YouTube dominates as the top platform for political ads: Report

Latest data from YouGov Surveys reveals that three-quarters of urban Indians (76%) claim they have seen some political advertisements around the 18^th General election, while 14% have not.

Among those who have seen at least one political ad, eight in ten (81%) claim to have noticed Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) ads. Nearly half (47%) have seen some ads by the Indian National Congress (INC) and only 12% have seen ads by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Interestingly, millennials were more likely than the other generations to say they had seen an ad by Congress (at 53%).

YouTube tops the list of places where people have seen a political ad (67%). TV is the second most common destination for viewing ads (58%), notably more among millennials (64%) and Baby Boomers (71%).

Instagram is the next popular place (43%), followed by WhatsApp (38%) and Meta (35%).

While Instagram appears to be a more common platform for political ads among GenZ (50% seen an ad on Instagram), Meta tends to be more popular among the millennials (42% millennials vs 29% Genz).

Not only are BJP’s ads most widely seen, but a majority of urban Indians also believe that the party’s ads are the most creative (58%), as compared to 28% who think so about Congress’ ads campaigns or less than one in ten (6%) who feel so about AAP’s ads.

When asked which party’s ads strike a chord with the viewers, BJP came on top (60%). Less than half of this number thinks Congress’ ads resonate with the viewers (at 27%). For AAP the number is the smallest (5%).

Furthermore, six in ten urban Indians said that BJP’s ads have influenced them to cast a vote for them or changed their mind about voting for another party (61%). Around half of this figure said so for Congress (27%), and one in ten (10%) for AAP.

Interestingly, resonance with Congress’ ads is higher among millennials and they were more likely than the other generations to say that they have been influenced by the party’s ad campaigns to vote for them (at 37%).