Is this really the TikTok general election?

The real battle is being played out on Facebook and YouTube, he argues, where the main parties are ramping up their spending as the campaign enters its final stretch.

The Conservatives are spending most of their budget on Facebook, where they can use targeting tools to get their message out to core, older voters across the UK.

Labour is also spending big on Facebook but unlike the Tories they are pumping money into YouTube and Google ads as well, targeting them at specific towns and cities.

Some platforms, such as X, formerly known as Twitter, do not publish spending records so it’s difficult to get the full picture.

But according to Who Targets Me’s analysis, external of available social media ad libraries, £4.2m has been spent on election ads on Meta, which includes Facebook and Instagram, in the first month of the campaign.

Meta ad spending doubled between 16 and 22 June, largely thanks to a significant increase in Tory spending, although they remain slightly behind Labour.

Reform has also ramped up its Meta spending in the past week and started pouring money into Facebook ads in Nigel Farage’s name.

Like the Green Party, Reform is concentrating its resources on far fewer seats than the bigger parties.

Since the election was called the Greens have spent more than £39,000 on Meta adverts for their co-leader Carla Denyer in Bristol Central, but all the adverts began their run before the beginning of the regulated election spending period on 30 May.

By contrast, her co-leader Adam Ramsay spent £932 on Meta ads in the same period.

In Scotland, the SNP has largely eschewed TikTok and is being outspent by Scottish Labour on Meta.

But it is a very different political landscape. One of the SNP’s core messages is “rejoin the EU” – something that you would not hear from any party south of the border.

Scottish Conservatives’ advertising has focused a great deal on highlighting seats where they claim only they can beat the SNP.

In Wales, since the start of campaigning, Labour have spent almost as much on the softer tone of adverts of their Wales’ Future brand (over £74,000) as with Welsh Labour (over £80,000) on Meta platforms.

These sums are significantly more than their rivals – neither Plaid Cymru or Welsh Conservatives has spent more than £5,000 on their main accounts. Plaid’s advertising on Meta platforms has yet to exceed £1,000 for any single candidate.