The Commons triple the rest of the parties in ads on Facebook and Instagram
BarcelonaMuch of the political mobilization and bickering in today's world takes place on social media. In fact, a few years ago many spin doctors and other political communication experts considered more traditional methods and direct contact with people, such as door-to-door canvassing or organizing rallies and events, to be a thing of the past, a relic of yesterday's world that still needed to be realized until the new, purely digital world arrived. In recent years, new winds have blown and traditional political events have revived, but mobilization through social media remains a sort of mandate that obsesses political parties.
Beyond a certain belief based on the idea that "everything happens on the internet today," the classic canon of political and electoral marketing dictates that political parties must follow two distinct strategies. The first, that of persuasion, is based on convincing people of your approach, of your message. It is, quite simply, about preparing the ground for when the elections are called. The second, mobilization, involves putting all your effort into ensuring that everyone who can vote for you doesn't stay home.
Until today, we had little information about political activism on social media. We knew, for example, that In 2024, Barcelona City Council spent almost 800,000 euros on advertising in X (before leaving), Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, and that the latter was the most used network by those in charge of the boss and the club. However, for several years now, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal (caused primarily by the collection and use of personal data without consent), Meta—the parent company of these social networks—has facilitated access to this data. Analyzed by UPF researcher Irene Rodríguez, we can delve deeper into how Catalan political parties design their strategies in the online world.
More and less active
Since April 2024, En Comú Podem is the party that has posted the most ads in Meta from its official website: a total of 1,429. The PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) follows closely behind (494). In contrast, Vox (15) and the CUP (98) are at the bottom of the list. The data indicates that in recent years, some parties have concentrated their activity almost exclusively during the election period. For example, a good portion of the PSC's ads in Meta were published before the elections, a similar pattern in the case of the PP. In contrast, Junts and ERC are more consistent and have maintained their online pace both before and after the 2024 Catalan elections.
Although the Commons has been more active, it's not the party that has allocated the most money to Meta. ERC and Junts top the list in terms of average spending (around €880 and €870 per ad, respectively), followed by the PSC (€580 on average). Last but not least, we find Vox and Aliança Catalana (€98 and €50, respectively).
However, the numbers illustrate another pattern: the belief that the far right relies on social media for mobilization may be true, but the message seems to spread through other pages or channels. In other words, the far right doesn't intensively use the official page to spread its message and seems to feed off popular users and other satellites in its orbit.
'Microtargeting'
Placing an ad on Meta allows you to choose from numerous parameters and tailor your strategy to your political objectives (the ad strategy). microtargeting or targeting). For example, a party can limit the number of times people see the ad, the zip code it's sent to, and decide that only certain profiles based on education, work, personal interests, or the type of friends they have will see it. These decisions increase the cost, but can make the ad more efficient and ensure that only the people they want to reach see it.
If we calculate the ratio between the people they want to reach and the "impressions" (views) generated, the PP and Junts are the most successful parties. 44% of the Meta users the PP wants to reach end up seeing their ad, a figure that is 34% in the case of Junts. In contrast, Vox and Aliança have the lowest ratio: less than 3% see their ads. The case of ERC and the Comuns is also noteworthy: despite the number of ads they make, they fail to reach even a quarter of the users who search. If they don't reach the target What they did, due to the social media algorithm or something else, is a different story. What we do observe is that both ERC and Comun are the parties that perform the greatest segmentation. For example, as a curious fact, there are almost a hundred ads from Comun and about sixty Republicans designed to be seen only by people who like TV3.
Which party posts on Facebook have been the most successful since last year's elections? Of the Comun, Jaume Asens's Recalling the case of some Swiss grandmothers against the government; the PSC achieved some impact with the announcement of the European elections; ERC spent more than 900 euros in the announcement of its ten priorities in Europe; and more than 1,000 euros together when promoting the figure of Toni Comín in a message also in the European elections. It had much less impact Vox's publication which highlighted that the main operations against jihadism are carried out in Catalonia; and the CUP the Catalan electoral spot had a certain pull.
The curious chart of the week
Half of users avoid reading political news
Algorithms often filter the news we see on social media and tend to show us only those issues we most agree with. However, the systems are not (yet) infallible. When this happens, we have two options: read the news or avoid it. According to a study conducted by the UPF Chair of Communication Futures, a quarter of people actively choose to avoid the news. If the news is about politics, half say they avoid it. The tendency to avoid news is slightly higher among women, except if the news is about social justice, sports, or climate change.