Political ads on Google: BJP has outspent its nearest rival by 52.36%
In the last six years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has spent a massive Rs 140 crore on advertisements on Google, including video, image and text advertisements.
This is as per data from Google’s Ads Transparency Center on political advertisements in India from May 31, 2018 (the earliest date available) to May 14, 2024.
The second highest spender was the Indian National Congress (INC), which spent only Rs 63.5 crore during this period.
Thus, the BJP has outspent its nearest rival by as much as 45.35 per cent!
A related fact is that the BJP had also cornered almost 50 per cent of the total amount donated through the now-declared-illegal electoral bonds, and it can be safely assumed that a large part of this was spent on advertisements.
Among political parties, the next three are Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), spending Rs 25.5 crore, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSR Congress), spending Rs 15 crore and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), spending Rs 12.1 crore.
The fourth largest political party in the last Lok Sabha, Al India Trinamool Congress is absent from the list. But the amount it spent can be guessed at.
The political consultancy, Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), fifth on the overall list of political advertisers on Google in India, over the last few years, has worked mostly for Trinamool Congress and YSR Congress, the ruling parties in Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, respectively.
It is also known from the list that I-PAC spent Rs 5.48 crore in Bengal, Rs 77.7 lakh in Goa (AITC put candidates in the assembly election), Rs 84.7 lakh in Meghalaya and Rs 33.1 lakh in Assam (in both, candidates nominated for both the assembly and Lok Sabha elections). Therefore, the amount spent by the party would be a figure close to the sum of these numbers, which comes to approximately Rs 7.43 crore. This makes it the seventh or eighth highest spender among political parties (AIADMK spent Rs 7.32 crore).
Interestingly, political consultants and certain research organisations spent big on advertisements on Google (and it can be assumed, elsewhere on the digital medium too).
The Central Bureau of Communication, or CBC (formerly the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity, or DAVP) spent Rs 40.4 crore, Populus Empowerment Network (PEN) spent Rs 16.6 crore, Way2News spent Rs 16.5 crore and I-PAC spent Rs 15.8 crore to become the fourth, sixth, seventh and eights highest spenders.
The CBC is the Union government’s publicity arm, and so its advertisements all favoured the BJP. The PEN works closely with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and is believed to be owned by his son-in-law, V Sabareesan, and so its advertisements would be for the DMK.
There are various other similar organisations who advertised on Google and their advertisements added to the political pitches of various parties, so the actual total spends by parties is their own plus those by these organisations. Hence, the exact figures cannot be ascertained by the Ads Transparency Center data, but suffice it to say that the BJP captured the lion’s share (which, interestingly, parallels the amount they got from political bonds, as mentioned earlier).
Another figure to note is that, over the period from May 31, 2018 to May 14, 2024, the highest advisement spend on any single day on Google happened on May 9, 2024, when Rs 7.17 crore was spent.
Another fact to note is that the majority of the advertisements by India political parties and consultants on Google over the period of almost six years were in the form of videos, for which Rs 381 crore was spent, amounting to 80.8% of the total spend. This was followed by image advertisements (Rs 89.5 crore – 18.9% of the total spend) and text advertisements (a paltry Rs 84.2 lakh – 0.179% of the total spend).
