Parties target specific postcodes on social media ahead of Senedd election

Welsh Labour spent more than double any other party on Facebook and Instagram adverts in a one-month period ahead of the upcoming Senedd election, figures show.

The party spent £33,572 for advertising on Meta between 20 March and 18 April, followed by Plaid Cymru, which spent £15,360.

The Welsh Conservatives spent £7,448, Reform UK £3,831, the Welsh Liberal Democrats £959 and the Wales Green Party £182, according to Meta data.

Many of the parties' most-viewed adverts were targeted towards individual towns, constituencies or even postcodes, the BBC found.

Facebook and Instagram, run by Meta, give enough detail for useful comparisons. Google publishes some data, X does not share any, and TikTok does not allow political ads.

BBC Wales looked at the amounts spent by political parties that specifically targeted people in Wales.

The totals provided by Meta include money spent by local branches and candidates, but only if they have spent more than £100 across the month. Many have spent less so the actual figures for each party will be higher.

They also include party-run campaign pages, for instance the Liberal Democrats run some adverts through a page called Stop Reform UK.

The figures do not include spending on campaigns visible across the entire United Kingdom, which could also crop up on social media feeds in Wales.

Some smaller parties and independent candidates running in various constituencies also spent money on adverts.

The adverts themselves varied from attacks on rival parties and leaders to a focus on specific policies. Many of the parties' most-viewed adverts were targeted towards individual towns, constituencies or even postcodes.

Some were aimed at older or younger voters, or at men or women, while local candidates also used adverts to boost their profiles. Some ads also used petitions and clickable links as a call to action.

Often parties ran multiple versions of the same advert but paid for them to be served to different demographics.

Dr Emma Connolly, from University College London's department of political science, who specialises in how political narratives spread on social media, said spending on paid advertising online by political parties has been growing.

She said: "When you use paid ads, you've got more control over thinking, okay, who are you going to target geographically? Are you going to target demographically? And you can kind of be a bit more specific about when you might do that in the election cycle."

What our undercover voters are served by the algorithm is not a complete picture of what real Welsh voters are seeing online, but their profiles have been designed to reflect a range of views and backgrounds in the electorate - we will keep monitoring their feeds until the election to get a sense of how the campaign plays out on social media and sharing what we find.

It only gives us a broad indication of what might be out there, but the undercover voters have seen both official paid-for adverts from political parties and misinformation from independent pages on their feeds.

BBC Wales contacted Welsh Labour, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK Wales, the Welsh Conservatives, the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Wales Green Party to ask them about their spending.

Welsh Labour said they would not comment, while a Plaid Cymru spokesperson said social media was a "vital, cost-effective way to connect directly with voters across Wales".

"More people, particularly, younger audiences consume news online," they added.

Reform UK Wales said: "Only Reform can stop another Labour and Plaid coalition and deliver real change for Wales."

The Welsh Conservatives said they had spent money on leaflets and social media posts to highlight their policies on "getting Wales working again".