Estonian Parliamentary Elections 2023

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 250 Estonian political advertisers during the 2023 Parliamentary Elections to better understand how campaigns use different targeting methods made available by Meta. To do this, we used data from the Meta Ad Library, using the new ‘Audience’ data which gives some detail on how pages target their ads.

To better understand the election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (February 27th - March 5th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (February 4th - March 5th 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library.

Topline Statistics

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €263,777 and ran 2743 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend
EKRE 34


1. Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (€60,374)
2. Palle Kõlar (€2,165)
3. Elar Niglas (€2,028)

 332 €75,025
RE 47


1. Reformierakond Tallinnas (€13,417)
2. Eesti Reformierakond (€8,137)
3. Reformierakond Harjumaal (€4,550)

 712 €55,728
SDE 39


1. Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond (€29,043)
2. Tartu ja Tartumaa sotsiaaldemokraadid (€3,981)
3. Jevgeni Ossinovski (€3,502)

 659 €54,051
I 33


1. Isamaa (€13,204)
2. Urmas Reinsalu (€4,158)
3. Riho Terras (€2,813)

 248 €35,086
E200 28


1. Eesti 200 (€13,994)
2. Eesti 200 Tartu (€3,467)
3. Jaak Laineste Eesti 200 (€3,149)

 433 €27,584
K 47


1. Jüri Ratas (€1,831)
2. Keskerakond (€1,407)
3. Priit Toobal (€1,337)

 359 €16,303

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €98,822 and ran 1512 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

SDE

38


1. Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Erakond (€14,670)
2. Jevgeni Ossinovski (€1,278)
3. Marina Kaljurand (€940)

380

€24,803

RE

40


1. Reformierakond Tallinnas (€5,837)
2. Kristina Šmigun-Vähi (€1,796)
3. Eesti Reformierakond (€1,753)

284

€20,462

EKRE

32


1. Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond (€10,536)
2. Elar Niglas (€1,380)
3. Palle Kõlar (€880)

178

€17,466

I

30


1. Isamaa (€4,741)
2. Urmas Reinsalu (€2,093)
3. Isamaa Tallinn (€993)

147

€14,726

E200

24


1. Eesti 200 (€7,249)
2. Jaak Laineste Eesti 200 (€1,359)
3. Eesti 200 Tartu (€1,212)

319

€13,409

K

44


1. Keskerakond (€902)
2. Priit Toobal (€863)
3. Jüri Ratas (€683)

204

€7,956

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Overall

By Party

Top Targeted Audiences

Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party (ranked by amount of Euro spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Contested Audiences

Here, we show the top most contested audiences, i.e. where all parties have spent considerable amounts of money competing to reach voters with the same interests. The amount on the right shows the total Euros spend on that specific target audience.

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Age Targeting

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

February 4th - March 5th 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 27th - March 5th 2023 (Last 7 days)