2023 Greek legislative election
How do political campaigns target voters?
Methodology
In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 300 political advertisers in Greece during the 2023 Greek parliamantary 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:
- Advertised in the last 7 days (May 15th - May 21st 2023)
- Advertised in the last 30 days (Apr 22nd - May 21st 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.
We also include spending data from the Google Transparency Report, however the data on targeting criteria reported here exclusively refers to Meta platforms.
About Us
Alexandros Gotinakos
Predoctoral researcher for the ActEU project at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Interested in comparative political behavior, political psychology, and survey methodology.
LinkFabio Votta
Ph.D. candidate in Political Communication at the University of Amsterdam who studies (online) political microtargeting and its usage around the world.
LinkWho Targets Me
Grassroots activist group advocating for transparency in the digital age by monitoring political adverts on social media and their impact on democracy.
LinkTopline Statistics
Meta
Daily Spend
Apr 22nd - May 21st 2023 (Last 30 days)
In total, political parties spend €920,861 and ran 11078 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.
| Number of Advertisers | Top Spenders | Number of Ads | Total Spend | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ND |
227 |
|
6,060 |
€563,000 |
SYRIZA |
165 |
|
2,970 |
€223,317 |
PASOK |
104 |
|
1,596 |
€111,799 |
EL |
26 |
|
268 |
€13,901 |
MeRA25 |
17 |
|
188 |
€9,472 |
May 15th - May 21st 2023 (Last 7 days)
In total, political parties spend €427,814 and ran 5569 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.
| Number of Advertisers | Top Spenders | Number of Ads | Total Spend | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ND |
194 |
|
2,967 |
€282,816 |
SYRIZA |
139 |
|
1,532 |
€80,689 |
PASOK |
89 |
|
801 |
€52,311 |
EL |
20 |
|
141 |
€6,352 |
MeRA25 |
14 |
|
131 |
€5,781 |
For Google platforms, data accessed via the Google Transparency Report provides exact spending on how much money was spent by parties in last 30 and 7 days.
Daily Spend
Apr 22nd - May 21st 2023 (Last 30 days)
In total, political parties spend €498,950 and ran NA ad copies on Google in this timeframe.
| Number of Ads | Top Spenders | Total Spend | |
|---|---|---|---|
ND |
1,008 |
|
€297,100 |
SYRIZA |
328 |
|
€146,100 |
PASOK |
254 |
|
€28,250 |
KKE |
73 |
|
€19,800 |
MeRA25 |
103 |
|
€7,200 |
EL |
45 |
|
€500 |
May 15th - May 21st 2023 (Last 7 days)
In total, political parties spend €256,650 and ran 1322 ad copies on Google in this timeframe.
| Number of Ads | Top Spenders | Total Spend | |
|---|---|---|---|
ND |
753 |
|
€165,950 |
SYRIZA |
241 |
|
€62,700 |
PASOK |
195 |
|
€16,800 |
KKE |
63 |
|
€7,950 |
MeRA25 |
67 |
|
€3,050 |
EL |
3 |
|
€200 |
Combined Stats
Total Spend: Apr 22nd - May 21st 2023 (Last 30 days)
In total, political parties spend €1,419,811 on Google and Meta ads in the last 30 days (of available data).
| Number of Ads | Total Spend | |
|---|---|---|
ND |
7,068 |
€860,100 |
SYRIZA |
3,298 |
€369,417 |
PASOK |
1,850 |
€140,049 |
KKE |
73 |
€19,800 |
MeRA25 |
291 |
€16,672 |
EL |
313 |
€14,401 |
Meta vs. Google
The graph below shows how spending differed between Meta and Google platforms. In each row on the right hand side, you can see how much in total was spend by each party across both platforms (in the last 30 days).
Spending per Targeting Criteria
How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods? The graphs below show spending overall across all parties and by party.
Note: targeting criteria can overlap so the percentages do not sum up to 100%.
Apr 22nd - May 21st 2023 (Last 30 days)
Overall
By Party
May 15th - May 21st 2023 (Last 7 days)
Overall
By Party
Top Targeted (Detailed) Audiences
Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party for the “detailed” targeting that Meta offers (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”.
Apr 22nd - May 21st 2023 (Last 30 days)
May 15th - May 21st 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.
Apr 22nd - May 21st 2023 (Last 30 days)
May 15th - May 21st 2023 (Last 7 days)
Geographical Targeting
The graphs below show various kinds of location targeting that parties engaged in on Meta platforms.
Note: targeting criteria can overlap so the percentages do not sum up to 100%.
Apr 22nd - May 21st 2023 (Last 30 days)
Regions
Cities
Cities (Maps)
ND
SYRIZA
