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Manifestos are being tweaked, electoral pacts proposed, rebutted and begrudgingly accepted, official slogans have taken a definite shape. The general election campaign is well underway.

And ads, usually well-targeted to achieve maximum effect, are swirling around Facebook, Instagram, Google, and – new entry! – Snapchat. We have once again worked with CrossCheck, a collaborative reporting network led by First Draft, to peek under the hood of the digital campaign juggernaut.


We gathered Facebook API data for the period spanning from November 8 to November 14, at 14:00 GMT. Facebook's data are still vastly imperfect: its ad library does not feature a daily breakdown of spending, and its numbers on spending and impressions are only provided as very broad ranges (case in point: the Liberal Democrats).

Our analysis is focussed on the parties that polled highest at the 2019 European Parliament election, plus three major campaigning organisations. Head over here to catch up on the big online advertising stories from week one.

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Conservatives

Messaging: The Conservative’s week in advertising focused heavily on the shortcomings of the Labour Party. These criticisms can be split into two themes – Labour’s threat to the economy and their vagueness regarding Brexit. In regards to the former, the Conservatives released an ad entitled “‘Labour’s £1.2 trillion- the equivalent of funding the entire NHS budget for 9 years”, which linked to an article on vote.conservative.com outlining ten reasons Labour would wreck the economy.

Another series of adverts claim Labour would hand “an additional £2,400 bill to every taxpayer every year”, in order to cover “a £370 billion black hole on day-to-day spending.” Another video attacking Labour, entitled “explaining Labour’s Brexit policy in 90 seconds”, shows the party’s politicians umming and erring in response to questions on their Brexit policy.


Number of adverts: Between November 8th and November 14th, the Conservatives ran 50 ads on Facebook.

Impressions: First Draft calculates that Conservatives ads raked in between 2.9 million and 3.5 million impressions.

Spending: According to First Draft, in that period, the Conservatives spent between £38,911 and £52,709 on Facebook and Instagram ads.

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Targeting: The Conservatives’ videos are highly targeted – a video on the 9th November Conservatives promise to relieve parliamentary gridlock reached only over 55s, receiving 350k-450k impressions. The same ad reached 15k-20k women between 25-54 on 13th nov. The video on Labour’s Brexit policy received a massive 800k-900k impressions.


Notable facts: Boris Johnson triggered his own spike in Google searches this week – unfortunately, these were not related to Conservative party policy, but instead a reaction to Johnson’s use of the word "onanism" (from Onan, a biblical character indulging in masturbation) to describe Labour party policy. The word was cut from an early draft of a speech Johnson gave at an electric taxi factory in the West Midlands; the public were evidently unsure of the arcane term’s modern synonym.

Meanwhile on Google: The Conservatives also continue to put ads out on Google, putting 24 out in the last week, all linking to their website vote.conservatives.com

On Snap: Since the election campaign began, CCHQ has spent over £2,300 on six Snapchat adverts, generating over 2 million impressions.

Labour

Messaging: Labour kept hammering home its key election messages: it will give the people a final say on Brexit, it will make prescription free, ban fracking, and rebuild the country’s economy. Other ads focused on encouraging voter registration, while others reacted to news events – such as the predicament of an ailing former NHS worker being left waiting for hours in a hospital, and Boris Johnson’s arguably late visit to areas affected by flooding.

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Number of adverts: Between November 8 and November 14, the Labour Party ran 145 ads on Facebook. Of these, 12 also ran on Instagram.

Impressions: First Draft calculates that Labour ads raked in between 2.17 million and 2.6 million impressions between November 8 and November 14.

Spending: In that period, First Draft calculates that Labour spent between £21,448 and £27,820 on Facebook ads.

Targeting: Voter registration ads were mostly targeted at under 35s. Two nearly identical videos listing the party’s policy proposals were notable for a key difference: the version mentioning a final vote on Brexit was mostly targeting people under 45, while the version in which the second vote was not mentioned was mostly targeted at people older than 45.

Meanwhile, on Google: Labour put out four new ads on Google, mostly attacking the Liberal Democrats: “Vote Lib Dem get Boris Johnson”.

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On Snap: On November 11, the Labour Party placed an ad on Snapchat highlighting its policy of holding a second vote on Brexit.

The Liberal Democrats

Messaging: The Lib Dems continue to bombard the general public with thousands of identical ads, the vast majority of which were released on November 9th in a single burst. Though the messaging varies slightly – some mention the Lib Dems plans to “build a fairer economy”, for instance – all retain the same key theme of last week that “the Liberal Democrats are the biggest, strongest party of Remain.”

Number of adverts: Between November 8th and November 14th, the Lib Dems ran 1436 ads on Facebook.

Impressions: First Draft calculates that Lib Dem ads raked in between 2.9 million and 4.5 million impressions.

Spending: According to First Draft the Liberal Democrats spent between £3059 and £136,826 on Facebook ads. (Facebook data unfortunately throws up enormous ranges.)

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Targeting: This varies massively, and many of these have less than 1000 impressions (there is a reason for this, see below) and cost under £100.

Notable Facts: There is a method to the Lib Dems machine gun approach, explains Craig Dillon, founder of political consultancy firm Westminster Digital. “It's data gathering. They are targeting each ad at a different demographic to find out which audience that message resonates with,” he says. “It works, the Conservatives did a similar thing when Boris was elected leader.”

The Brexit Party

Messaging: True to Nigel Farage’s promise to leave the Conservatives alone and only run candidates in Labour-held seats, the Brexit Party’s ads targeted individual Labour-held constituencies with a message focusing on Corbyn’s alleged betrayal of Brexit.

Number of adverts: Between November 8 and November 14, the Brexit Party ran 81 ads on Facebook. All of these also ran on Instagram. A new wave of ads was placed in the evening shortly after the data was collected – we will report on them next week.

Impressions: First Draft calculates that the Brexit Party raked in between 142,000 and 222,000 impressions between November 8 and the early afternoon of November 14.

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Spending:In that period, First Draft calculates that the Brexit Party spent between £500 and £8519 on Facebook ads.

Targeting: As usual, skewing older, with each ad geo-targeted at a specific constituency.

Notable Facts: Compare and contrast the Brexit Party’s anti-Labour message on Facebook with its lone Google advert, skewering Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Meanwhile on Google: One ad, focused on lambasting Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Momentum

Messaging:On Facebook, the pro-Corbyn campaigning organisation kept banging on the drum of voter registration. Other ads focused on environmental issues, and on attacking Boris Johnson’s Brexit position.

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Number of adverts: Between November 8 and November 14, Momentum ran 29 ads on Facebook. Nearly all of these also ran on Instagram.

Impressions: First Draft calculates that Momentum raked in between 835,000 and 1 million impressions between November 8 and the early afternoon of November 14.

Spending: In that period, First Draft calculates that Momentum spent between £5,654 and £8,881 on Facebook ads.

Targeting:Voter registration ads only targeted people under 35.

Notable Facts: Momentum’s most interesting campaigning gem was not an ad, but a video shared on Twitter, in which comic book archvillain Joker (in a Joaquin Phoenix-esque version) confronted billionaire superhero Batman with socialist talking points.

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Best for Britain

Messaging: Best for Britain kept focusing on encouraging voter registration, both with zany ads featuring beavers and people rattling their teeth, and with more inspirational videos explaining how much is at stake in this election.

Number of adverts: Between November 8 and November 14, Best for Britain ran 53 ads on Facebook. Of these, 20 also ran on Instagram, and ten ran on Instagram only.

Impressions: First Draft calculates that Best for Britain raked in between 1.7 million and 2.1 million impressions between November 8 and the early afternoon of November 14.

Spending: In that period, First Draft calculates that Best for Britain spent between £13114 and £18,416 on Facebook ads.

Targeting: Ads promoting voter registration were overwhelmingly targeted at women under 45, and specifically at those under 35

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Meanwhile on Google: Google’s archive does not feature any Best for Britain ad, but googling “tactical voting” will return a banner for Get Voting!, Best for Britain’s tactical voting site.



Updated 19.11.2019, 12.19 GMT: Snapchat admitted that its ad library misrepresented how ads were being targeted. In particular, Boris Johnson's ads were targeted to exclude his constituency rather than focus on it. That was to avoid breaking constituency spending limits. A paragraph in the section about the Conservatives has been corrected accordingly.

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