Political Party Ad Tracker — December 4, 2017

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With four by-elections next Monday, what can we learn from the Facebook ads each party is running?

Have the Conservatives given up on Scarborough-Agincourt? Is the South Surrey-White Rock race going down-to-the-wire? Do the NDP stand a chance anywhere?

Find out in this week's edition of the eddt Political Party Ad Tracker!

Liberal Party of Canada

Liberal Party Facebook Ad

The Liberals are flooding the political ad market with by-election ads, primarily targeted at South Surrey-White Rock and Scarborough-Agincourt voters. Based on the number of ads devoted to just these two ridings, the Liberals clearly believe them to be winnable battlegrounds. This is one of the Liberals’ new GOTV ads.

Thanks to Facebook ad transparency, you can see every single ad your competitors are running. What kind of ads are Canada's national political parties running this week? Hint: it’s by-election season — Liberal Party of Canada The Liberals are flooding the political ad market with by-election ads, primarily targeted at South-Surrey White Rock and Scarborough-Agincourt voters. Based on the number of ads devoted to just these two ridings, the Liberals clearly believe them to be winnable battlegrounds. This is one of the Liberals’ new GOTV ads. As you can tell, the Liberals are running a lot of different ads for these by-elections. They may be testing ad copy to see which converts best, or they may be targeting different ads to different audiences. If they are smart, the first ad urging people to vote is likely targeted at supporters, and this second ad is targeted at undecided voters. This ad supporting the Liberal candidate in Scarborough-Rouge River marks the second time since the release of the ad tracker that a political party has advertised in a language other than English. The Conservatives ran a Chinese ad for their candidate in the same riding two weeks ago, but stopped running it the following week. Will this one get better results? You can view all of the active Liberal Party of Canada ads here. Conservative Party of Canada The Conservatives are also targeting South-Surrey White Rock and Scarborough-Agincourt with some ads, but with not nearly as many variations as the Liberals. This is an interesting ad — I am sure they will get some honest answers. If the goal is to actually poll the riding, it does seem odd that they are doing it with the Conservative Party logo. If the goal is to sign up supporters, I’m not convinced this is the best way to do it — but it’s certainly an interesting tactic! This is another interesting ad from the Conservatives. It’s clearly a lot more aggressive than the Liberal ads, but it’s also got an issue focus. Intriguingly, they are only targeting South-Surrey White Rock with key issue ads. In fact, most of their by-election advertising is focused on South-Surrey White Rock this week—unlike last week when it was primarily focused on Scarborough-Agincourt. The above ad is designed to hit close to home for the voters of South-Surrey White Rock concerned about community safety. The Conservative hope is that ads like this will be compelling enough to lead to new e-mail sign-ups in the riding. Last week, we predicted that this ad would still be running this week. We were right. It’s not a surprise the ad led to new e-mail sign-ups. It is compelling, and focused on three central issues for Conservative voters. The tagline is a strong call to action. The Conservatives are also very strong at adjusting their key issue advertising to the pertinent issues of the day. Proof below. You can view all of the active Conservative Party of Canada ads here. New Democratic Party The NDP are actually running ads this week! And split-tests, too! Maybe they’ve been reading our blog. No sign of by-election advertising though, so don’t count on an NDP upset in any of the contested ridings. This is one of two key issue ads the NDP is running. It is decently compelling, and should resonate with their supporters. It should encourage NDP fans that the Party is now asking for e-mail sign-ups in a smart way. They’ve got a lot of ground to cover before they’re anywhere close to the two main parties’ social media ad game, but this is a small step forward. Progress, if you will. Note: the NDP is running a test of the same ad in French—the first ad in the language since the advent of the ad tracker three weeks ago. Last week, this ad was running on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s Facebook page. Now it is on the NDP’s page. Unfortunately for Singh and the NDP, it doesn’t matter which page it’s on. It’s still a weird call-to-action. At a time when the Party has a new leader and needs to grow quickly, the NDP is perplexingly asking for volunteers rather than supporters. The people likely to volunteer have probably already given their e-mail address. What the NDP should be doing is running more key issue, or introductory ads that ask people for their e-mail addresses. They’ve got to start building a huge list of supporters so they can get their fundraising on track and challenge the Liberals and Conservatives in the next election. Need help with your Facebook advertising campaign? We've managed massive advertising spends for clients like the Maxime Bernier, Jason Kenney, and the Conservative Party of Canada. Get in touch today! *You can see Justin Trudeau's ads here. You can see Andrew Scheer’s ads here. You can see Jagmeet Singh’s ads here.

As you can tell, the Liberals are running a lot of different ads for these by-elections. They may be testing ad copy to see which converts best, or they may be targeting different ads to different audiences. If they are smart, the first ad urging people to vote is likely targeted at supporters, and this second ad is targeted at undecided voters.

Liberal Party Facebook Ad

This ad supporting the Liberal candidate in Scarborough-Rouge River marks the second time since the release of the ad tracker that a political party has advertised in a language other than English.

The Conservatives ran a Chinese ad for their candidate in the same riding two weeks ago, but stopped running it the following week. Will this one get better results?

Liberal Party Facebook Ad

You can view all of the active Liberal Party of Canada ads here.

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservatives are also targeting South Surrey-White Rock and Scarborough-Agincourt with some ads, but with not nearly as many variations as the Liberals.

Conservative Party Facebook Ad

This is an interesting ad — I am sure they will get some honest answers.

If the goal is to actually poll the riding, it does seem odd that they are doing it with the Conservative Party logo. If the goal is to sign up supporters, I’m not convinced this is the best way to do it — but it’s certainly an interesting tactic! Here's the landing page for the ad — not conventional by any means.

Conservative Party Facebook Ad

This is another interesting ad from the Conservatives. It’s clearly a lot more aggressive than the Liberal ads, but it’s also got an issue focus.

Intriguingly, they are only targeting South Surrey-White Rock with key issue ads. In fact, most of their by-election advertising is focused on South Surrey-White Rock this week—unlike last week when it was primarily focused on Scarborough-Agincourt. This could be a sign that their polling shows Scarborough-Agincourt as a lost cause, or that South Surrey-White Rock could be a difficult hold for them.

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Last week, we predicted that this ad would still be running this week. We were right.

It’s not a surprise the ad led to new e-mail sign-ups. It is compelling, and focused on three central issues for Conservative voters. The tagline is a strong call to action.

The Conservatives are also very strong at adjusting their key issue advertising to the pertinent issues of the day. Proof below.

Conservative Party Facebook Ad

You can view all of the active Conservative Party of Canada ads here.

New Democratic Party

The NDP are actually running ads this week! And split-tests, too! Maybe they’ve been reading our blog...

No sign of by-election advertising though, so don’t count on an NDP upset in any of the contested ridings.

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This is one of two key issue ads the NDP is running. It is decently compelling, and should resonate with their supporters.

It should encourage NDP fans that the Party is now asking for e-mail sign-ups in a smart way. They’ve got a lot of ground to cover before they’re anywhere close to the two main parties’ social media ad game, but this is a small step forward.

Progress, if you will.

The NDP is running a test of the same ad in French—the first French ad we've noticed since the advent of the ad tracker three weeks ago.

NDP Facebook Ad

On Jagmeet Singh's page, the NDP is doing something else that's different from the other parties — they are using Facebook ads to fundraise!

This can actually be a great tactic, if it's well targeted. If they are targeting strong supporters, and people who have donated in the past, or visitors to their donation page who haven't converted yet — then this could be a very successful ad. If they are targeting it too broadly, however, they could be spending more than they are raising.

You can view all of the active NDP ads here.

Need help with your Facebook advertising campaign? We've managed massive advertising spends for clients like the Maxime Bernier, Jason Kenney, and the Conservative Party of Canada. Get in touch today!

*You can see Justin Trudeau's ads here. You can see Andrew Scheer’s ads here. You can see Jagmeet Singh’s ads here.