The Australian Labor party has outspent the Coalition on television advertising this election, but Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots has spent more than everyone on YouTube, where he has forked out more than $4m.
Labor’s total outlay on free-to-air and subscription television spots is $5.8m, compared with the Coalition’s $4.2m. However, Trumpet of Patriots is not far behind the ALP, spending $5.6m on traditional TV ads.
On YouTube, a platform where there is 40% more political advertising than there was at the last federal election, Palmer is taking a blunt force approach, according to video ad measurement company Adgile.
Labor, the Liberals and the Greens have embraced YouTube’s ability to home in on a specific audience based on demographics and locations, but Palmer is buying to reach broad audiences.
“This time round we are seeing a four-way battle between Labor, Liberals, Greens and Trumpet of Patriots for dominance on the platform,” Adgile’s managing director, Shaun Lohman, said.
The relatively low cost of YouTube ads means the parties have been able to diversify their messages, with Labor so far making 266 different YouTube ads and the Liberals 251.
“At present, Labor is outspending the Coalition in total, but the Coalition is spending more on YouTube, and it’s entirely possible that they may be holding back money for the final week of the campaign,” Lohman said.
On Facebook and Instagram, Labor is also ahead, so far spending almost $700,000 since the election was called. This is almost double the $385,266 spent by the Liberal party, which also allocated $127,085 to its Teals Revealed campaign on social media.
Across Meta, Climate 200, which backs some Teal candidates, has spent $430,869 and the Jacqui Lambi Network has spent $94,426.
Spending on YouTube by political parties rose significantly during the early weeks of the campaign, potentially reflecting the platform’s capacity to be used for tactical seat-by-seat messaging.
“This election has seen a twenty-fold increase in political advertising spend on YouTube compared with the last federal election,” Lohman said.
On YouTube, as of the start of this week, the Coalition was behind Trumpet of Patriots’ spend ($4.2m) on $2.3m, but ahead of the ALP’s $2m.
“The parties are really homing in on digital video’s ability to geo-target and send different messages to voters in different electorates, with digital video currently enjoying around 40% of the TV budget,” Lohman said.
Traditional free-to-air and subscription TV and radio services have to follow blackout rules in the period immediately leading up to an election or referendum – this year, from midnight on Thursday 1 May until 6pm on 3 May, when the polls close.
However, noted Lohman, with online channels not bound by the same rules, “it’s quite possible this election will see more political advertising dollars spent online than on TV”.
On TikTok, the prime minister was leading the pack in audience engagement.
According to influencer marketing platform Fabulate, Albanese’s (@albomp) account was attracting six times the likes and comments of opposition leader, Peter Dutton (@peter.duttonmp), and nine times more than Greens leader Adam Bandt (@adambandt) – and posting more frequently. The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, does not have a TikTok account.
“Clearly, the Albanese team have learned a lesson or two about TikTok,” Fabulate’s strategy officer, Nathan Powell, said.
“[They] are following best practice on the platform, which is posting consistency and having clear content pillars to message to your audience.”
