Facebook ads cheaper, effective tool for politicos

HYDERABAD: Political parties, including the TRS and Congress, are spending thousands of rupees on advertisements on social media platforms like Facebook.  In the last seven days, political parties and affiliated pages have spent nearly Rs 50,000 for advertisements. The advantage of these ads lies in its reach and affordability. An ad costing less than Rs 100 has the potential to reach one million social media users. 

While a majority of the ads came from TRS-affiliated pages, a few were circulated on Congress pages. TRS-affiliated page ‘Narne Srinviasa Rao’ has been spending around Rs 8,000 in the past one week on advertisements for GHMC polls.  “Let’s vote for development,” said one of the advertisements with a photo of the candidate, along with photos of CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and other leaders. Facebook’s Ad Report feature said that this particular ad reached almost 10 lakh users. 

Advertisements for the TRS are also being circulated through the page ‘Uppalapati Sreekanth’. A Congress-affiliated page, meanwhile, has spent thousands of rupees promoting Malkajgiri MP Revanth Reddy’s campaigns for the upcoming GHMC polls. 

While Facebook’s Ad report shows that BJP Telangana has not yet made any advertisements on the social media platform, there is one particular page, ‘Say No To Hate’, where anti-BJP ads are being promoted massively. In the last seven days, the page has spent Rs 25,495 on posts ridiculing BJP leaders such as Bandi Sanjay Kumar.