BJP tops digital political advertising: Rs 23.04 crore spent on Google and Meta ads in one month

In a digital blitzkrieg, political parties across board have significantly upped their game in online advertising over the past month and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has emerged as the front-runner.

As per Google's Ads Transparency Centre,Rs. 19.13 crore has been spent by the BJP into 107,718 ads on Google alone, making them the highest spender among political parties.

The highest spends for the party were in the Tamil Nadu region where they put in Rs2.75 crore followed by Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala where the spends were between Rs 0.13 crore and Rs 2.16 crore.

Of the Rs 19.1 crore spent by the party in the last 30 days on political ads, 23.2 percent adding up to Rs4.43 crore was spent on images and 76.8 percent adding up to Rs14.7 crore was spent on videos.

The second highest spender on Google ads was the Indian National Congress that spent Rs 16.07 crore on 3,062 ads. Their top spends were in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.

The pattern on division between videos and images for Congress was similar to that of the BJP. 79.7 percent of the spends went towards video ads while the remaining 20.3 percent were spent on images.

However, it is not just the political parties but also allied agencies who have turned the heat up on digital spends.

For instance, the third highest spender on Google is Populus Empowerment Network Private Limited, a socio-political research organisation that spent Rs 14.41 crore on 7,804 in the last 30 days. The organisation that works closely with Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. K. Stalin has the highest spends in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telengana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

On the other hand, the line up of the highest spenders were exactly the same on Meta too.

BJP has also been spending generously on Meta. As per Meta Ad Library, between March 21 and April 19 2024, the party spent Rs 3.91 crore on 13792 ads. This was followed by the Congress that spent Rs 3.39 crore on 475 ads. The third in the list was the Ellorum Nammudan initiative page run by Populus Empowerment Network Private Limited Rs 2.24 crore on 861 ads.

Among all the digital platforms, Google has been seeing the highest spends when it comes to political ads. Rs. 62.64 crore has been invested in 121,719 political ads on Google's platform in the last one month. The spends have seen a year on year growth of close to 92 percent. Same time last year, political ad spends on Google stood at Rs32.64 crore.

When compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the spends in the same period stood at Rs 15.87 crore. The growth in spends on the platform between the two elections is over 200 percent.

According to experts, digital spending is soaring, driven not only by keeping pace with trends but also by a keen emphasis on precision targeting, particularly towards young voters.

“It has been almost a decade since India witnessed its first 'social media' election in 2014. It's now a proven fact that political messaging over the digital world has the potential to reach more than half the population directly and act like a force-multiplier in political messaging,” Anup Sharma, independent political communications consultant who is advising one current and one former chief minister in two of the key states, had said.

However, in a shift from past elections, political parties are now tapping into the power of social media influencers to bolster their digital strategies. Alongside party officials and IT experts, these influencers are joining war rooms to refine campaign strategies, train candidates, and enhance messaging. Local influencers, party members, and booth workers are also contributing by creating memes, videos, and messages that amplify key narratives.

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