Finland Parliamentary Elections 2023

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 2000 Finnish political advertisers during the 2023 general election 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 (Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library. Meta’s data also lags by a few days. We will update this report as soon as new data is available.

Topline Statistics

Meta

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €1,058,293 and ran 14498 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

KOK

209


1. Kokoomus (€46,212)
2. Uudenmaan Kokoomus Ry (€37,583)
3. Kansanedustajaehdokas Terhi Enjala (€11,009)

3,322

€306,030

VIH

177


1. Vihreät - De Gröna (€28,395)
2. Reetta Vanhanen (€10,550)
3. Atte Harjanne (€7,542)

2,906

€175,781

SDP

169


1. Sosialidemokraatit SDP (€33,716)
2. Elisa Gebhard (€7,841)
3. Timo Viitanen, poliitikko (€4,842)

1,960

€131,544

KES

167


1. Keskusta (€42,642)
2. Pohjois-Pohjanmaan Keskusta (€4,206)
3. Jere Nuutinen (€2,895)

1,466

€124,478

VAS

148


1. Vasemmistoliitto (€40,111)
2. Mai Kivelä (€12,875)
3. Helsingin Vasemmisto (€10,736)

1,602

€116,843

RKP

88


1. Svenska folkpartiet i Finland (€7,329)
2. SFP i Nyland - RKP Uusimaa (€3,815)
3. SFP Samkretsen - RKP:n Yhteispiiri (€3,662)

1,043

€63,856

MUUT

112


1. Teollisuusliitto (€10,463)
2. Kela - Fpa (€5,592)
3. Mirita Saxberg (€5,157)

808

€58,316

PER

109


1. Tuomas Sorsa PS (€7,331)
2. Kaisa Garedew PS (€4,989)
3. Perussuomalaiset (€3,488)

915

€55,673

KD

60


1. Kristillisdemokraatit (€3,326)
2. Duunitori (€2,854)
3. Riitta Kuismanen (€1,911)

466

€25,032

KOR

1


1. Petri Roininen (€740)

10

€740

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €483,541 and ran 8217 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

KOK

192


1. Kokoomus (€17,548)
2. Uudenmaan Kokoomus Ry (€9,695)
3. Kansanedustajaehdokas Terhi Enjala (€6,326)

1,930

€130,688

VIH

158


1. Vihreät - De Gröna (€20,168)
2. Atte Harjanne (€4,321)
3. Maria Ohisalo (€3,766)

1,662

€88,628

KES

148


1. Keskusta (€18,707)
2. Laura Hämäläinen (€1,828)
3. Tommi - Tekijämies (€1,729)

848

€60,340

SDP

150


1. Sosialidemokraatit SDP (€10,025)
2. Elisa Gebhard (€5,737)
3. Timo Viitanen, poliitikko (€2,600)

1,038

€58,313

VAS

133


1. Vasemmistoliitto (€16,323)
2. Mai Kivelä (€5,830)
3. Helsingin Vasemmisto (€3,776)

904

€53,851

MUUT

99


1. Kela - Fpa (€3,053)
2. Mirita Saxberg (€2,969)
3. Teollisuusliitto (€2,766)

481

€27,521

RKP

80


1. Svenska folkpartiet i Finland (€2,891)
2. SFP Samkretsen - RKP:n Yhteispiiri (€1,498)
3. Frans Villanen (€1,120)

626

€26,766

PER

93


1. Perussuomalaiset (€2,114)
2. Tuomas Sorsa PS (€2,065)
3. Uudenmaan Perussuomalaiset (€1,306)

472

€23,319

KD

53


1. Duunitori (€1,847)
2. Kristillisdemokraatit (€1,752)
3. Riitta Kuismanen (€945)

251

€13,764

KOR

1


1. Petri Roininen (€351)

5

€351

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 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”.

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 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. Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”. In each row on the right hand side, you can see how much in total was spend on that specific target audience.

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Geo Targeting

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Regions

Cities

Age Targeting

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

Feb 28th - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 23rd - Mar 29th 2023 (Last 7 days)