Independent ‘teal’ candidates led by Allegra Spender and Monique Ryan are blitzing social media with election ads.
— which dwarfs the $266,494 spent by Labor and the $246,133 spent by the Liberals — social media advertising is increasingly important because of its ability to target people by age group, location and gender.
Both Dr Ryan and Ms Spender have spent more than the Liberal Party or the Labor Party have spent on their federal division pages over the last 30 and 90-day periods. The spending data is sourced from Meta’s ad library. Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.Like Dr Ryan and Ms Spender, independent candidates including former rugby great David Pocock, who is standing for an ACT Senate seat, Dr Sophie Scamps, who is standing for Liberal-held Mackellar, Penny Ackery, who is standing for Liberal-held Hume and Kylea Tink, who is standing for Liberal-held North Sydney, are all in the top 20 political spenders on the platforms in the last month.
The Liberal Party, meanwhile, has spent $24,947 in the past 30 days and $45,130 in the past 90 days and $149,525 since August 2020, when Meta began reporting spending data. Many of these ads are heavily negative about Labor and the Greens.