This is not a news that political parties are considering social media as one of the powerful tools to to connect with their audience. As Maharashtra and Haryana are set to vote on October 21.
Let’s have a look at how much money is spends on Facebook ads by the top political parties.
Exchange4Media has put together the ad spend on pages belonging to the major political parties for Maharashtra alone. The data collected is for the period September 13 to October 12, 2019. Here are the key points
- As expected BJP is the top spender with Rs 5,36,590 spent on 71 advertisements. This amount is almost 10 times more than any other political parties in the poll.
- Indian National Congress has spent Rs 47,304 on 33 Ads.
- ShivSena which is an ally of BJP in Maharashtra poll spent Rs 45,013 on 4 ads
- Sharad Pawar’s NCP spent Rs 26,660 on 50 ads for the same period
Exchange4Media also found out “party affiliates throw up bigger numbers on both ad spends and the number of ads mentioned. Take, for example, BJP’s affiliate Distoy Farak Shivashahi Parat which has spent Rs 9,04,995 on 522 ads for the above mentioned period. Similarly, INC’s The Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress has spent close to Rs 1,66,692 on 163 ads and Shiv Sena’s Indian Political Action Committee Rs 41,150 on 14 ads. “
About Facebook Ad Library
After the whole Cambridge Analytica fiasco after US elections, Facebook decided to have clear guidelines for political ads in several countries. So, in order to make the political ad spend transparent Facebook can make public the money that has been spent on political ads and the data posted on the page through Facebook Ad Library.
