Two days before voters go to the polls, many of their parties northern Ireland increased their spending on social media advertising.
Let’s look at how much the five biggest parties in Northern Ireland spent from their party accounts in goal (Facebook and Instagram) the week of June 23-29according to estimates from the platform itself.
Meta publishes spending data across its ad library and tracks ads related to social issues, politics, and elections.
How much did they spend on Meta?
- Sinn Féin Ireland €14,316 – Although the Sinn Féin Ireland account covers the Republic of Ireland electorate, Meta notes that the account spent £11,311 in the UK during this period.
- Alliance Party of Northern Ireland £6,091
- Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) £3,155
- Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) £0 in their party account – for the ‘Colum Eastwood’ account the spend is £1,405.
- Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) £2,752
Meta notes about its political ads: “Ads about social issues, elections, or politics must include a disclaimer to identify who paid for the ad. Disclaimers remain on file with ads for seven years in Meta’s ad library. We require advertisers to verify the funding source of any social, election, or political ad. An advertiser may declare multiple funding sources.”
How it works;
Politicians or political parties are known as “advertisers” when they post videos, graphics or similar posts about their election campaign online.
They can choose the demographics, interests, and behaviors of the people they want to see their ads.
Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication and director of the Centre for Online Civic Culture at Loughborough University, told BBC News NI that in recent days we will see a “significant increase” in online advertising to target these “undecided voters”.
“What we learned from the last election and the Brexit referendum is that this is the period when there is a significant increase in online advertising”said Professor Chadwick.
“It seems like meta advertising is on the rise, and that means that a lot of the ads that are coming out now, from what we know about the way the parties work, (are) trying to reach undecided voters, who haven’t made up their minds fully and are thinking about the election very carefully.
A lot of people are deciding where to vote in the last week of the election campaign. So that’s the kind of person the parties are trying to reach with paid targeted advertising. “I think people who aren’t going to vote for any of this will change their minds. They’ve already decided they’re not going to vote.”
Source: BBC