also apply to online services.
Meta told the parliamentary inquiry it supported laws that would apply the same treatment to both traditional broadcast and digital platforms.
The parliamentary committee noted the disparity had been an ongoing issue since the 2016 election.