Targeted social media political ad spend reveal NT election strategy, which seats are more important for NT Labor

TERRITORY voters are being peppered with hundreds of highly-targeted political ads, as new analysis reveals insight into where the election battle lines have been drawn.

TERRITORY voters are being peppered with hundreds of highly-targeted political ads, as new analysis reveals insight into where the election battle lines have been drawn.

Facebook advertising data, collated by the NT News through the social media giant’s transparency platform, shows NT Labor is spending the big bucks on Johnston MLA Joel Bowden, with a single ad in July costing between $900 and $999.

Within the CLP’s ranks, Fannie Bay candidate Tracey Hayes has run the largest number of ads in the campaign, though at 19 advertisements it pales in comparison to Territory Labor HQ’s 120.

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Johnston MLA Joel Bowden.Picture: Jason Walls

CLP Fannie Bay candidate Tracey Hayes. Picture GLENN CAMPBELL

Ms Hayes’ most expensive ad cost between $700 and $799, with a few others costing between $400 and $499 and $300 and $399.

CLP HQ has paid for 22 Facebook ads on its own page.

Facebook ads can be highly-targeted to capture specific genders, ages, locations and interests and have been the main platform for political messaging during elections in recent years, according to University of Sydney senior politic lecturer Dr Peter Chen.

“(Political) parties see Facebook ads as low cost, easy to customise and target … and they also like to be able to see the metrics,” he said.

“It (also) has the possibility of giving you a sense of what their (political) strategy is … now you can see where their tactical money spends are and pretty good insight on what (seats are) competitive.

“You can get a sense of their internal polling.”

Analysis of the number of ads being run by Labor MLAs and candidates shows the seat most targeted by the party is Mulka, which they lost in 2016 by just eight votes when it was named Nhulunbuy.

Labor candidate Lynne Walker has run 33 Facebook ads, paid for by Territory Labor, since mid-July.

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In comparison, Labor’s Natasha Fyles and Nicole Manison, in the safe seats of Nightcliff and Wanguri, have run 11 and 13 ads each.

It appears NT Labor is hoping to gain traction in the marginal seat of Brennan and Terry Mill’s seat of Blain, paying for MLA Tony Sievers to run 29 ads and for candidate Mark Turner to run 28.