At Bigdatr, we’re tracking competing digital strategies deployed across Australia’s marginal seats leading up to the 2025 federal election. Our data reveals significant shifts in how parties are allocating resources compared to previous elections. What follows is our analysis of the current campaign landscape based on our real-time advertising intelligence.
While voters in different electorates receive tailored content, parties maintain consistent core narratives across all channels—from television to social media feeds.
This mirrors best practices in multi-channel marketing: localised execution supporting global, or in this case, national centralised messaging.
Marginal Seat Targeting—The Australian Labor Party’s targeted Facebook campaigns in Tasmania’s vulnerable electorates of Bass and Lyons exemplify strategic resource allocation at work. AEC data confirms these regions require less than a 2% swing to change outcomes.
The targeting methodology involves tailored voter experiences based on precise geographic locations and demographic data points. Behind every ad you see is a deliberate strategy designed to win your vote specifically. While content varies between electorates, our platform has detected consistent core narratives maintained across all channels.
Our platform has identified similar patterns in Victoria. Labor is running defensive digital campaigns across their notionally held seats including Chisholm, McEwen, Holt, Hawke, and Bruce. Additionally, concentrated spending appears in the highly contested Dunkley and Corangamite electorates. All these seats fall below 10% swing thresholds.
Our data tracking of media buying patterns reveals a significant pivot in allocation strategy between election cycles:
Timing strategies also reveal different approaches—South Australian Liberals front-loaded 63% of their budget ($900,000) in March, while Labor positioned only 42% of their comparable budget ($810,000) in the same period, reserving 58% closer to the May election date.
Recent state elections in Western Australia and Queensland have become testing grounds for these evolving strategies, with both major parties demonstrating remarkable adaptability. Labor’s success in Western Australia and the Liberal Party’s strategic pivots in Queensland offer a preview of what’s to come. As parties craft their advertising debates for the upcoming federal election, an important question remains: what lessons have they drawn from their recent state election experiences?
UPDATE: Since writing this article, recent creatives captured by Bigdatr:
- Albanese Government is advertising through Affordable Medicines Now
- Australian Unions’ direct challenges to Peter Dutton
- Advance Australia’s campaign against Lidia Thorpe
- Liberals are directing ads to their new website highlighting Labor’s weaknesses
- The Australian Greens‘ positioning against bipartisan governance
- Bullwinkel is Labor’s next priority on digital channels
This analysis was prepared using Bigdatr’s competitor intelligence platform, which transforms near real-time advertising data into actionable marketing insights. For a detailed examination of state-level campaign strategies, read the complete Competitor Intelligence report on Regional Political Campaign Advertising.
