US presidential election ad spend is already climbing: report

Less than a year out from the 2024 US presidential election, ad spend for the race has already hit $154 million, according to ad intelligence tracking company Vivvix CMAG.

As of early December, more than 127,000 presidential campaign ads had already aired, Vivvix reported. The spend was dominated by five PACs, with four of them representing Republican interests or candidates.

• The Donald Trump-aligned PAC, Make America Great Again, spent the most, dropping $20 million on approximately 10,300 ads on national cable and in early primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
• In second place was the Ron DeSantis-aligned PAC Never Back Down, which spent $16 million on more than 15,000 airings across national cable and network TV, as well as in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada.

According to Vivvix CMAG Director Mitchell West, PACs are leading spend since the election is still relatively far off.

“I think campaigns are still trying to raise money to launch really big advertising campaigns,” West said. “Maybe [they] don’t have as much money on hand as some super PACs fueled by some very rich people.”

History repeats itself?

Ad spend in the 2024 election is expected to be particularly massive and is on track to outpace prior presidential election years. Through mid-October this year, $89 million was spent on presidential election ads across more than 97,000 ad airings. According to Vivvix, in the same time period in 2015, ahead of the 2016 presidential election, only $40 million had been spent on ads across roughly 29,000 airings; in 2019, only $39 million had been spent on about 74,000 ads in the same timeframe.

Overall, Vivvix predicts that ad spending on the 2024 general election will surpass $11 billion.

As November draws closer, West said broadcast TV will likely attract considerable ad dollars, even though CTV streaming ads are gaining steam. He also expects to see increased investment as Republican candidates blitz Iowa ahead of the January caucus, and as President Joe Biden’s campaign may invest in battleground states to counter anemic approval ratings.

“[Biden’s] popularity isn’t that great right now,” West said. “If you look back at, say, Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection, there’s no way he was spending money this early.”

There may also be some pullbacks: Last month, Never Back Down canceled about $2.5 million in planned ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to AdImpact data cited by the New York Times.