After Harris Entered, Democrats Outspent Republicans on Presidential Ads by $460 Million

While the outcome of the U.S. presidential election remains uncertain, one thing is clear: Since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race in late July, Democrats have spent nearly $460 million more advertising their nominee than Republicans have promoting former President Donald Trump. Data from advertising intelligence and analytics firm AdImpact shows that between July 22 and Nov. 1, the Harris campaign dedicated $646.3 million to paid media, while outside Democratic groups spent $726.1 million. The Trump campaign and outside Republican groups, meanwhile, invested a combined $913.9 million in presidential advertising. Additional figures from AdImpact reveal that around 18% of all presidential ad spend, or about $420 million, went to digital channels during this period. Democrats outspent Republicans on Facebook, Google, and Snapchat, while Republicans directed more dollars to X than their opponents. Although Democrats have invested more into presidential advertising overall, both campaigns have aired a similar number of commercials on local linear television where it counts: the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And Democrats and Republicans alike have turned up the frequency, running nearly 50,000 spots each during the week ending Nov. 2, according to XR Extreme Reach, a global technology platform that integrates data across creative, media, and production. “In the final week, volume has spiked with both parties,” said Kevin O’Reilly, chief strategy officer at XR Extreme Reach. Do political ads work? A recent survey suggests that political ads may not be doing as much as the parties and their campaigns hope. Most U.S. adults, for instance, think there are too many political ads on TV during presidential campaigns. A plurality also dislike watching political ads even more than nonpolitical ads. Regardless of what voters say in polls, experts argue that campaigns invest so much money into advertising for good reason. "Campaigns spend so much on political ads because they in fact do work, according to the only data that matters—their own," said Rob Shepardson, co-founder of agency SS+K and veteran political marketing strategist who has worked on past Democratic campaigns, including Barack Obama’s presidential runs in 2008 and 2012. In terms of tone, both Democrats and Republicans in the 2024 race have gone on the attack in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Democrats held a positive sentiment score throughout August, according to XR Extreme Reach’s model designed to evaluate the content of a commercial. The party, however, began pushing into negative territory in September and has remained their since. Republicans, on the other hand, have maintained negative messaging throughout the final months. This tends to happen in political advertising. In the film Political Advertisement 1952-2024, which plays nearly 100 minutes of back-to-back presidential ads from Dwight Eisenhower to George H. W. Bush to Donald Trump, scare tactics appear to grow more prevalent from decade to decade. "Fear is now, by and large, the motivation in almost all the spots," said Marshall Reese, one of the filmmakers behind Political Advertisement, which recently screened at The Cooper Union in New York. Shepardson noted that directing the right message at the right person can make the difference between winning and losing a razor-thin race, especially in the final days of a campaign when, as he put it, "low-information, infrequent voters could tip the balance."

Politics

After Harris Entered, Democrats Outspent Republicans on Presidential Ads by $460 Million

Both parties boosted the volume of TV spots in battleground states as the race comes to a close

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