• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Tories replicate Brexit campaign with late spending surge on Facebook

The ad strategy echoes that of Vote Leave in 2016, which used data harvested by Cambridge Analytica to target voters.

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
2019-12-18 14:30
in Politics
Credit;PA

Credit;PA

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

A late Facebook spending spree designed to woo floating voters could have helped tip the scales in Boris Johnson’s favour last week.

The Conservative Party significantly outspent all other parties on Facebook and Instagram adverts over the election, with the lion’s share coming in a spending blitz in the final two weeks of the campaign.

Across their two main pages – named Conservatives and Boris Johnson – the party spent a total of £959,329 in the four weeks up to the vote.

In comparison, Labour spent £552,035 on its Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn pages between November 14 and December 12, the fourth most of the major UK parties.

The Liberal Democrats were the second biggest spenders, with £800,767 used to target voters during the period on its main page.

The Brexit Party was third, spending £585,202 across its party and Nigel Farage pages.

Final two weeks

Facebook did not release exact totals on ad spending over the election period so the figures were compiled using estimates from researchers at New York University.

According to the analysis, the Conservatives remained relatively quiet in the early weeks of the campaign as the three other biggest spending parties laid out hundreds of thousands of pounds.

But the Tories then splashed £888,291 in a late push during the final two weeks, amounting to 92 per cent of their total spending over the period.

RelatedPosts

Sunak calls crisis meeting as Tory Party face war on two fronts

Johnson receives hefty book advance – but taxpayers will cover ex-PM’s legal bill

Matt Hancock’s I’m A Celebrity fee uploaded to MP’s register of financial interests

Jeremy Vine caller bemoans Tories – but says she’ll vote for them ‘just to keep Labour out’

As their spending ramped up, the party appeared to focus the majority of its spending on two key messages – guaranteeing Brexit and preventing Jeremy Corbyn from becoming prime minister.

Labour’s adverts, meanwhile, were largely based around issues such as the NHS, as well as pushing people to register to vote and find their polling stations.

“Dark” ads

The majority of the Liberal Democrats’ ads promoted the party’s plans to stop Brexit, while the Brexit Party targeted voters in Tory or Labour marginals and focused largely on ensuring the UK’s departure from the EU.

Facebook’s platform allows advertisers to target users based on information the company holds on them including age, sex, location and even relationship status or level of education.

The company allows advertisers to post “dark” ads, meaning they may not be visible on their main page and can only be seen by those the campaign has chosen to target.

While the Conservatives spent more money targeting voters in the 45-54 category than any other age group, Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ spending was most heavily aimed at 25-34 year-olds, according to Facebook’s data.

Brexit campaign

The use of Facebook as a tool of influence in British politics first came under the spotlight in the 2016 EU referendum campaign after Vote Leave used Facebook data harvested by Cambridge Analytica to target voters.

Vote Leave’s campaign director Dominic Cummings is now the top adviser to Mr Johnson and echoes of the 2016 tactics could be seen in the Tories’ strategy this time around.

The official Vote Leave campaign spent more than £2.7 million on targeting ads at specific groups of people on Facebook.

The ads, created by Canadian company Aggregate AIQ, often focused on specific issues – such as immigration or animal rights – thought likely to push the buttons of certain groups of people.

Animal lovers, for example, were targeted by ads featuring polar bears and bullfighters.

Whereas tea-lovers saw ads such as this appear on their timeline.

Edited versions of BBC content

Facebook has faced calls to ban political advertising on its platform after Twitter and Snapchat announced plans to do so.

The social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg said banning or fact-checking political adverts would amount to censorship of free speech.

A number of misleading adverts were withdrawn from the platform throughout the campaign, including several from the Conservative Party that used edited versions of BBC content.

Related: Tony Blair launches scathing attack of Jeremy Corbyn following election defeat

Tags: Facebookheadline

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Man charged with first rape of 14-year-old girl who was raped twice in separate attacks

Pterosaurs flew like birds rather than bats

‘Barbaric’ badger baiters snared by own sickening Whats App messages given sentence

New Zealand passes law aimed at combating climate change

New £2 million project to help London’s unpaid carers in work & education

Parliamentary Sketch 24th June – Desperate Immigrants Broadband

1% NHS pay rise ‘an insult’, says son of nurse killed by Covid-19

Duke and Duchess of Sussex choose personal freedom and walk away from monarchy

Starmer could sack Anneliese Dodds as shadow chancellor – reports

Dressed As A Girl : Film Review

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.