‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ is the Top Political Advertiser on Facebook
Since February, the page has made a total investment of ₹10,539,529 towards political ads on Facebook.
Things are heating up on social media ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Between 10 March to 16 March, nearly 30,457 advertisements related to politics or topics of national interest were put up on Facebook, with an estimated expenditure of ₹6.54 crore, according to data from Facebook’s Ad Library Report.
In a bid to become more transparent in its advertising practices, Facebook releases a weekly summary which has data about advertisements viewed by the public.
Pages supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reportedly has the most number of ads. A page titled ‘My First Vote For Modi’ has 2,765 advertisements to its name, the highest among all, while another page called ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ comes second with 2,429 advertisements.
As per ad spends are concerned, the page ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ has done the highest investment with ads worth ₹2,040,822 being spent in the week between 10 March to 16 March.
In the week between March 3 to March 9 2019, the page saw ad investments worth ₹5,503,366. And the week prior to that (Between 24 February to 2 March), the page saw an investment of ₹2,380,024 for ads.
Since February, the page has made a total investment of ₹10,539,529 towards political ads on Facebook.
The report also gives a glimpse of popular search terms where the top term was ‘BJP’, followed by ‘Congress’, ‘Narendra Modi’, ‘Rahul Gandhi’ and ‘India’.
Facebook’s Ad Library is a searchable database which includes ads related to politics and issues of national importance that have been run on Facebook or Instagram. This report is a weekly summary of the Library and includes data for ads that have been viewed by people in India for the time period selected above. Making this report available to the public is part of Facebook’s efforts to increase transparency in advertising.