A WA parliamentary question regarding the Electoral Commission's use of Facebook advertising, including costs, success measurement, benefits, and enrolment impact. The Minister provides details on expenditure, measurement methods, and the difficulty in directly attributing enrolments to Facebook advertising.

AnsweredQoN 660Legislative Council
Asked
16 June 2015
Portfolio
Electoral Affairs

QuestionView source ↗

WESTERN
AUSTRALIAN ELECTORAL COMMISSION — FACEBOOK ADVERTISING
660. Hon KATE DOUST to the
Minister for Electoral Affairs:
I refer to the Western Australian Electoral Commission's
recent Facebook advertisements.
(1) How much has the commission spent on Facebook
advertising?
(2) How does the commission measure the level of success from
Facebook advertising?
(3) What has been the total benefit of Facebook advertising
for the commission?
(4) How many enrolments has the
Facebook advertising produced to date?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the
question.
(1) Approximately
$18 000 has been spent to date on Facebook advertising in respect of the
distribution of electoral boundaries. Facebook presence for other
election-related purposes is at no cost, using internal resources only.
(2) The level
of success is measured by reference to the number of Facebook users and views
reached by the various posts.
(3) The
benefit has been raising electoral awareness and disseminating information. It
is useful for targeting segments of the community who are infrequent users of
more traditional advertising mediums.
(4) It is very
difficult to ascertain how many enrolments are derived specifically from any
one form of advertising, including Facebook.

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