BJP tops political advertisement spend on social media in Feb-May

Political parties have spent more than ₹53 crore on digital platforms like Google and Facebook between February and May, with the BJP accounting for a lion’s share of the spending.

According to Facebook’s Ad Library Report, there were 1.21 lakh political ads with a total spending of more than ₹26.5 crore between February and May 15 this year.

Similarly, advertisements spend on Google, YouTube, and partner properties since February 19 stood at ₹27.36 crore with 14,837 advertisements.

Ruling party BJP spent ₹4.23 crore on over 2,500 ads on Facebook. Supporting pages like ‘My First Vote for Modi’, ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ and ‘Nation with NaMo’ too, infused over ₹4 crore on ads on the social networking platform that has well over 200 million users in India. On Google’s platforms, it has spent more than ₹17 crore.

The Indian National Congress spent ₹1.46 crore on Facebook for 3,686 ads. It shelled out another ₹2.71 crore on Google’s platforms with 425 ads.

As per Facebook’s data, All India Trinamool Congress has spent ₹29.28 lakhs.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) shelled out ₹13.62 lakh for 176 ads on the Facebook page. Interestingly, Google’s political ad dashboard showed that Auburn Digital Solutions was running AAP campaigns and had spent ₹2.18 crore from February 19 onwards.

Earlier this year, digital platforms like Google and Facebook had said that they will offer details of political advertisements on their platform to bring transparency ahead of elections in the country. They have also announced a slew of measures over the past few months to strengthen efforts around election integrity.

The general elections in the country have entered the final lap for 59 seats in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chandigarh.

Counting of votes for the world’s largest democracy will be on May 23.