The election results are finally in!
We can now say who the biggest political advertisers were across Google and Meta for the three months prior to the Australian federal election.
Here’s the top spenders according to WhoTargets.Me
☑️ $16.7m Labor
☑️ $14.6m Liberal
☑️ $10.3m Trumpet of Patriots
☑️ $8.5m Others
☑️ $6.6 Independents
The ‘Others’ advertisers are mainly unions, front groups, lobby groups and micro political parties.
The top advertisers in that category were;
☑️ $1.9m Unions
☑️ $1.2m Advance
☑️ $581k Hothouse Magazine
☑️ $360k Nuclear for Australia
☑️ $274k Clean Energy Council
Sam Jeffers at WhoTargets.Me says this is a very high spending election by international standards, with Australian advertisers spending around double that of Germany or UK groups, even though we have a fraction of their populations. The figure does not include other social media platforms (such as TikTok, LinkedIn) or digital TV where millions more were spent.
The top fossil fuel advertiser was petroleum lobbyist, Australian Energy Producers.
During the campaign it moved from generally talking up gas’s environmental and economic benefits to grossly misrepresenting the effects of the Green’s climate policies.
Other anti-climate advertisers during the campaign were Coal Australia, Mining Queensland, Oberon against Wind Turbines, Valley Alliance and Jobs for Mining Communities.
