Written by Olivia Wodogaza
As the country prepares for a pivotal Presidential election this November, ad spending is already ramping up for what promises to be this year's most expensive election. So far, $716M worth of ads has already aired for the Presidential race. By this point in 2020, the Presidential race had seen $1.4B worth of ads. This difference is largely fueled by a more competitive and expensive non-incumbent Presidential primary in 2020 compared to 2024.
Despite Republicans having a vastly more expensive primary than Democrats earlier this cycle, Democratic advertisers have begun to catch up. Democrats have aired $320M worth of Presidential ads so far, compared to $385M for Republicans. Since Super Tuesday, Republican spending has stayed somewhat consistent, ranging between $7M-25M each month, while Democratic advertisers have aired an average of $48M a month, peaking at $116M in June.
Things looked fairly different in 2020. Democrats took an early lead in monthly Presidential spending that lasted until the end of April due to the party’s competitive primary contests. By April 8th, 2020, the day in which Joe Biden’s last major primary opponent dropped out, Democrats had spent $1.1B while Republicans were at $71 million. Republican advertisers never made up this overall deficit, with Republicans trailing Democratic advertisers by $1.4B come the end of the election. Between April 8th and election day, Democratic advertisers spent $1.2B compared to $778M from Republicans.
One similarity between Presidential spending in 2020 and 2024 is the non-incumbent party’s vast advantage in Presidential primary spending. The discrepancy between non-incumbent vs. incumbent spending between the parties was far larger in 2020 than it was this year, particularly in the month of February. In February 2020, Democrats spent $368 million while Republicans only spent $17 million.
To this point in 2020, Democratic advertisers targeting the Presidential election spent $796M more than Republicans have to date in 2024. This is largely driven by two factors. First, the 2020 Democratic primary was initially more competitive than the 2024 Republican primary. The 2020 Democratic primary saw 100 advertisers spend between January 2020 to March 2020, including 15 different candidates and 85 outside groups. Comparatively, the 2024 Republican Presidential primary saw spending from only 35 advertisers between January 2024 to March 2024, with only seven candidates placing ads. After this year’s Republican primary in New Hampshire (1/24), only two Republican candidates aired TV ads. After the New Hampshire Democratic primary in 2020 (2/11), nine Democratic candidates were still airing TV ads. Secondly, the self-funded campaigns of millionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg added an additional $860M to the total ad spending expenditure of the 2020 Democratic primary. Despite both men dropping out of the race by March, their campaigns combined to make up more than a quarter of all 2020 Presidential ad expenditures. In comparison, the advertiser with the highest spending during the 2024 Republican primary was Nikki Haley’s Stand for America Fund, which spent $64.5M.
As the Republican National Convention wraps up and the Democratic National Convention begins in a month, Presidential primaries are officially wrapping up. Presidential general elections have already seen $227M worth of future reservations in key battleground states: PA ($91.0M), MI ($39.8M), GA ($29.9), WI ($28.6M), AZ ($23.1M), NV ($5.8M) and NC ($5.2M). AdImpact will continue to monitor Presidential ad spending. For continued updates, follow us on X.
