BJP pips Congress on Facebook ad spend

Around Rs 1.3 crore was spent, as per the Ad Library Report, released by Facebook.

 

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is far ahead of the Congress as far as aggressive communication on the social networking site “Facebook” is concerned.

If the total spending on advertising since February to 20 April is taken into account, the BJP is the biggest spender among the political parties contesting Lok Sabha elections, on Facebook, having spent Rs 1.3 crore, as per the latest “Ad Library Report”, released by Facebook. The Congress, on the other hand, spent Rs 55 lakh during the 50-day period.

The ruling party, which is confident of coming back to power at the Centre, spent
Rs 44 lakh, while the Congress spent Rs 11 lakh on Facebook advertisements during the week 14-20 April. Interestingly, as Kerala went for polls, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) spent Rs 17 lakh on these ads, which is second to the BJP, during the week.

The top five search terms during the period (14-20 April) were “BJP”, “Congress”, “Narendra Modi”, “Indian National Congress” and “Modi”.

While Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) spent Rs 4.34 lakh, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spent
Rs 2.79 lakh during the week. The Congress’ Maharashtra unit spent Rs 1.86 lakh during the week, while one Hitesh Mehta spent Rs 1.97 lakh on “Rahul Gandhi for Wayanad” advertisements.

Coming back to the 50-day period, the BJP and its different wings spent additional money on advertisements—like Bharat Ke Man Ki Baat (Rs 2.2 crore), Nation with NaMo (Rs 1.1 crore), My First Vote for Modi (Rs 1.08 crore) etc.

Regarding regional parties, Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) spent Rs 47 lakh during this period on Facebook advertisements. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Chandrababu Naidu spent 12 lakh on these advertisements. The LDF, during this period, spent Rs 21 lakh for the purpose.

The “Ad Library” provides advertising transparency by offering a comprehensive, searchable collection of all advertisements currently running across Facebook products. According to Facebook, these advertisements were related to politics and issues of national importance.

The government, this is to be noted, had warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt was made to influence the electoral process through undesirable means. Facebook, which has over 200 million users in the country, has stated that it is committed to creating a new standard of transparency and authenticity for political advertising on its platform and
Instagram.