2023 New South Wales state election

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 300 Australian political advertisers during the 2023 New South Wales state 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 regional election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (Mar 19th - Mar 25th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (Feb 24th - Mar 25th 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.

The data is retrieved with the help of the {metatargetr} R package.

Topline Statistics

Meta

Feb 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend A$1,360,370 and ran 4637 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

Labor

55


1. NSW Labor (A$195,143)
2. Chris Minns (A$167,122)
3. Janelle Saffin - Member for Lismore (A$15,176)

2,289

A$542,393

Liberal

41


1. NSW Liberal Party (A$137,364)
2. Kellie Sloane - Liberal Candidate for Vaucluse (A$16,670)
3. Stuart Ayres (A$15,473)

612

A$381,967

Greens

74


1. The Greens NSW (A$77,321)
2. Amanda Findley for South Coast (A$15,708)
3. Greens MPs (A$12,800)

1,561

A$245,221

National

17


1. NSW Nationals (A$60,579)
2. Keith Pitt (A$10,676)
3. Peta Betts for Murray (A$10,004)

124

A$134,112

Animal Justice Party

2


1. Animal Justice Party NSW (A$55,043)
2. Animal Justice Party (A$364)

46

A$55,407

Australian Citizens Party

1


1. Australian Citizens Party (A$1,270)

5

A$1,270

Mar 19th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend A$595,444 and ran 2411 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

Labor

49


1. NSW Labor (A$74,846)
2. Chris Minns (A$52,160)
3. Janelle Saffin - Member for Lismore (A$8,509)

1,080

A$230,067

Liberal

39


1. NSW Liberal Party (A$46,124)
2. Kellie Sloane - Liberal Candidate for Vaucluse (A$9,158)
3. Stuart Ayres (A$8,092)

246

A$155,250

National

16


1. NSW Nationals (A$51,156)
2. Peta Betts for Murray (A$7,515)
3. Tanya Thompson for Myall Lakes (A$5,421)

86

A$97,856

Greens

72


1. The Greens NSW (A$31,956)
2. Amanda Findley for South Coast (A$7,009)
3. Greens for Charlestown (A$4,766)

956

A$96,618

Animal Justice Party

2


1. Animal Justice Party NSW (A$15,242)
2. Animal Justice Party (A$100)

38

A$15,342

Australian Citizens Party

1


1. Australian Citizens Party (A$311)

5

A$311

Google

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.

Feb 24th to Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend A$1,115,400 and ran 718 ad copies on Google in this timeframe.

Number of Ads Top Spenders Total Spend

Labor

240


1. Australian Labor Party (N.S.W. Branch) (A$664,800)
2. Australian Labor Party (A$21,450)
3. Australian Labor Party National Secretariat (A$3,750)

A$690,000

Liberal

171


1. Liberal Party of Australia, NSW Division (A$295,350)
2. Liberal Party of Australia (A$29,850)

A$325,200

Greens

270


1. The Greens NSW Incorporated (A$68,250)

A$68,250

Animal Justice Party

29


1. Animal Justice Party (A$18,600)

A$18,600

National

8


1. National Party of Australia - N.S.W. (A$13,350)

A$13,350

Mar 19th to 25th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend A$547,500 and ran 488 ad copies on Google in this timeframe.

Number of Ads Top Spenders Total Spend

Labor

153


1. Australian Labor Party (N.S.W. Branch) (A$287,250)
2. Australian Labor Party (A$8,250)
3. Australian Labor Party National Secretariat (A$2,850)

A$298,350

Liberal

104


1. Liberal Party of Australia, NSW Division (A$181,650)
2. Liberal Party of Australia (A$23,400)

A$205,050

Greens

206


1. The Greens NSW Incorporated (A$24,300)

A$24,300

National

8


1. National Party of Australia - N.S.W. (A$12,150)

A$12,150

Animal Justice Party

17


1. Animal Justice Party (A$7,650)

A$7,650

Combined Stats

Total Spend

Meta vs. Google

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

Feb 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

Mar 19th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Overall

By Party

Top Targeted Audiences

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

Feb 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 19th - Mar 25th 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 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 19th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Geo Targeting

Feb 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Cities

Age Targeting

Feb 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 19th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

Feb 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 19th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

Feb 24th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Mar 19th - Mar 25th 2023 (Last 7 days)