Labor ramps up YouTube advertising while Coalition retreats just before election: Adgile

Both major parties are making final strategic decisions their YouTube spend in the final week of campaigning for the 2025 Federal Election, according to data from Adgile.

The Coalition has pulled back its YouTube spend significantly - to focus on just a handful of seats. While Labor, which is up in most publicly available polls, has significantly increased its spend on YouTube, launching ads in some 40 different seats which they were not previously spending in.

The video measurement service noted that the main seats which both the Coalition and Labor are focusing their YouTube spend on in the final days are the marginal seats of Brisbane, Bullwinkel, Chisholm, McEwen and Pearce.

“While the spend on traditional TV has been locked for weeks, what is fascinating about YouTube is that we can see in real time changes to strategy by the major parties,” said Shaun Lohman, Managing Director of Adgile. “The final week of the campaign has seen the Liberal Party significantly reduce its overall spend on YouTube, and narrow focus on a number of marginal electorates that will be crucial in Saturday’s election result.

"The change in Coalition spend on YouTube is significant. After consistently spending more than Labor, the final week sees them trailing Labor by 30%, with most of their spend coming from state branch accounts, including Liberal Party Victoria, Nationals WA, and Country Liberal Party NT.

"Labor in contrast appears to be doubling down on YouTube and has suddenly started spending in more than 40 seats that had limited prior investment, including current Labor seats such as Jagajaga and Barton, but also in the Liberal held seats of Deakin, Menzies and Banks.

“To the outside observer it might appear that Labor, given the polling, is feeling confident and might be seeking to run up the score.”

Elsewhere, the Greens are still focusing on supporting their currently held seats that are under attack from the main parties, especially Brisbane, Griffith and Ryan. But Adgile is also seeing a lot of Greens advertising in the Labor held seats of Maribyrnong, Cooper, Fraser, Wills and McNamara as well as the Liberal held seat of Bonner.

“With the Greens, we’re seeing both a defensive and offensive strategy. They are seeking to hold the three seats they have in Brisbane but also reach into Labor heartland especially in inner Melbourne.”

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