Social media is now top federal ad platform
SITES LIKE FACEBOOK TAKE IN LION’S SHARE OF FEDERAL AD DOLLARS
Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter now take in the lion’s share of federal advertising dollars, thanks to an ongoing increase in the use of digital advertising by government departments and agencies, new figures show.
Of the $39.2 million spent on government advertisements last year, federal departments spent almost $18.2 million on digital ads — roughly 46 per cent of the total budget, which doesn’t include production costs.
And, for the first time ever, social media ads made up the biggest slice of digital spending — 43 per cent, or roughly $7.8 million.
“Canadians are using more digital platforms and with greater frequency, and therefore expect their government to communicate with them on those channels,” says the government’s newly tabled annual report on advertising activities.
“Departments challenged their creative agencies and the (advertising) agency of record to ‘spread their creative wings.’”
Ads on Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat featured prominently in the government’s digital ad buys for the 2017-18 fiscal year, but the vast majority — 73 per cent — of the government’s social media spending went to Facebook.
The report points to statistics showing Facebook had a 75-per-cent reach among Canadian internet users, double that of Twitter.
“Further, Facebook allows for niche-targeting and it generally has high engagement rates,” the report states.
“Twitter, on the other hand, is used more for ‘breaking news’ and has more limited targeting options.”
Meanwhile, last year marked the lowest amount spent in over a decade on traditional advertising outlets like newspapers and television.
Print outlets received about $570,000 while radio received almost $392,000, roughly 1.4 and one per cent, respectively, of the advertising budget.
Television ads, which had long been government’s advertising medium of choice, received about 11.5 per cent of the ad spend last year, or $4.5 million.
The shift away from television to online is the result of a policy change in 2016 that saw federal organizations adopt a digital-first approach for communications.
Federal officials have yet to respond to a request for comment about the digital advertising strategy.
Bob Cox, chair of News Media Canada and publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press, says he is concerned this policy not only hurts traditional media outlets like newspapers, but also means some, mainly older, Canadians are not seeing federal messages.