Tories spend £114,000 on Facebook likes and ads in just one month

[Michael]

They’ve already been accused of trying to “buy the general election” by quietly raising the legal spending limit by £6.2 million to £32.7m in the face of concerns from the Electoral Commission over ‘undue influence’. The party has reportedly amassed a war chest of more than £70 million.

So if you want a flavour of how much cash Tories could be splashing on their bid to retain power, have a look at the document below. It’s a £114,000 invoice from Facebook to the Conservative Party — and that’s for just one month.

The bill (which Scrapbook obtained as part of the spending returns for the Rochester and Strood by-election) is dated 2 December and lists its ‘billing period’ as ‘NOV-14′.

The invoice is itemised as follows:

“Email Collection New” — £71,147.25
“Page likes – Conservatives” — £23,998.82
“4040 Likes” — £12,713.38
“Kelly Tolhurst for Rochester and Strood” — £3,084.41
“Video advertising” — £4,014.35

If this is representative, it means they could be spaffing around £1 million per year on Facebook alone.

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2015/01/tories-spent-114000-on-facebook-likes-and-ads-in-just-one-month/

[scottish]

Wait facebook sell likes?

I thought only third party websites done that lol

but yeah by its own it means nothing as they could spend 1/1000th of that every other month and only Nov was high.

[FlyingJesus]

Sounds like a lot but means nothing by itself - needs to be compared to other types of advertising and campaigning costs. Social media is an exceptionally important tool in reaching the masses so it makes sense that a lot of effort goes into their presence on Facebook

[-:Undertaker:-]

I was aware of this ever since it was pointed out as Ukip kept closing in by a few thousand likes of the Tories, the Tories would suddenly jump in numbers.

A former senior advisor only last week warned that the Tories are likely to lose the ground game this General Election because their activists have deserted them in huge numbers, membership under David Cameron has gone from something like 250,000 when he started to 60,000 to 120,000 today.

[Chippiewill]

I'm fairly certain Facebook don't sell likes, I imagine it's a misrepresentation of an advertising scheme weighted in likes.

£100,000 on social network advertising isn't that surprising. It's also unfair to extrapolate to £1m considering it was a bill from a time when the conservatives had fought and lost two very important by-elections. I imagine they spent no where near that amount during July, August and they'll spend a ton more during the General Election.

Edit: From the article comments:

They’re paying for their page to be promoted either on the side bar or in between posts with a ‘Like’ button as part of the advert. Whenever someone ‘Likes’ their page direct from the advert, they pay a set amount.

[scottish]

I'm fairly certain Facebook don't sell likes, I imagine it's a misrepresentation of an advertising scheme weighted in likes.

£100,000 on social network advertising isn't that surprising. It's also unfair to extrapolate to £1m considering it was a bill from a time when the conservatives had fought and lost two very important by-elections. I imagine they spent no where near that amount during July, August and they'll spend a ton more during the General Election.

Edit: From the article comments:

ah okay, didn't think they would it's usually Chinese gold farmers selling them.

[AgnesIO]

This is a really tiny figure in Advertising terms. Not sure Facebook actually approves people buying likes, but the spending on advertisement's is completely unsurprising.

Some examples of what firms apparently spend on Google Adwords monthly (the sponsored listings on google etc)
http://screenwerk.com/wpn/media/Screen-Shot-2014-09-15-at-6.40.21-AM.png

Here's what was spent in total on advertising by parties in the last election:
Conservatives - £7,532,636
Labour - £785,509
Lib Dems - £230,482
UKIP - £372,482

And on unsolicited materials to the electorate:
Conservatives - £4,779,090
Labour - £4,151,985
Lib Dems - £3,051,525
UKIP - £142,260

You see, advertising is huge - nobody should be surprised by this. Also, to note UKIPs figures are obviously very low given their lack of activity in 2010; figures increased in the European Elections last year, and I suspect they will be more in line with Labour on Advertising in this election, and near to the Lib Dems on unsolicited materials.

[GommeInc]

I receive so many emails from the Conservative Party ever since someone signed me up to be mean :P

[scottish]

Surely you can just unsubscribe? :P

[GommeInc]

Surely you can just unsubscribe? :P
Far too lazy to do that. Easier just to click "read" and drown it out with the other emails :P

[scottish]

Far too lazy to do that. Easier just to click "read" and drown it out with the other emails :P

It's typically 1 button isn't it? :P

[GommeInc]

It's typically 1 button isn't it? :P
Wouldn't know, I never read the things :P Don't question my laziness :P