Behind the Scenes: Digital Ad Spend Soared 10x in Lok Sabha Elections 2024

The official page of the BJP spent over 100 crores on adverts on Google, while Congress spurred 46 crores.

The process of the world’s largest electorate electing their representatives in the Lok Sabha elections is extensive. Over 43 days, the longest period ever after first parliamentary elections of 1951-52, as the election took place, digital platforms emerged as the new battleground for political campaigns.

With the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) forming the government, despite no single party achieving an outright majority, and Congress seeing a significant increase in its vote and seat share; which parties led this race, and which invested the most in these platforms this election ?

Notably, the focus on online ads by political parties in their campaigns via Google Ads and Meta surpassed previous records. Although there is a cap on individual candidate election expenses, no such limit exists for party expenditures.

We analysed their expenditures, identified spending patterns and key focus states, using data from the Google Ads Transparency Centre and Meta Ad Library Report. X (formerly Twitter) does not permit political advertisements in India.

Ad Spend Increased Over 10 Times Since 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

While campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, political parties spent at least Rs 290 crores on more than two lakhs ads on Google between 1 January and 31 May 2024.

This expenditure is a staggering 947 percent or nearly 10 times higher compared to the amount spent on the same platform during the same period in 2019. Congress's spending this season was double the total expenditure of all parties in the previous election.

Video ads dominated the expenditure on Google Ads, accounting for 81.4 percent percent of the total spending, followed by image ads at 19 percent. Spending on text ads was minimal.

Google’s political ads include image ads on various websites and video ads on YouTube, classified as election ads if run by a political party or member of the Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha. These ads allow targeted delivery based on geographical location (excluding radius targeting), age, gender, ad placements, topics, and keywords.

The BJP emerged as the top spender in both elections, publishing over 50 percent, or 180,000, of the total ads during this period, as reported by Google Ads Transparency Report.

In the first five months of the 2024 election year, the opposition Congress ranked a distant second with an expenditure of Rs 45.4 crore.

Regional parties also made significant investments: Biju Janata Dal spent Rs 21.2 crore, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Rs 16.6 crore, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP)  Rs 12.8 crore, and the firm I-PAC, which advertises for YSRCP and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), spent Rs 9.23 crore.

On Meta, from March to 31 May 2024, the BJP's official page led ad spending with Rs 19.3 crore, followed by the Congress at Rs 10.8 crore. Ama Chinha Sankha Chinha, a proxy page promoting Naveen Patnaik, spent over Rs 10 crore.

DMK’s advertising agency, Populus Empowerment Network Private Limited, along with AITC, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), were among the top spenders.

Notably, AAP official handle did not place any ads on Google during this election as per the data accessed by The Quint.

The BJP allocated its highest expenditure on Meta to an advertisement targeting Maharashtra, distributing over 44 ads across all Meta platforms throughout the state between April and May, with the campaign slogan #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar.

The DMK-promoting agency placed advertisements on the pages of Ellorum Nammudan and Stalinin Kural. The data shows a consistent pattern of proxy pages and surrogate advertisers spending on Meta platforms to disseminate political content associated with specific parties, thus investing significantly in India's electoral process.

For example, Ama Chinha Sankha Chinha, appearing twice among the top five spenders, had collectively spent over Rs 10 crores in the past three months. Pages affiliated with this entity have been endorsing Naveen Patnaik, the former Chief Minister of Odisha, who leads the BJD.

Likewise, the official page of ‘Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar’, boasting nearly 5 million followers and spending Rs 1.6 crores, shared content related to the BJP and PM Narendra Modi.

Many advertisers listed in the Facebook ad library seem to be surrogate advertisers, targeting prominent political figures, particularly those in opposition. Examples include ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (1.4 million followers, Rs 1.3 Cr), ‘Political X Ray’ (7 K followers, Rs 1.3 cr), and ‘Bharat Todo Gang’ (99K followers, Rs 9 lakh spend).

The highest amount of election ads spending targeted states of Odisha, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal on both Google and Meta platforms.

Of the 37.4 crores spent exclusively on Google ads targeting Odisha, the official account of BJD accounted for a whopping 21 crores followed by BJP spending 11.9 crores.

The assembly elections of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh were also scheduled during the same period.

Targeted Spending by Political Parties

In order to strengthen its position in the north and west and increase its influence in the south and east, the ruling BJP adopted a calculated strategy. As a result, their social media plans were adjusted, and they strategically apportioned their advertising budget as per the states.

In Maharashtra, the BJP allocated the highest expenditure, exceeding Rs. 11.9 crores, followed closely by Odisha (11.8 crores), Uttar Pradesh (11.2 crores), West Bengal (8.4 crores), and Delhi (6.2 crores).

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Phase-Wise Ad Spending

Before the polling commenced in 21 states and UTs on April 19 in the first phase, political parties and their affiliates published over a hundred thousand Google ads categorised as political ads between March 16 and April 17, 2024. Among these, 39 of the 102 parliamentary constituencies going to polls were situated in Tamil Nadu.

This trend is mirrored in the ad spending data of political parties, with the highest amount of political expenditure directed towards Tamil Nadu during this period. Of the Rs. 16 crores spent by DMK on Google ads during the initial five months of the year, this period alone accounted for 14.3 crores targeting Tamil Nadu. Following Tamil Nadu in terms of spending were Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and West Bengal.

Although BJP emerged as the top spender before the first phase of polling, the Congress outspent all others on Google ads before the second phase, spending 4.37 crores between 20 and 24 April. BJP followed closely at Rs. 4.34 crores, with YSRCP at Rs. 1.2 crores, while all other parties' spending remained below one crore.

The advertising period was shortest before the sixth and seventh phases; however, over 14 crores were spent on ads published during 21 and 23 May and 26 and 30 May, targeting Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, and Haryana.

Although the BJP was the top spender during all phases except for phase two, regional parties occupied the second position before the election in their respective regions or states. BJD spent the second-highest before phases five and six, while the YSRCP focused on Andhra Pradesh in the third and fourth phases

BJP ads on Meta and Google platforms had themes related to infrastructure,welfare packages, youth development, skill development, the Ram Temple, and Article 370.

On the other hand, the Congress party's advertisements emphasised the Modi government's shortcomings with regard to growth, job security, unemployment, paper leaks, and farmer concerns.

Government Publicity Agency Among Top Spenders

The Central Bureau of Communication, the governmental publicity body established in 2017, was ranked among the top three spenders of ads on Google between January 1 and May 31 2024. It allocated over 30 lakhs each on top ads focusing on themes like 'Modi ki Guarantee' and schemes offering freebies.

A substantial portion of its expenditure, totaling over 32 crores, was directed towards 877 advertisements targeting states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, and Bihar.

However, it ceased publishing ads following the announcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and the declaration of General Elections by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 16, 2024.

The results announced on 4 June were not only unexpected, but also questioned the correlation between party expenditures and their performance in the states they targeted during campaigns. For instance, despite the BJD's expenditure of over 21 crores in Odisha, it failed to secure any seats in the state.

Similarly, although the BJP made concerted efforts to establish itself in Kerala and Tamil Nadu through vigorous poll campaigns and online advertising, it was unsuccessful in making inroads in Tamil Nadu but managed to secure one seat in Kerala.