Tories accelerate social media spending in final days of campaign

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The Conservatives have massively increased spending on social media advertising in the final week before polling day, in an eleventh-hour boost to their online campaign.

Rishi Sunak’s party appears to have held back money in order to flood Facebook and Instagram in the days before voters head to the polls on Thursday. 

Having spent an average of £37,000 per day across party and candidate accounts since the election was called, its spending rose above £96,000 on Meta platforms on Sunday, June 30. This figure matches the party’s previous high on May 29, before the campaign spending caps took effect. The party spent £82,000 on Monday, while figures for Tuesday have yet to be released.

The Tories’ daily ad spending has almost caught up to Labour in recent days, although Labour has spent £2.9mn so far, vastly more than the £1.7mn spent by the Tories over the six-week campaign.

The Conservatives have raised markedly lower sums during the early part of this campaign than in previous election cycles, which may explain the lower digital ad spending until the final week.

Labour’s expenditure on Meta platforms has continued to rise throughout the campaign, though at a slower rate in the final week than the Tories’ accelerated spending.

The party successfully increased spending in the final week of the 2019 campaign before defeating Jeremy Corbyn: Labour officials said they were blindsided in that election by the scale of the Tories’ advert spending in the final sprint. 

Social media — where ads can be carefully targeted by age, sex and location — is now viewed as an increasingly crucial battleground in general elections. “Things have changed a lot in the last couple of elections,” said one Tory official. “People are much more online than reading newspapers.”

The ads in the Conservatives’ final onslaught appear to target prospective Lib Dem and Reform voters in an attempt to minimise the party bleeding votes to smaller rivals.

Many of their ads also raise the spectre of a perpetual Labour government, warning the party would “rig the system” to remain in power by letting 16-year-olds vote. “Keir Starmer will tax you from cradle to grave,” cautions one attack advert.

Clare O’Donoghue Velikić, who previously led a team at Facebook that handled UK political marketing, said it was a common trend in elections to see spending soar at the end of a campaign.

Research across a range of countries has suggested “some undecided voters don’t make up their minds until the final 72 to 48 hours,” she said. 

O’Donoghue Velikić, who now runs the consultancy ODV Digital, added: “It’s often because a last-minute donor has shown up with a bag of cash and said they want it spent. By the final week it’s too late to spend money on printing and other stuff, so it gets funnelled into digital.”

Suppressed donation levels may also have influenced the Tories’ decision to be strategic about how it has spent money on advertising.

Official donation data disclosed last Friday showed that the party has raised roughly a tenth of the amount in the first three weeks of the 2024 campaign as it did over the same period during the last election. 

Just £1.2mn was received by the Conservatives in large donations in the three weeks from May 30 when parliament was dissolved, far below the £12.2mn they had raised by the same point in 2019, according to the Electoral Commission. 

Meanwhile Labour raised £8.6mn in cash and non-cash donations in the first three weeks of the campaign, more than it raised across the entirety of the six-week pre-poll periods of each of the last three general elections. 

Reform has taken the lead among smaller parties, spending more than £500,000 since its pages dramatically ramped up ad activity on June 17. The party experienced an inflow of large donations — raising nearly £1mn in the first three weeks of the campaign — following arch-Brexiter Nigel Farage’s decision to stand in Clacton in Essex.

Nearly 70 per cent of that spending has been on Nigel Farage’s own accounts, with relatively few ads run on the official party accounts or those of Richard Tice, its chair and former leader, who is also running to be an MP.

The SNP, Sinn Féin, and Plaid Cymru have spent almost nothing on Meta platforms since the election began, reflecting the parties’ dire financial positions and limited geographical focus.

The Conservatives, Labour and Reform did not responded to requests for comment on their social media advertising strategies.

Additional reporting by Rafe Uddin