Exclusive:Holyrood election: How Scotland's parties have spent £350,000 on digital battle
While some parties target parents online, others are focusing on interests in theatre and renewable power
Scotland’s main political parties have splurged close to £350,000 on digital advertising in the closing weeks of the Holyrood election campaign, with Scottish Labour narrowly outspending the SNP.
Anas Sarwar’s party, which has endured a series of dire poll results in recent weeks, has allocated some £146,321 from its election war chest to place adverts across Meta’s platforms.
However, the SNP has rapidly upscaled its digital campaign in recent weeks, spending £140,046 across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Both parties are using custom audiences to target specific demographics, as well as key constituency battlegrounds, with the SNP utilising what are known as ‘lookalike’ audiences on Meta’s networks to try and reach people similar to those it already appeals to.
The spending has jumped sharply as the election contest has intensified. A previous analysis by The Scotsman found that between 22 December 2025 and 21 March this year, Scottish Labour and the SNP had devoted £104,792 and £51,152 respectively.
The latest data shows that between 30 March and 28 April, Scottish Labour has continued to prioritise its spending via the Facebook and Instagram profiles of Mr Sarwar, which account for £86,777 of the total.
Those ads have heavily targeted voters in specific postcode areas, such as Morningside, Musselburgh, Cumbernauld and the East Renfrewshire village of Uplawmoor. They have also utilised what is known as ‘detailed’ targeting - a methodology designed to refine the audience via their interests and behaviour - with more than half of Mr Sarwar’s ads aimed at parents.
The main Scottish Labour Meta profiles ran £13,000 worth of adverts over the period, with individual candidates also pushing ads; after Mr Sarwar, the most has been spent on the Meta profiles of Martin Whitfield, the former MSP and MP standing in East Lothian (£1,889), Dr Oliver Thomas, the candidate in Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith (£1,870), and Ewan Macphee in Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley (£1,810).
The SNP’s Meta ad spending of £79,446 has leant heavily on refined targeting, with the party providing the tech giant with custom audience data, which is then mapped to Meta profiles in an attempt to win key votes; over three quarters of its ads on Facebook and Instagram has used these custom audiences.
It, too, has aimed ads at key constituencies, with postcode targeting employed across the likes of Hamilton, Harris, Paisley, and Partick in Glasgow. The majority of its spending - some £50,027 - has been funnelled via the main SNP profiles, although it has also channelled ads via candidate pages, including those of John Swinney (£3,628), Martyn Day (£3,726), and Màiri McAllan (£2,326) The SNP has also spent significantly on Google ads, primarily YouTube, with some £60,600 going on 29 ads.
Of the remaining parties, the Scottish Greens spent the most, with £22,349 and £2,250 going on Meta and Google ads respectively. It too drew on postcode targeting, but also used the most detailed campaign of any party, reaching out to Facebook and Instagram users with interests as diverse as theatre, feminist philosophy, animal welfare, solar power, and shelter dogs.
The Scottish Conservatives spent £16,376 targeting Scottish voters on Meta, followed by the Scottish Lib Dems (£12,621) and Reform UK (£7,564).
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