Clive Palmer goes for Snapchat, green money targets Facebook
Political spending on social media has divided in the lead-up to the federal election, with climate-based parties going for Facebook and Instagram while Clive Palmer’s party has dominated spending on Snapchat and Youtube.
Palmer’s right-wing Trumpet of the Patriots has gone particularly hard on Snapchat compared to others, spending over $400k in total so far this year, several times more than all other political organisation combined. The numbers are contained in Snapchat’s Political Ads Library, which covers global political ad spend.
Facebook and Instagram (Meta), on the other hand, are dominated by Climate 200, which has spent almost $600k with Meta this year. Greenpeace and Solutions for Climate Australia come in after Climate 200 as the biggest Meta spenders, leaving the Liberal Party in fourth place. This ranking excludes Australian government spending, which is supposedly non-political.
Palmer’s strategy in flooding Snapchat with $438k spent on just three video ads is probably a combination of targeting a younger demographic and finding “white space” away from other parties, according to Bread Agency’s co-founder Mary Proulx.
“None of the other political parties are spending heavily there, so they [may] actually see it as an opportunity in a white space to have a bigger share of voice on that platform,” Proulx said.
Using a platform with no other competing political voices also made financial sense.
”When you have to compete on other platforms – if the competition is high – you’re going to pay more to reach the intended audience. When competition is lower, your money can go further.”
She also noted that there may be an element of “spray and pray” in the campaign strategy and that Palmer’s signature yellow branding fitted well with Snapchat’s brand colours. Snapchat says it has more than 8m users in Australia, and that it reaches 90% of Australians aged 13-24. It declined to provide a breakout of users under 18.
In a sign that the younger demographic has been factored into Palmer’s Snapchat campaign, one of the three ads is a promise to abolish student debt.
We Are Social Chief Strategy Officer Richard Parker told Mumbrella in an email that there was a sharp political divide in younger demographics (Gen Z), with young men tending towards socially conservative views. This may be feeding in to the Trumpet of Patriots social strategy.
“Palmer could be using Snapchat to go after young men who are often disengaged from and disenfranchised by mainstream media, and could be tempted by his populist policies. Plus, it’s a classic ‘no parents’ channel, so ‘serious’ parties might dismiss it – to their peril,” Parker wrote.
Bread Agency’s Proulx said Meta’s platforms were much better suited to climate messages because that was where “climate conversations are happening and spreading.”
“Like with any campaign, the strategy should start with real audience knowledge,” she said. “We had a look at hashtag popularity on climate change on Instagram and there are millions of posts.”
She said that historically, climate conversations had been prevalent on Facebook in Australia during the 2019-2020 bushfires. A 2023 Facebook survey into climate change knowledge ranked Australians highly.
“This is a highly discussed and debated topic across both Facebook and Instagram. It makes sense from a political party perspective to show up when and where those conversations are happening.”
“Facebook is great if you want to engage older, civically engaged, and local-issue driven audiences: the classic Teal voter profile,” We Are Social’s Parker wrote. “Instagram reaches the culturally open younger progressive crowd. And Meta generally enables more detailed targeting, allowing for a more nuanced approach with more tailored messaging.”
Palmer’s strategy in targeting Snapchat differs markedly from the Trump campaign in the 2024 US presidential election. There, Trump lodged a few last-minute Snapchat ads and spent only $64k compared to the approximately $10m shelled out by Harris/Biden campaign.
While Palmer’s spend on Snapchat is relatively high, his activity on Youtube/Google is bigger. There the Trumpet of the Patriots has spent over $1.7m – over 30% of all Australian Google political expenditure – this year.
“YouTube is a bit of a no brainer for any political campaign,” We Are Social’s Parker said in his email to Mumbrella.
“In terms of time spent per user it smashes every other platform (with the exception of TikTok) out of the park (We Are Social / Meltwater 2025), and has a fairly even demographic split across the cohorts – so it is a good option for mass reach, whilst also offering targeting by search behaviour, meaning parties can target people showing interest in particular relevant policy areas whilst also blanketing their base.”
Data from Google shows election spending on its platforms is building strongly — the below graph shows daily spend up to yesterday.
Google data shows ad spend building strongly (Google)
In terms of total election ad spend this year, there is an expectation among experts that outlays will top the $165m spent in the leadup to the 2022 federal election, according to a report in The Australian.
Got a tip?
topics
Cliver Palmer
election
Election ad spend
election ads
federal election
Trumpet of the Patriots
Clive Palmer’s strategic focus on Snapchat and YouTube for political advertising, while climate-focused parties favour Facebook and Instagram, underscores the importance of targeted audience engagement in election campaigns.
His significant investment in Snapchat, aiming for a younger demographic and less competitive ad space, highlights the evolving landscape of political advertising on social media.
Have your say