The current election campaign is characterized by the onslaught - but on Facebook and Instagram the money flows like water. • Who is the politician who spent NIS 690,000 on promoting his page? • Which list leads to a huge gap in spending? • How much does Netanyahu's digital team invest? • A special project

• (From Benny Gantz's Facebook page)

הנוכחי The current election campaign is clearly characterized by party campaigns across Israel, but that does not mean that the parties have abandoned advertising on social networks. Data collected by "Israel Today" indicates that since August 2019, approximately NIS 24 million has been invested, in total, on political issues in advertising on Facebook platforms.

The analysis of the last 90 days indicates that the Likud did indeed get rid of the gas when it came to digital advertising, while blue and white continued to invest huge sums in advertising in New Media. According to the data, in the past three months, the most economically invested Facebook page is Yair Lapid, where Facebook paid no less than NIS 690,000 for the promotion of political posts. In the second place stands the page of Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz, with an investment of about NIS 470,000, and in the third place is the page of the chairman of Labor-Gesher-Meretz, Amir Peretz, with a sum of NIS 453,000, and only Fourth place - the Facebook page of Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, with an investment of about NIS 368,000.

Facebook states that they make this information accessible to all users, as part of the company's policy to make the topic of political ads more "transparent". You can find the data for yourself through the link: facebook.com/ads/library.

The party that has spent the most money on Facebook advertising is blue and white, a huge gap from the other lists. The party's chairman, Benny Gantz, has spent NIS 2,464,054 since August, only 109,000 of them in the past week. Number 2 on the list, Yair Lapid, has spent NIS 1,958,507 since August, of which 109,000 in the past week. If we add the rest of the party's Facebook pages : The Official Page (785,276 NIS), Moshe (Boogie) Ya'alon (534,608 NIS), and Gabi Ashkenazi (435,532 NIS) - a white-blue outlet spent no less than 6.2 million NIS on Facebook and Instagram promotions.

Likud spent nearly a third of that $ 2.4 million on the weight of the party's Facebook pages. Most of the money was dedicated to the popular Prime Minister's Facebook page, which has about 2.5 million followers, for which NIS 1.8 million has been invested since August.

In the work-bridge-Meretz list, they have invested a disproportionate amount compared to the other lists, given the size of the list: about NIS 1.6 million since last August. However, it should be noted that for some of the period under review, Meretz was dealing separately with the bridge work. The chairman of the list, Amir Peretz, spent about NIS 715,000 to promote Facebook posts, and the chairman of Meretz Nitzan Horowitz spent about 406,000.

Israel Beitano also did not spare Facebook advertising, with an absolute majority of the amount being devoted to Chairman Avigdor Lieberman's Facebook pages. Since August 2019, NIS 576,000 has been invested on his Facebook page in Hebrew, and about 170,000 on the Russian Facebook page. The party's Facebook itself in both languages ​​invested a total of about NIS 100,000.

The rest of the parties spend much less on Facebook and Instagram advertising. Right-wing chairman Naftali Bennett has spent about $ 38,000 since August, and Ayelet Shaked, who was the party's chairman in the previous round, spent about $ 75,000. Shas spent about 276,000 NIS on the page of Chairman Aryeh Deri, and a modest sum of NIS 28,000 was invested on Torah Judaism.