Just two per cent of voters are expected to pick billionaire mining businessman Clive Palmer's new Trumpet of Patriots party as their first choice - but it's spent nearly $5 million on online election advertising in the past month alone.
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With just days to go until the May 3 federal poll, ACM - the publisher of this masthead - has analysed spending on political and social issues across Facebook, Instagram and Google platforms.
On Google, which includes YouTube videos, the Trumpet of Patriots is the splashing the most cash - $4.27 million between March 27 and April 25.
That's nearly 30 per cent of total spending on political and social issues across Australia over the period through the digital behemoth, which also pushes ads onto websites.
The party, established just before the election with a promise to parrot US President Donald Trump-style policies, also stumped up $624,000 over 30 days on Facebook and Instagram ads, both owned by tech giant Meta.
Despite Trumpet of Patriots' big financial commitment, just two per cent of Australian voters are expected to give their first preference to the party, according to the latest YouGov polling.
Do ads mean votes?
Palmer famously spent more than $110 million on getting a single Senate candidate elected in the 2022 election under the United Australia Party banner.
His Trumpet political advertisements in the 2025 campaign have already proved controversial, including on the front pages of regional and metropolitan newspapers.
These have pushed anti-immigration, anti-welcome to country, and anti-gender diversity messages.
$5.5m a pop for the major parties
The Labor party, with its various national and state branches, has spent about $3.9 million through Google in the past month, while the Coalition parties' investment totalled about $3.4 million.
On Facebook and Instagram, the Liberals and Nationals were the biggest spenders overall at slightly over $2 million in the 30 days to April 25.
Labor was next at roughly $1.6 million followed by right wing lobby group Advance with an almost $700,000 total.
Climate 200, which is helping fund the campaigns of 35 independent candidates around the country, had spent almost $600,000 on Meta over the same period.
Across Meta and Google platforms a total of about $29.45 million was expended on social and political advertising in Australia between March 27 and April 25.
Labor and the coalition parties spent about $5.5 million each over 30 days across all platforms analysed.
