2023 Turkish general election

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 245 Turkish political advertisers during the 2023 Turkish 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 (May 8th - May 14th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (Apr 15th - May 14th 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

Daily Spend

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend ₺24,183,364 and ran 4530 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

AKP

44


1. AK Parti (₺4,074,690)
2. AK Parti İstanbul (₺3,740,495)
3. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (₺1,899,878)

1,167

₺12,977,098

CHP

47


1. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (₺1,947,997)
2. Ekrem İmamoğlu (₺1,566,940)
3. CHP Ankara İl Başkanlığı (₺130,232)

1,076

₺4,190,701

MHP

34


1. Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP) (₺2,064,358)
2. Levent Uysal (₺613,363)
3. Turgay Baştuğ (₺151,099)

1,084

₺3,613,859

YSP

3


1. Yeşil Sol Parti (₺1,168,393)
2. Yeşil Sol Batman (₺10,540)
3. Yeşil Sol Parti Hatay (₺100)

90

₺1,179,033

İYİ

19


1. NA (₺291,646)
2. Ahmet Katar (₺240,908)
3. Bahadır Erdem (₺97,430)

657

₺1,094,605

DEVA

8


1. Deva Partisi (₺423,080)
2. DEVA Partisi Sivas İl Teşkilatı (₺84,317)
3. Deva Partisi Trabzon İl Başkanlığı (₺1,819)

98

₺510,028

ATA Alliance

1


1. Sinan Oğan (₺253,517)

17

₺253,517

BBP

3


1. Rıdvan Eşin (₺107,015)
2. Osman Seçgin (₺46,805)
3. Aydın için Rıdvan Eşin (₺100)

110

₺153,920

Memleket Partisi

6


1. Muharrem İNCE (₺66,166)
2. Memleket Partisi (₺44,648)
3. Cavit Yenipazarlı (₺1,275)

48

₺113,761

YRP

17


1. Yeniden Refah Partisi (₺74,647)
2. Yeniden Refah Partisi Çekmeköy İlçe Başkanlığı (₺7,920)
3. Yeniden Refah Partisi Karabük (₺4,671)

184

₺96,942

May 8th - May 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend ₺10,524,635 and ran 2115 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

AKP

35


1. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (₺1,899,878)
2. AK Parti İstanbul (₺1,509,864)
3. AK Parti (₺1,098,492)

539

₺6,341,413

MHP

23


1. Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (MHP) (₺968,215)
2. Levent Uysal (₺201,408)
3. Turgay Baştuğ (₺84,561)

591

₺1,566,499

CHP

27


1. Ekrem İmamoğlu (₺598,764)
2. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (₺352,364)
3. Veli Ağbaba (₺70,539)

480

₺1,301,064

YSP

2


1. Yeşil Sol Parti (₺384,462)
2. Yeşil Sol Batman (₺3,726)

40

₺388,188

İYİ

18


1. Ahmet Katar (₺106,555)
2. NA (₺45,000)
3. Lutfullah Kayalar (₺36,684)

224

₺358,053

DEVA

4


1. Deva Partisi (₺246,159)
2. DEVA Partisi Sivas İl Teşkilatı (₺40,177)
3. DEVA Partisi Sinop İl Başkanlığı (₺250)

56

₺286,686

ATA Alliance

1


1. Sinan Oğan (₺125,521)

8

₺125,521

BBP

2


1. Rıdvan Eşin (₺59,377)
2. Osman Seçgin (₺6,100)

21

₺65,477

YRP

11


1. Yeniden Refah Partisi (₺44,172)
2. Yeniden Refah Partisi Çekmeköy İlçe Başkanlığı (₺3,530)
3. Yeniden Refah Partisi Karabük (₺3,252)

124

₺55,058

Memleket Partisi

4


1. Muharrem İNCE (₺20,141)
2. Memleket Partisi (₺14,466)
3. Cavit Yenipazarlı (₺1,275)

32

₺36,676

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

May 8th - May 14th 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 Turkish Lira spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 8th - May 14th 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 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 8th - May 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Geo Targeting

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Provinces

Provinces (Maps)

AKP

MHP

CHP

Cities

Geo Exclusion

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Provinces

Provinces (Maps)

AKP

MHP

CHP

Cities

Age Targeting

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 8th - May 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 8th - May 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 8th - May 14th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

Apr 15th - May 14th 2023 (Last 30 days)