Gender Targeting in Political Ads | Auckland News

Political parties are deploying hyper-targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram, with National spending big on male-only campaigns—$21K on 92 ads reaching nearly 4 million men—while barely touching women, despite women voting for them more in the last election. Act ran 14 male-exclusive ads with over half a million views, skipping women entirely. The Greens flipped the script, targeting 13 of their 103 ads specifically at women, spending up to $5K. All parties dodge direct answers, citing broad reach or policy universality. National leads Meta ad spend at over $113K, followed by Greens and Act. Age-wise, Te Pāti Māori and Greens lean into younger voters, while Act connects with seniors. Meta’s AI is shifting from manual targeting to “creative diversification,” letting algorithms decide who responds best to which ad—reshaping political messaging for the future. Listen in comfort:Get a discount on a Soli Pillow: http://solipillow.com/discount/dnn. Advertise on DNN:[email protected] This is an automated, high-level news summary based on public reporting.Report issues to [email protected]. View sources & latest updates:https://sources.thednn.ai/036abf9dc81ae01d