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The United Australia Party spent heavily on advertising before the election was called on Sunday, plunging $31.3 million into ads between August 1 and February 18 close to the $31.6 million it spent in 2019.

Last Thursday, Mr Palmer estimated he would spend $70 million on the UAPs advertising blitz, telling the National Press Club he expected to spend about $40 million between now and the election.

The spending will easily outstrip any investment by the Labor or Liberal Party, which spent about $10 million each on advertising during the 2019 federal election.

Chris Walton, managing director of independent media agency Nunn Media, which works with clients to plan and buy advertising space, said Mr Palmers spending raised questions about a distortion of the democratic process.

Is there a need to look at political funding of campaigns when there are some people out there with literally bottomless pockets of cash? he asked.

Mr Walton said the UAPs spend during the 2019 federal election was wildly ineffective, as it gave the Coalition an indirect benefit and left the Labor Party a loser.

Labors own internal review into why it lost the 2019 election found the ad campaign was not informed by a clear strategy, and most of Clive Palmers spending crowded out Labors advertising in broadcast, print and digital media.

According to data from Pathmatics which assesses ad spend across websites and social media platforms the UAP has spent an estimated $8.9 million on digital ads over the past 12 months. There were drastic spikes in October and at the start of the year, with the main investment on desktop video ads through Googles YouTube.

In the past 90 days, the UAP has spent $297,000 on ads across Facebook and Instagram, according to figures from Metas ad library, with $117,000 of that invested in the past 30 days and $44,700 in the past week.

The UAP has also spent more than $9 million on 141 ads across Google since November, with the most on YouTube. Googles transparency report shows some cost more than $100,000 each.

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Clive Palmer drowns out Labor and Liberals with advertising spending - The Australian Financial Review