FvD spent most on Facebook ads; D66 most on Google

Populist party FvD spent the most of all Dutch political parties on Facebook advertisements since September 1, according to a new dashboard meant to increase transparency around online campaigning in the run up to next year's parliamentary elections. The D66 spent the most on Google ads.

According to the dashboard, FvD spent between 29,201 euros and 52,808 euros on a total of 192 Facebook ads. These advertisements were shown at least 8 million times, though that does not necessarily mean that 8 million different people saw them. The ad could have been shown to the same Facebook user multiple times, or playing somewhere on screen without the user actually watching.

Remarkably, the CDA spent the second most on Facebook ads at between 8,300 and 11,587, but had only 13 advertisements. The high amount likely had to do with the ads' reach, as they were played at least 2.7 million times - second most after FvD. The VVD seemed to have leaned more towards quantity than reach, spending between 4,201 and 15,387 euros on 113 ads that were shown at least 2 million times.

The D66 apparently decided to target Google users with their ads, more than Facebook users. The party spent 40,650 euros on Google ads, and between 2 thousand and 4 thousand on Facebook. GroenLinks spent 10,950 euros on Google ads, and between 4,800 and 8,562 euros on Facebook.

The dashboard also shows which gender political parties' ads targeted on Facebook. FvD targeted men way more than women. The VVD, SP, and CDA also targeted men more, but to a lesser extent. GroenLinks, PvdA and ChristenUnie targeted women more. The D66's ads were more or less balanced.

The ICDS Election Observatory dashboard was developed by the University of Amsterdam, according to RTL Nieuws. The data comes from the tech companies themselves. In the near future, the dashboard will be supplemented with data from 'Who targets me?', a program that shows internet users who is targeting them with political ads.