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- The DA is currently spending much more on digital advertising than any other political party in South Africa.
- Digital advertising is still a relatively small portion of campaign spending for the party.
- The EFF and ANC aren't spending anything on digital marketing.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
The DA spent an estimated R2.7 million on digital advertising on Instagram, Facebook, Google and YouTube last month, while the EFF and ANC didn’t spend a cent.
Google and Meta are among the big tech platforms that are maintaining up-to-date dashboards that disclose how much different entities are paying to boost the reach of content on the platforms.
The Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Centre were launched in response to new transparency measures required by European Regulators.
Other major platforms, including X, TikTok, and LinkedIn have also launched similar transparency tools.
That said, News24 only looked at data from Google and Meta as the other platforms either didn't include South Africa as a region or were rated very negatively in a recent stress test of the tools that was performed by Mozilla.
In April, the DA was the biggest advertiser on the two platforms by a country mile, spending more than 20 times the amount allocated by the party that was the second-biggest spender, Rise Mzansi.
Between 4 April and 3 May, the DA spent an estimated R2.1 million on Meta advertisements and R600 000 on Google ads, which include adverts on Google-owned YouTube, for the party's official Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook accounts.
The real figure will likely be more than this, as some ad spend is allocated for provincial DA accounts and for figures within the party, such as Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Western Cape Premier Alan Winde.
The party spent R116 000 on advertising for its official Meta account on 2 May alone.
That is slightly less than the R125 000 spent by Rise Mzansi between 4 April and 3 May last month. The newly formed party had the second-biggest digital marketing spend of any South African party last month.
The Freedom Front Plus, Action SA, the Inkatha Freedom Party, Good, and the African Christian Democratic Party all allocated some money to digital advertising in the last month.
But the EFF and the ANC didn’t allocate any money to digital marketing through the platforms, and no results appeared when searching for the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party on either the Meta or Google platforms.
No substitute
Ashor Sarupen, the deputy federal campaign manager for the DA, said digital marketing was a priority for the party, but still formed a relatively small portion of the party’s campaign spending when compared to more traditional campaigns on television and radio.
"For us, the digital war is an augmentation to and not in place of the ground war. Those things are important. The ANC and the EFF are very strong on the ground, so I wouldn’t say that they are not keeping with the times. But I think it would be useful for them if they were playing in the digital space," he told News24.
He said that the DA had already had "astronomically higher" engagement on social media than was the case in 2019, but he added that the comparison was not easy to make as the party was in a "different place" at the time.
"It is more important than [in] 2019, there is no doubt. But it is quite hard to draw conclusions, because in 2019, people were less interested in the DA than they are now," he said.
He added that the party was not likely to increase spending above current levels before the election ends.
"The closer you get to the election, the fewer people are still making up their minds.
"Most parties' political spending would have already peaked," said Sarupen.
In context
Brent Janse van Vuuren, a social media marketing expert and the managing director of Social Media 101, a digital marketing agency, said that the DA’s digital marketing spend was substantial, but was in line with spending trends in high-stakes industries or intense campaigning periods.
"Political parties can no longer afford to ignore digital channels," he said.
He added that digital marketing benefitted smaller parties, which could now reach a large audience through online channels.
