2020 Election: National ‘less sophisticated’ in Facebook marketing

Labor, The Greens and ACT may be getting better value from their Facebook ads than National, a new analysis reveals.

Between Sept. 23-29, Facebook’s ad library revealed that Labor spent about $ 31,000 on 171 paid posts, Greens spent $ 14,000 on 175 posts, and Act spent less on most posts, $ 11,000 on 312 publications.

Meanwhile, during the same period, National spent $ 38,000 on just 33 paid posts.

Identify Marketing owner Rachel Klaver said National appeared to be “less sophisticated” in its marketing strategy as it was not targeting specific audiences.

READ MORE:
* A quarter of National’s Facebook ad is spent chasing Collins likes
* Election 2020: Election delayed makes parties fight for cash
* Facebook ad libraries are not enough to keep New Zealand elections clean

She said the political parties with the best reach appeared to be targeting specific audiences or regions.

The workforce spent less than $ 100 per position for the same three health response positions, targeting three different groups. It had a potential reach of up to 500,000 people per post, or more than 1 million altogether.

Meanwhile, National spent about $ 4,000 on a publication on Pharmac that had the same scope as Labor’s health publication.

Klaver said Labor seemed to be targeting audiences specifically by posting the same thing in different demographics.

Facebook insights showed that between July 14 and September 29, National spent about $ 146,000 on paid posts, while Labor spent about $ 72,000.

The Green Party spent around $ 96,000 and Act spent around $ 83,000.

Gender

Overall, National, NZ First, Act’s paid posts were viewed more frequently by men than women, while Labor was evenly split and Greens’ paid posts were viewed more by users identifying as women.

Klaver said the generic nature of advertising from major political parties likely reflects the demographics of people who “like” or follow Facebook pages.

Although advertisers could choose specific demographics to target their posts, Facebook still played an important role in determining which ads should be shown to whom, making it difficult to see who political parties were targeting with their posts, said the politics professor. compared to the University of Victoria, Mona Krewel. .

Krewel said Facebook’s ad library was the giant’s way of bringing greater transparency to its operation after being accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“This is all Facebook PR to appear transparent, bipartisan and not interfere with the elections, so they can continue their business model of selling their data,” Krewel said.

“Although Facebook shows us more information than before, there is still a lot of information that is not apparent, including specific people it targets, such as ethnic groups or gender. Facebook’s ad library offers more estimates than precise numbers, ”Krewel said.

But Klaver said determining which posts were aimed at specific groups required reading between the lines.

For example, a National paid post on women’s health was viewed almost entirely (99 percent) by users who identified as female, suggesting it was a targeted ad, Klaver said.

Krewel, from the University of Victoria, said her research found that posts on the economy were the most important political issue due to Covid-19.

“When we compare just Labor and National, 81 percent of all jobs in the economy come from the latter and only 19 percent from the former.”

Krewel said that political groups also used the gender gap in voting to announce their campaigns to certain audiences.

“What research has shown in the United States is that Facebook and television advertising about the economy, taxes and finances is generally directed at men because they are still considered the gender stereotype of being the breadwinner. .

“Women are often the target of educational and health advertising,” he said.

“That means that for Labor and Greens we know that women care more about post-material issues, like the environment, and that means that these parties are focusing more on women as a target group because they care about social policies.

“Female voters tend to appear in greater numbers, so these parties would like to mobilize them.”

The 2017 New Zealand Election Survey showed that women were more likely to vote than men.

Years

Facebook’s ad library also showed that Greens, Māori Party, TOP, and NZ First paid posts were slightly skewed towards users identifying with the 18-24 and 25-34 age groups.

National, Labor, New Conservative, and Advance NZ were evenly distributed across age groups, while Act posts were more targeted at the 25-35 age group and users 65 and older.

Krewel said the parties also targeted the environmental posts to a younger audience, as this was an important topic for them.

“The economic recovery from Covid-19 has pushed the climate change agenda away, but before that, young voters were more concerned than ever about the environment.”

The Greens, the Maori Party and TOP have announced climate change policies this year.

OraTaiao, New Zealand’s independent climate and health council, compiled a pre-election scorecard based on parties’ positions on climate action and health and found that NZ First and Act were rated worst.

ACT plans to repeal the Zero Carbon Act, while NZ First has been mostly silent on climate issues during the campaign, following a mixed record while in office.

Labor outperformed National in the analysis.

Regions

Between July 6 and September 26, Facebook’s analysis showed that the parties were primarily targeting their paid content at users living in Auckland.

National spent $ 75,000 on the city, Auckland’s highest paid content of any party.

The second two main regions the ads targeted were Wellington and Canterbury, where the party spent about $ 22,000 for each.

The workforce spent $ 30,000 on paid posts targeting users living in Auckland, $ 10,000 on posts for Wellington, and about $ 8,000 each for Canterbury and Waikato.

Act Party had targeted most of its advertising to Auckland ($ 42,000) and Canterbury ($ 11,000).

The Green Party spent around $ 33,000 on publications for Auckland and around $ 12,000 each for Canterbury and Wellington.

Meanwhile, NZ First targeted its advertising to the regions, targeting the Bay of Plenty, at $ 2,900, Northland, at $ 2,600, although Auckland took most of its ad spend, at $ 8,460.

Referendums

New Zealanders will also vote in two referendums in the general election, the Cannabis Control and Legalization Bill and the End of Life Election Bill.

According to Facebook’s ad library, approximately at least $ 18,000 had been spent on anti-cannabis campaigns, while $ 64,400 had been spent on pro-cannabis posts by interest groups.

Anti-euthanasia activists had spent around $ 14,300 on paid Facebook advertising, while pro-euthanasia interest groups spent at least $ 30,700.

None of the major political parties, National, Labor, Green or Act had made paid Facebook posts in any of the referenda.

TOP had three paid posts that were all in favor of cannabis legalization and no paid posts on the euthanasia bill.