Bhubaneswar: Political parties in Odisha have been ramping up their spending on advertising on Facebook. But of the lot, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and affiliates are leading ad spends on Facebook. According to data available on Facebook Ad Library, BJP spent Rs 6.57 lakh on all its pages from February 1 to April 20, 2019 with 560 ads. During the week ending April 20 alone, the party invested Rs 1.61 lakh on such advertisements.
Facebook’s Ad Library, a searchable database, collates data on advertisements related to politics and issues of national importance. The library reveals that the pages ‘BJP Odisha’ and ‘For BJP Odisha’ have spent over Rs 2.87 lakh from February 1 to April 20, 2019 with 63 advertisements. The data also show that the BJP has spent Rs82,462 till April 20.
According to the ad library, the BJP spent more than Rs 3.7 lakh on the page ‘Jabab Maguchi Odisha’ in the said period, adding 497 ads. The party invested Rs78,669 April 14-20 alone, the data show.
Biju Janata Dal (BJD), in turn, has invested only Rs 11,960 on Facebook ads in the same period. The page Naveen Odisha had only 30 advertisements. From April 14-20, the BJD spent only Rs6,513, with 24 advertisements.
Other parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress and regional parties have generally avoided social media advertising. It is expected that parties will spend more on social media campaigns with one more phase of elections left to go April 29.
—pnn
