ABC Vancouver vastly outspent rivals on social media ads in this election

Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver spent over $62,000 on social media ads before this year’s municipal elections — 100 times more than ABC’s main opponent, Pete Fry and the Green party of Vancouver, which spent less than $500 on social media ads in the same time period.

A Postmedia analysis of spending on political ads on Facebook, Instagram and other digital platforms owned by Meta, during the 90-period ending Oct. 11, found that ABC Vancouver vastly outspent rival parties when it came to social media advertising.

The Vancouver Liberals, led by Kareem Allam, came in second, spending about $25,000. Vote Vancouver, led by Rebecca Bligh, came in third, spending just over $21,000. COPE, TEAM, and OneCity spent between roughly $6,000 and $8,000 each.

“Our strategy on Meta has been mostly organic,” said Dominique Damian-Wallace of the Green party’s campaign team. “Paid ads also tend to get very short actual view times, often just a few seconds. Instead of boosting posts, we put money into staff and (get out the vote) effort, building a strong ground game and getting our supporters to the polls.”

She pointed to a video of Pete Fry on Davie Street, with over 100,000 views and “no paid push,” as an example of the power of the party’s organic reach.

Money spent on ads didn’t necessarily translate into meaningful engagement, Postmedia found.

A highly produced video posted to Ken Sim’s X account generated a bit more than 100 likes, retweets and other indicators of engagement.

Engagement with COPE councillor Sean Orr’s response to the ABC post was more than twice as high.

Online attention doesn’t necessarily translate into real-world votes.

ABC Vancouver had relatively little online ad presence in the 2022 election but won with a significant majority.

Kathleen Reid, of ABC Vancouver, said the party’s campaign budget was over $2.5 million, and “generally splits between staffing, (get out the vote) and advertising.”

Instead of spending money on social media ads, Damian-Wallace said the Green party was leaning into an organic, grassroots approach.

“The Greens have always been a grassroots party, and we take pride in getting an excellent return on every dollar. Historically, we’ve had the lowest dollars-per-vote ratio among municipal parties,” she said.