It’s been emotional, unemotional, chock-a-block with perplexing promises, fantastic figures, low blows and no shows, and, somewhat unexpectedly, squirrels. As we bid farewell to the drama of the election campaign that was 2019 we recap on the digital campaign that was.

The 2019 party campaigns have relied on social media messaging like no election previously with most of the larger parties pushing their messages across a variety of platforms.

In the final offering in our series on the digital campaign trail we focus on the Facebook and Instagram ads which proved most successful and the Google ads which the parties used to subvert their opponents’ messages.

Bang for the party buck

The million message ads

The political parties continue to invest in Facebook, but are they getting their money’s worth?

The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have placed in the region of 25,000 Facebook ads since the election was announced in late October. But a vanishingly small number – 48 – have been seen more than a million times. (Facebook doesn’t provide specific figures for the number of impressions an advert has received so we are working on impressions of 1m and over).

Half of those – 24 – were Labour adverts. They cover a broad swathe of issues: attacking Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, offering the public a “final say” on a Labour-renegotiated Brexit deal, and promoting the economic reforms in its manifesto. The adverts will have cost the party between £350,000 and £425,000, according to Facebook’s data.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Two Labour Facebook adverts that attracted more than 1m views Composite: Facebook

The Lib Dem’ pledge to revoke the result of the EU referendum if it wins a majority is perceived by many to have damaged its electoral prospects during this campaign. But the same policy has been by far its most successful message online, with all seven of its million-plus adverts (costing over £55,000) containing a variation upon the theme of “Stop Brexit”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Two Liberal Democrat Facebook adverts that attracted more than 1m views Composite: Facebook

In other pro-remain news, the campaign group Best for Britain had seven ads viewed 1m times or more, while Led By Donkeys, best known for its guerilla poster campaign comparing the promises of pro-Brexit politicians with reality, had three.

One of the million-plus adverts, run by a voter registration campaign called Inspire EU, is exclusively targeted at the 18-24 demographic, and is one of several adverts we’ve seen over the course of the election to have been steered in a very specific direction in this way.

A campaign group called Working4UK, run by a businessman and Conservative local councillor, has also published a series of adverts criticising the cost of Labour party policies.

The Conservatives have done less well with just four of their adverts reaching the 1m impressions mark. All four cover familiar ground: two attacking Jeremy Corbyn and two claiming a majority for the party will, yes, you’ve guessed it, “get Brexit done”.

A tale of two Tories

Mr and Mrs Conservative

Some of the Tories’ better-performing ads (those with 125,000 or more views) were seen exclusively by men or women.

One such ad, claiming post-Brexit Britain will be the best place to “start a business”, was seen more than 125,000 times, but only by men, according to a Guardian analysis of the Facebook ad library. Another, which promised to “unleash the potential of all our towns, cities and villages”, also had an exclusively male audience.

By contrast, the text of one ad seen over 250,000 times, but only by female users, reads: “We’re recruiting 20,000 more police and giving them the powers they need to keep you safe”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Two Conservative Facebook ads, one seen only by women (left) and the other only by men (right). Composite: Facebook

Among the Labour ads targeted at one gender are three ads focusing on the party’s policy of compensating the “Waspi” women affected by a change in the state pension age. The ads, seen more than 3m times collectively, were viewed exclusively by women aged 55 and over.

The Lib Dems have run at least 21 female-targeted ads, including 12 focusing on why Boris Johnson “should not be prime minister”. They even bring the Queen into it.

It all adds up

Tories and Labour spend thousands on Google and YouTube

The Conservatives’ spend on Google ads ramped up in the penultimate week of the campaign, more than three times higher than the previous week. This makes them the biggest spender on the platform overall, with £211,000 worth of ads placed.

As well as search ads the Tories are hoping to convince young voters with a final blitz on YouTube, taking out large masthead ads on the UK homepage, one of which received 3.5m views.

These prominent YouTube ads, which are recorded in the Google ad library, are thought to be very expensive and should push their overall spend much higher when we have the final Google spend data next week.

The Conservatives’ search strategy has been very negative, mostly taking out ads on Labour-related keywords to attack the party and Corbyn.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Google screenshot Composite: Google

The most notable of these was a site which appeared to contain details about the Labour manifesto, but was in fact a Conservative attack site. At least 60 ads contained a widely debunked claim that each taxpayer would pay £2,400 extra tax under a Labour government.

Labour was the second biggest spender, taking out £172,000 of ads. While Labour also placed a number of ads attacking Johnson and the Conservatives, their strategy on Google was more focused on promoting their own policies, with a number of ads linking out to the manifesto around launch day.

They also clearly saw the Lib Dems as a threat, pushing the “vote Lib Dem, get Boris Johnson” message. In the last days of the campaign, Labour’s Google strategy turned to getting out the vote, taking out ads promoting their online polling station finder.

After an early surge, the Brexit party’s spending has tailed off dramatically, much like their campaign, while the Lib Dems entered the race very late and spent just £11,000.

Digital dashboard team: Michael Barton, Pamela Duncan, Niamh McIntyre, David Pegg and Joseph Smith