The two-year Building our Future campaign, which aimed to spread awareness of a $100 billion-dollar federal government infrastructure plan over the next decade, was missing key documentation demonstrating its effectiveness and value for money.

In a probe on government advertising effectiveness, published Thursday evening, the Australian National Audit Office also revealed the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications didn't negotiate for lower costs despite some public relations services being delivered too late to be used, or not being delivered at all.

About $1.4 million of the overall cost was spent on public relations activities, the report found.

Then-secretary Dr Steven Kennedy was given limited information on the campaign's public relations activities and the audit office determined there was no documented assessment of how it complied with government advertising guidelines.

Campaign material within the first two waves was deemed as objective but a later third wave was shown to be misleading.

Five examples highlighted from the third wave showed advertising materials failed to show relevant state or territory involvement and funding in major projects.

A radio advertisement broadcast in Brisbane about the construction of two new busways failed to mention the Queensland government's involvement, despite the federal government's funding contribution only representing 24 per cent of the project.

Another press advertising placement in the ACT spruiking the federal government's involvement in an upgrade on Gundaroo Drive made no mention of the territory government, despite its contribution reaching 45.9 per cent.

Infrastructure officials defended the omissions as being due to space requirements within the material.

"The acknowledgement of state and territory partners was removed during the refinement stage to allow enough space for campaign messaging/creative elements and to ensure the best possible message cut-through," the department responded to the audit office.

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While the audit office found the advertising materials were free of political content, the department did consider screening a pre-recorded video message from then-infrastructure minister Michael McCormack at the start of its movie roadshow to promote the investment plans.

Concerns were raised by the Finance Department, which responded it could not support the "problematic" plans.

"Further consideration should be given to whether conducting these events, at all, will result in a net benefit for the campaign when factoring in potential criticism of the approach, which could detract from the campaign's ability to meet its communications objectives," a member of Finance advised the Infrastructure Department.

While the cinema roadshow events went ahead, the pre-recorded message from Mr McCormack was not shown.

It cost a total of $353,730 for six events across Queensland, NSW and Victoria, bringing in a total of 137 attendees.

One event in Ballarat in March 2019 had one attendee.

Four of the seven recommendations delivered by the audit office were targeted at the Infrastructure department with a focus on accuracy of government funding involvement, evaluation of a campaign's value for money and matching outcomes to campaign objectives.

Infrastructure agreed to the recommendation, admitting "there [were] learnings to be made" from the campaign and that it was committed to continuous improvement.

The audit office also examined campaigns within the Treasury and Social Services department but found they had largely complied with the rules.

Compliance with set campaign guidelines and assessments for value for money were highlighted as areas all the departments could improve on.

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