It has been clear since Super Tuesday that Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee for president. With this in mind, we have watched how Biden and Trump both utilize direct response digital advertising intelligence to reach their base and build strong fundraising lists.
Insights Agency Data
As in 2016, Trump has leveraged a robust digital strategy that uses a variety of creatives and microtargeting to drive different aspects of his base into donating to his reelection campaign. His strong fundraising allows him to regularly outspend his opponents on digital and continue pulling in donations. Biden capitalized on his Super Tuesday success to reach out to potential donors through digital ads. His fundraising-focused digital spending increased steadily through mid-April. But since then, Trump has steadily expanded his lead. The below graph shows the direct response digital spending from each candidate since Super Tuesday.
Another area where Trump outdoes his democratic opponent is using a large variety of creative meant to micro-target different portions of is base. He often has different members of the Trump family appear in videos asking for donations, celebrating family birthdays, and commenting on political/policy discussions.
Biden on the other hand uses significantly fewer variations of creative and often runs traditional persuasion ads that you have likely seen on tv. He spends a similar amount of money as Trump, but he typically produces about 10 times fewer unique creatives and therefore cannot micro target as effectively.
