Political Ad Spending To Reach New High In 2020

The 2016 presidential election warranted $6.3 billion in political advertising, and the 2018 midterm congressional elections encouraged $8.7 billion in ad spend. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), political ad spending will near $10 billion in 2020.

Political Ad Spend Set To Increase In 2020

Because ad spend increases during presidential election years, 2020 was bound to be a significant year in terms of political ad spend.

Ad spend is projected to total $9.9 billion next year, and account for 2.2% of the total digital ad spend. In 2018, political ad spend grew $2 billion to $8.69 billion, amounting to roughly 2% of the total ad spending in the U.S.

Digital Campaigning Results In Significant Total Donation Amounts

Statista predicts that $2.8 billion, or 28%, of the $9.9 billion ad spend in 2020 will be digital. While 28% is lower than the overall average share for digital advertising in the U.S., digital political advertising is growing steadily.

Political campaigns seem to be focusing on digital campaigning and fundraising to encourage online donations because, though they’re individually small, these donations prove to be mighty. WSJ noted political campaigns often accrue generous totals from numerous small online donations especially as online donations are increasing in popularity. 

Politicians Also Benefit From Earned Media

For the 2016 election, Donald Trump spend $398 million compared to Hillary Clinton’s $798 million. Trump, who ultimately won the presidential race, greatly benefitted from earned media and the organic discussion of his campaign, much of which populated social media sites and online news sources. His free earned media was worth more than $5.9 billion in advertising. Meanwhile, Clinton’s free earned media amounted to $2.8 million.

Interested in learning more about presidential campaigns? Read how Obama Mapped A Course For Future Candidates.

The digital age is in full swing and political campaigns are leveraging digital advertising to reach and influence their ideal audiences.

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About the Author

Victoria Pallien is a Marketing Communications Writer at Digital Media Solutions (DMS), the fastest-growing independent digital performance marketing company. DMS helps its clients accelerate growth by deploying diversified and data-driven customer acquisition solutions that deliver scalable, sustainable and measurable marketing results. DMS performance marketing solutions connect the right consumers with the right offers at the right time to achieve the marketing objectives of our clients. DMS is continually innovating to provide new and emerging media and technology solutions that minimize waste and maximize results across the most competitive industries. Since its inception, DMS has demonstrated incredible year-over-year growth which has earned recognition on the Inc. 5000 list in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

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