2024-08-18 21:45:15
Republicans and Democrats are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising. One state is particularly contested.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s campaign staff never tire of collecting donations for the presidential campaigns. A large part of the money is being spent on advertising: on the one hand on commercials, on the other hand on a massive scale on digital channels. And here, at least in terms of spending, Harris is ahead.
According to a report in the Financial Times, she is said to have invested ten times more in digital advertising than Trump since becoming the Democratic candidate. The incumbent vice president’s team is said to have spent $57 million on Google and Facebook’s parent company Meta, while Trump spent just $5.6 million there. She also quickly expanded her presence on TikTok, and now has 4.5 million followers there. Trump, who has been on the platform since June, already has 10 million.
According to the report, the Democratic Party’s digital advertising attack is now based on the amount of $139 million that the Biden-Harris campaign has spent on tech platforms since the beginning of the year. Trump and his allies have only invested $22.5 million. For Harris, the expenditure is also paying off financially: she can reach supporters via digital channels, who in turn can send donations. It is mainly small donors who are filling the Democrats’ coffers.
The Trump team seems to be relying more on its own network “Truth Social” and traditional TV advertising. A former Republican adviser at Google is surprised. “It just doesn’t look like they’re playing a game that will lead to success on election day,” said Lee Carosi Dunn, a former Republican advertising director at Google. “Why are they missing out on this source of income from small donors through digital advertising?” While Trump received about 60 percent of income from small donors in his 2020 campaign, that number has dropped to 40 percent.
One US state is currently being particularly hotly contested when it comes to advertising spending. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, of the 110 million US dollars that the Harris campaign and its allies have invested in advertising in the swing states, the particularly contested states, 21 million went to Pennsylvania. Her opponents Donald Trump and his supporters spent 20.9 million dollars. The state is also so important because 19 electors will be sent from here – more than from all other swing states.
According to the WSJ, Trump’s supporters have announced that they will spend $100 million on advertising on Labor Day. The Harris campaign team announced that they will invest $90 million in ads and commercials by the end of August. Commercials that run in the morning and evening are particularly popular.
According to statistics, the Democrats’ commercials are particularly popular between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., while the Trump campaign focuses on the times between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. and midnight. A WSJ analysis, based on an analysis by the AdImpact Institute between July 22 and August 12, found that the majority of Harris’s supporter commercials have a more positive tone, while the Trump camp focuses on negative statements.
Despite Harris’s high spending on digital advertising, traditional TV and radio spots continue to dominate campaign spending. Including money already budgeted when Biden was the Democratic nominee, the Harris campaign has allocated $286 million for such spots. Much of that is earmarked for October, as early voting begins weeks before the election in some battleground states. Trump’s campaign has budgeted $187 million.