Augusto Cury (Avante) appears in third place in the Quaest survey and invested R$ 116 thousand in boosting content on Meta platforms

Augusto Cury (Avante) appears in 3rd place in the Quaest survey released this Wednesday (2) — Photo: Marina Uezima/Agência O Dia/Estadão Conteúdo

Avante's presidential candidate, Augusto Cury, has already spent at least R$116,000 to boost his content on Meta platforms, such as Instagram, this year. The information is contained in a survey prepared by g1 based on data available in the company's advertising library.

🔍 Boosting content is the only type of paid electoral propaganda on the internet permitted by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Among the rules, the Electoral Court prohibits promoting negative content about opponents.

According to records, investment has grown as the election approaches. In the last 7 days alone, from August 25th to 31st, the candidate spent R$43,926 on advertisements. The boost also reflects his campaign strategy: getting a young audience to see his posts, as well as voters in the Southeast and Northeast.

Data from the last two Quaest polls, released on August 14 and September 2, show an increase by Cury in voting intentions. The candidate went from 2% to 10%.

Among the youngest, it went from 1% to 14%, its best performance in terms of age. Cury also grew up in different regions of the country. In the Northeast, it went from 2% to 11%; in the Southeast and South, from 2% to 10%; and, in the Central-West and North, from 3% to 7%.

According to Meta data, Cury also prioritized the promotion of a video about the first presidential debate, held on August 28th. Participating in the event, in addition to Cury, Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) and Renan Santos (Missão). Lula (PT) and Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) did not attend.

After the debate, Cury registered a significant increase in visibility on social media and in searches for his name. Between August 14 and 27, the candidate gained 1.8 million followers on social media, according to a survey by the Instituto Democracia em Xeque.

The values ​​available in Meta's advertising library are compatible with those reported by Cury to the TSE in his financial statements. The candidate declared an expense of R$50,000 on promoting campaign content on August 20. Between August 25th and 31st, Meta data indicates an expenditure of R$43,900 on the platform.

The accounting is available on the DivulgaCand portal, from the Electoral Court, and only considers transactions carried out after the official start of the campaign, on August 16th.

In the same period, between June 30 and August 31, President Lula (PT) spent R$1.1 million on promoting content. Flávio Bolsonaro's (PL) page appears without expenses registered in Meta's ad library.

g1 sought out Meta to confirm that the candidate had not made any paid boosts by August 31st of this year. In response, the company stated that it reinforces its commitment to information transparency, we make details of advertisements on platforms available in the Ad Library.

g1 also sought advice from Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign and there was no response until the report was published. The text will be updated if there is a response.

Cury's focus on young audiences

Based on the analysis of data available in Meta's ad library, g1 identified that the candidate targeted a younger audience when distributing the boost after the official start of his candidacy.

People between 18 and 24 years old accounted for around 36% of the estimated impressions, that is, the times the ads were shown, considering all the content broadcast since the beginning of the electoral campaign.

Of this total, 19.3% were exhibitions for women and 16.5% for men. Next, the audience aged 25 to 34 accounted for around 32% of impressions, with 16.6% among women and 15.7% among men.

Meta data shows that Cury increased its targeting of young audiences after the start of the campaign — Photo: arte/g1

The distribution is different from that observed in the pre-campaign period, when the 25 to 34 age group concentrated the largest share of impressions, with around 28%.

From the beginning of the electoral campaign, the reach among the 35 to 44 year old audience begins to drop. There were 7.6% women and 7.2% men, totaling 14.8% of estimated impressions. The same goes for the group aged 45 to 54: 4% were women and 4% men.

18 - 24 years old: 35.8% (was 21.3 in the pre-campaign period)

25 - 34 years old: 32.3% (was 28.4%)

35 - 44 years old: 14.8% (was 19.6%)

45 - 54 years old: 8% (was 13.9%)

55 - 64 years old: 5.4% (was 10.4%)

65+ years: 3.5% (was 6.3%)

In the older age groups, participation was lower. People aged 55 to 64 accounted for 7.7% of Cury's ad impressions, 5.3% among women and 2.4% among men. Among the public aged 65 and over, women also accounted for the largest share of impressions: 3.4%, compared to 1.3% among men, totaling 4.7%.

Advertisements target the Southeast and Northeast

Data from Meta's Ad Library shows a geographic change in the targeting of Augusto Cury's posts since the official start of the campaign. If the Southeast previously concentrated the largest share of impressions from sponsored posts (44.1%), the region lost more than half of this relative weight, falling to 19.7% after the start of the electoral race.

In the opposite direction, the Northeast, which already accounted for almost a third of the reach in the pre-campaign phase (31.1%), started to concentrate more than half of all impressions of the candidacy, reaching 54.6%.

Impressions of posts by Auguso Cury by region — Photo: arte/g1

Content with the most boost is cut from presidential debate

So far, the content that has received the biggest investment is a post that shows a clipping of Cury's participation in the first presidential debate, on Band. In the clipping, the candidate introduces himself, talking about his marriage, his academic history and classifies himself as the “most read psychiatrist in the world”.

During the video, Cury also makes an appeal to the country. He states that he wants to use “all” his “experience outside politics” and “call the best professionals” because “Brazil deserves to develop”. At the end of the cut, he looks at the camera and says: “if you think I deserve your vote, make a video of support, because breaking this bubble depends only on you”.

The caption also reinforces Cury's ideas about putting together a team. "A president doesn't need to be the best at everything. He needs to know how to bring together the best", he wrote. “Brazil will also not be rebuilt by a savior of the country, but by a competent, diverse team prepared to serve”, he continued. “It’s time to put this intelligence to work for the country.”

On the day of the debate, the candidate's participation was marked by back and forth: he opened a live broadcast on social media and, around 30 minutes before the start of the debate, announced that he would not participate due to the absence of Lula (PT) and Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). Afterwards, Cury joined the station and, shortly after, reversed his decision and participated in the debate.

Cury takes 3rd place in Quaest

Quaest research released on Wednesday (2) showed Augusto Cury in third place in the presidential race, with 10% of voting intentions. The survey was commissioned by the newspaper O Globo and Globo.

The Avante candidate was isolated in third and left behind Renan Santos (Missão), with 3%, and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) and Romeu Zema (Novo), who have 1% each, the same rate as Samara Martins (UP). The margin of error is 2 percentage points. Lula (PT) leads with 37%, and Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) has 29%.

The writer stood out among young people, where he obtained 14% of voting intentions. It was his best performance in the age group. The worst performance was among the oldest (60+), with 3%. In the range between 35 and 59 years old, 10%.

It reached 11% in the Northeast, 10% in the Southeast and South and 8% in the Central-West/North. It had 9% of voting intentions among women and 11% among men. In the division by level of education, it scored 15% among voters with higher education, 13% in secondary education and 4% in the group with primary education.

Felipe Nunes, director of Quaest and professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), says that the research shows that Cury "cannibalized" the voting intentions disputed by candidates who present themselves as an alternative to polarization. "In this first moment, we see a reorganization of this field. Cury attracts this vote."

Candidate has already denied using robots

The candidate had already stated that his movement on social media was organic. On an agenda at Sebrae in Curitiba on Monday (31), he denied having used robots or having hired influencers to artificially improve his engagement.

"Let them investigate," he said, when asked about other parties' suspicions about the growth in the proportions of his candidacy.

"We invested around R$50,000. There is no robot story. In fact, there are millions of people who believe in pacification and are tired of this insane polarization," he stated.

Oops!