European elections 2019: Change UK increases Facebook ad spend

Change UK has spent more than twice as much on Facebook ads in the last week as other parties standing in this week's European elections.

The newly-formed party spent £62,650 in the period from 13 to 19 May, more than half their total spend of £120,711 since February.

Last week, The Brexit Party spent £27,359, Labour £19,513, the Lib Dems £20,681 and the Conservatives £8,470.

In the last 30 days, the Lib Dems and The Brexit Party have spent the most.

The Brexit Party spent nearly £100,000 in advertising on the platform during that longer period, which starts before the UK's participation in the European elections was confirmed on 7 May. The Liberal Democrats spent nearly £80,000.

Last week, the Greens spent £14,432 and UKIP spent under £100.

However, just because a party is spending more does not mean that the posts will be more widely viewed.

In the run up to the 2017 general election, Labour spent less on Facebook ads than the Conservatives, but had a higher engagement rate on the site.

In 2017, parties spent about £3m on Facebook ads between them, with the Conservatives spending twice as much as the other parties combined.

During that general election, the Liberal Democrats spent almost as much money as Labour, but reached far fewer people.

In 2015, the Conservatives spent £1.2m on the network's advertising platform, about 10 times more than Labour.

All of this is small fry in comparison to American elections, however, where the Trump and Clinton campaigns spent $81m (£63.7m) between them on Facebook ads alone in the run up to the 2016 presidential election.

That figure does not even include advert spending by Political Action Committees (or PACs) which can run ads endorsing a particular figure or stance. It is possible for PACs to outspend the candidates running for office.