LABOUR has spent more than twice as much as any other Welsh political party on Facebook and Instagram advertising in the final weeks before the Senedd election, new figures show.
Data from Meta, which owns both platforms, shows Welsh Labour spent £33,572 on adverts between March 20 and April 18.
Plaid Cymru recorded the second-highest spend, at £15,360, followed by the Welsh Conservatives on £7,448. Reform UK spent £3,831, while the Welsh Liberal Democrats spent £959 and the Wales Green Party spent £182.
The figures highlight the growing importance of social media in Welsh election campaigning, with parties increasingly using online adverts to reach voters in specific areas.
Many of the adverts were aimed at people living in particular towns, constituencies and even individual postcodes. Others were targeted by age, gender or local interest, with candidates and party campaign pages using paid promotions to raise their profiles.
Some adverts focused on policies, while others attacked rival parties or their leaders. Several used petitions or clickable links to encourage voters to engage directly with campaign material.
The Meta data includes adverts paid for by political parties, local branches and candidates, provided they spent more than £100 during the period. As smaller amounts are not always captured in the same way, the true spending total for each party is likely to be higher.
The figures also include campaign pages run by parties, such as pages set up to target rival political movements. They do not include wider UK-wide campaigns which may still have appeared in Welsh voters’ feeds.
Experts say paid online advertising gives parties greater control over who sees their message and when.
Dr Emma Connolly, from University College London’s department of political science, said political parties were making growing use of paid adverts because they allowed messages to be targeted more precisely by location and voter profile.
BBC Wales said its monitoring of fictional voter profiles had shown that political adverts were appearing alongside other political content, including misinformation from independent pages.
Welsh Labour declined to comment on its spending.
Plaid Cymru said social media was an important and cost-effective way of speaking directly to voters, particularly younger people who increasingly get their news online.
Reform UK Wales said only its party could stop another Labour and Plaid Cymru coalition and bring change to Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives said they had used social media and leaflets to promote their policies, including their pledge to get Wales working again.
