Political parties spent more than £1million on Instagram and Facebook adverts in the final week of campaigning before the general election, according to new figures.
The Conservatives pipped Labour to the top spend in the period between December 3 and December 9, shelling out more than £287,000 on promoting their ‘Get Brexit Done’ message, compared to £279,000 spent by Jeremy Corbyn’s party.
However, the Labour leader outspent Tory adversary Boris Johnson when it came to the individual pages of political leaders by more than £50,000.
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Mr Corbyn’s team spent £128,444 on adverts telling Donald Trump the NHS was not for sale and plans for a revised top-level tax rate, compared to Mr Johnson’s £71,247.
It comes after non-profit organisation First Draft published research uncovering around 88 per cent of adverts posted on the social media platform by the Tories contained “incorrect or misleading” information.
Meanwhile, the SNP were among the lowest spenders, with just £8,419 used for political advertising on the social media sites, while the Liberal Democrats outspent the Brexit party by over £50,000.
The Herald analysed figures from Facebook’s ‘ad library’ database - a free online service allowing us to see what official pages are spending on advertising to users.
It also shows how the adverts were targeted, who the audience was and where they were most prominent.
For example, the advert featuring Jeremy Corbyn directly addressing President Trump over his claim the NHS ‘would be on the table’ in post-Brexit trade talks with the United States was posted nine different times and racked up millions of engagements across all age demographics.
The sixth version of that advert was targeted mainly towards those aged between 18 and 24 and was viewed more than 800,000 times, cost between £1,500 and £2,000.
However, the data shows the advert was also popular 25-34 and 35-44 demographics, although it was less popular among those aged 55 and over.
Several notes from ad-targeting data are less surprising, such as an SNP ad on protecting free television licences being aimed at those in the 55-64 and 65+ age brackets.
In Scotland, Scottish Labour vastly outspent the other parties, splurging £42,667 on ads directly attacking the Liberal Democrats and the Tories.
Many of their adverts were targeted at women, with one on the SNP’s handling of the NHS seen by three times more women in the 25-34 demographic as men.
In comparison, the Scottish Conservatives appeared to be sticking to their core voters.
They only posted two different adverts between December 3 and December 9, neither of which were viewed by anyone under the age of 45.
Labour were the only party to have an advert removed in that time period - despite the post showing one of the big talking points of the campaign.
The ad contained a link to an article in the Independent on Boris Johnson refusing to look at a photo of four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr lying on the floor at Leeds General hospital while he awaited treatment for suspected pneumonia.
Dozens of online accounts would later falsely report the image was fabricated.
Facebook deemed the link in violation of its advertising policies and the ad was removed - but not before it gained more than 1.5 million impressions over two separate posts.
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On election day, the Liberal Democrats led the way when it came to ‘active’ adverts, those that can still be seen online.
Jo Swinson’s party had around 2,100 running on social media at the time of writing, well ahead of Labour on 810 and the Tories on 780.
Figures on the spend for election day adverts will be released in the next week.
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