Political ad spends on Google already up 9x ahead of Lok Sabha polls

BJP emerges as largest advertiser so far in 2024

Political parties spending on advertising through Google has surged in the past few months. The rolling three-month expenditure on advertisements (ads) specifically labelled as political ads has nearly reached Rs 100 crore so far in March. This amount is nearly nine times the expenditure in March 2023 at Rs 11 crore. These ads are specifically marked as political by verified advertisers and may not encompass the entire spectrum of voter outreach through digital means, but can be broadly indicative of the trend.

The data is current (as of March 17). Google updates its data continuously.
 

Google defines ‘election ads’ as those that feature or are run by a political party, a political candidate, or a current member of the Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha.
 

The Election Commission announced dates for the general elections on Saturday. The elections will be conducted between April 19 and June 4 and will involve 970 million voters.

 

The three-month rolling average expenditure on Google political ads is the highest it has been since data collection began in April 2019. It includes ads from verified users, considering factors such as identity and eligibility to run election advertising.
 

Google works to remove ads that may violate its policies. The consolidated figure covers segments including search, display, YouTube, and Gmail.
 

The value of Google ads in Uttar Pradesh was the highest, followed by Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat. The top five states account for over 40 per cent of the total expenditure.
 

According to Google’s data from January onwards, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is the largest advertiser, having spent Rs 30.9 crore. The Indian National Congress spent Rs 18.8 lakh during the same period.
 

Spends are increasingly occurring through video ads, which accounted for 86.4 per cent of the money spent on election advertising through Google since January.
 

Advertising through images accounted for another 13.6 per cent, while text advertising was negligible.
 

Political advertising through digital means tends to be more accessible to candidates and allows them to more accurately target voters than traditional media like television (TV), according to an August 2020 study titled Political Advertising Online and Offline, authored by Wesleyan University’s Erika Franklin Fowler, Michael M Franz from Bowdoin College, Stanford University’s Gregory J Martin, Emory University’s Washington Zachary Peskowitz, and Washington State University’s Travis N Ridout.

 

“The relatively low cost of creating and deploying online ads and the ability to target online ads more precisely may broaden the set of candidates who advertise and allow candidates to craft messages to more narrow audiences than on TV,” it said.
 

Digital advertising can often be tailored to individual personalities, according to an October 2020 study titled Using a Personality-Profiling Algorithm to Investigate Political Microtargeting: Assessing the Persuasion Effects of Personality-Tailored Ads on Social Media, authored by the University of Amsterdam’s Brahim Zarouali, Tom Dobber, and Claes de Vreese, along with Textgain’s Guy de Pauw.
 

“Political advertisers have access to increasingly sophisticated microtargeting techniques. One such technique is tailoring ads to the personality traits of citizens... The results show evidence that citizens are more strongly persuaded by political ads that match their personality traits,” it said.
 

Google places restrictions on user data that can be used for election advertising.