Small-business owners, parents, volunteers: Who are parties micro-targeting this election?
The federal election’s digital campaign is well underway, with enormous amounts of money being poured into online advertisements to get a message to hard-to-reach voters.
Across the board, major parties are splashing cash on the advertising platforms of the two biggest players: Google, with its YouTube and Search ads; and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and other platforms.
But there’s a stark difference in how they spend it, what they spend it on, and how the ads are used, revealing some separation in their strategies about how to win this election.
While Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots YouTube advertisements have gotten all the attention, Labor’s and the Liberals’ spending on the video platform isn’t that far behind.
Behind Trumpet of Patriots’ $1.96 million spend over the past 30 days, the Labor Party’s main account has spent $1.23 million, and the Liberal Party of Australia has tipped in $635,000. (These are the main accounts; each party has several smaller accounts, such as various state branches. This focuses on just the largest accounts, which gives a fairly accurate picture of the overall spend.)
Over on Meta’s platforms, the Liberal Party of Australia has outspent all others with more than $364,000 in the past 30 days. This just pipped Climate 200, which spent $359,000 over the same period, followed by the Labor Party with $146,000 and Trumpet of Patriots with $127,000.
On both Meta’s and Google’s platforms, political parties remain the biggest spenders. The only third parties that come anywhere close are some of the climate and energy groups, such as climate advocacy group Solutions for Australia, which has run $215,000 worth of Meta ads in the past 30 days.
Also lurking is the right-wing lobby group ADVANCE, which had been quiet until it spent $83,000 on Meta and $36,000 on Google advertisements, and the Australian Workers’ Union, which spent $95,000 over the same period.
We can also get a little insight into how campaigns are targeting their messages. While comparatively few ads are targeted by interest rather than by location or demographic, this data still reveals who each candidate and party is trying to microtarget with their messages.
The Liberal Party’s top target is small-business owners; the Nationals target those interested in fishing, hunting, camping and boating; Labor targets people interested in education and parents; and the Greens target those into volunteering, charity, animal welfare and the environment.
Where these interests overlap also signals who the parties and candidates are competing for. The Greens, the Liberal Party, pro-climate groups, and other accounts are all trying to reach people who say they’re interested in “law and government”. Meanwhile, Labor and pro-climate groups are both aiming to get their message to people interested in renewable energy and social panels.
