Understanding the communicative strategies used in online political advertising and how the public views them

Concerns about online political advertising often focus on the techniques used to engage the intended audience. This article assesses the communicative strategies used in online political advertising and their reception by the public by analysing 2272 Facebook ads during the 2019 UK general election. By examining the prominence, tone, and source of six communicative strategies, we find that different communicative strategies are not used to the same extent. While positive tones are predominantly used by all actors, negative tones are more prevalent in several strategies, especially when mobilised by satellite campaign groups. Moreover, ads with negative strategies are deemed less acceptable compared to those employing targeting or positive strategies. However, when negative and positive strategies are combined, adverts can be deemed more acceptable. This study contributes new empirical evidence regarding the communicative strategies deployed in online political ads and offers insights for campaigners about public perceptions.