The Conservative Party has dramatically ramped up its ad spend on Rishi Sunak’s Facebook page in the final weeks of 2023, drawing criticism from observers and casting a light on the often murky world of political advertising.
It was initially reported that the party had spent an “unprecedentedly large ” amount – more than £30,000 – on Facebook adverts promoting Rishi Sunak in the space of a week (from 24 December to 30 December).
Since then, the investment has increased by almost two-thirds (64%), rising to £49,352 for the one-week period from 26 December to 1 January. The additional £11,000 of ads which went out on New Year’s Eve bought Sunak to about 6 million ad impressions over the seven-day period.
Most of the adverts which went out during this period were positioned with Sunak asking people to “follow” to hear “directly from me”.
In comparison, The Labour Party spent £0 on Facebook ads promoting Keir Starmer over the same period. It did, however, spend £245 on general Labour Party ads during the week ending 1 Jan 2024.
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The dramatic increase in spend was bought to light by policy group WhoTargetsMe, which also points out that Sunak has purchased more Facebook ads in the last three months than Keir Starmer has in the nearly four years since he became Labour leader.
WhoTargetsMe has also highlighted that some of the adverts have proven particularly popular, with the Conservative Party spending up to £75,000 on the two pictured since 29 December (the final cost is not yet available due to the way Meta bills its advertisers).
In comparison, The Labour Party ‘Tory Tax Calculator’ campaign – which was launched on 2 Jan – has cost the party up to £17,500.
However, investing in the ads has clearly worked, with Sunak’s Facebook page adding more than 100,000 followers in the last four weeks alone. At the time of writing, the prime minister’s page has 816,000 followers – more than The Conservative Party page itself (753,000).
Powered by ads, Sunak's Facebook page has grown by nearly 100k followers in the last four weeks. It's now bigger than the main Conservatives page (and Starmer's), but still way behind Labour's (and Boris Johnson's and Jeremy Corbyn's). pic.twitter.com/LpD9pAfQWW
— Who Targets Me (@WhoTargetsMe) January 2, 2024
The data – which is publicly available on Meta’s advert library – clearly shows how much has been spent on the adverts and who has been funding them.
There are more than 30 ads in total, featuring a mix of video and image-based ads, with most still live and being shown across the social media site.
The spike in spending prompted outrage on social media, amid speculation that the Tories are ramping up digital campaigning ahead of the General Election, expected to be held this year.
Who Targets Me described the spend as an “unprecedentedly large figure for a UK politician outside of an election period”.
“On current polling, Sunak has about a year left as party leader, yet this investment is building his brand and reach, rather than the main party page, which could be used to support individual candidates (and is a useful asset after the next election, whatever the result),” it added, warning that 2024 is set to be a “really digital election”.
“This is what opposition parties are up against in 2024,” wrote a LibDem member.
“Prepare for an extremely expensive election year! The Tories know they are in crisis and they are prepared to throw a lot of £££ around.”
