The final data from April is in, and in this special edition of Cost Per Canadian, we're tracking over $1.926M of spending on politics and issue-based advertising in Canada last month.

We drill into spending by the three major federal parties, including the postal codes directly targeted by the Conservative Party of Canada, and we highlight some curious spending by the Ontario PC Party more than two years before their next planned election.

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Frazer, Digital Director. Point Blank

April’s Highest Spender:

Pierre Poilievre. $104,587

Highest Spenders

Federal Party Spend

Provincial Spend

Noted:

Federal Conservatives were by far and away the highest spenders this month. Their ads have been primarily focused on attacking the other parties on topics such as the carbon tax, threats of hunting rifle bans, and, more recently, housing affordability.

They’ve not used any age group, gender, or behaviour targeting, even where it would have made sense (such as an interest in hunting, in the case of their firearm-based ads). Instead, they seem more than content to reach anyone on Facebook or Instagram in the areas they select. They’re using a combination of city-level targeting (“anyone in Arthabaska”) and FSA-level targeting (“anyone in the postal code V0R”), which suggests that they have specific ridings that they’re interested in securing or flipping ahead of the next election.

We’ve built an interactive visualization of their spending this month that you can explore, bookmark and share with anyone in your network. It’s available for free here.

The Liberal Party invested most of their ad spend last month in adding new people to their list through one-question survey ads, though they did supplement these with a handful of ads intended to strike back at the attacks from the CPC that launched in the last week of the month.

Their ads were targeted in Ontario and Quebec, though they ran a sub-set across Canada. Unlike the conservatives, they layered in some interest-based targeting, focusing on people interested in ‘Social Policy’ and ‘Community Issues.’

This month, the New Democrats focused primarily on healthcare and the cost of living, with ads supporting access to abortion services, warning about healthcare privatization, and linking Pierre Poilievre to corporate greed. Their targeting seems to rely heavily on leveraging their existing email list to find people with similar interests, regardless of the riding or province they’re based in, a tactic that’s typically very successful for finding new subscribers and donors.

Despite the next Ontario election being (theoretically) more than 24 months away, the Ontario PC Party has spent more than $60k in April. Their primary message has been framing Bonnie Crombie, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, as expensive, though they’ve also dabbled in attacks on Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax.

The digital advertising landscape in 2024 is so precisely targeted that for many people, it’s impossible to know which ads your neighbours, friends and family are being influenced by. We track the biggest spenders and high-profile campaigns every week on Meta, keeping you in the loop with what the rest of Canada is seeing.

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