The US 2024 Political Digital Ad Spending to Double in Share

Total US political ad spending will hit $12.32 billion in 2024, up nearly 29% from the prior presidential election in 2020, according to Insider Intelligence. And while traditional media still makes up the lion’s share of political ad spending, digital will make up a much larger percentage this election cycle.

Traditional ad spending will grow 7.9% (over 2020) to $8.86 billion. TV makes up nearly all of that, with $7.06 billion, up 7.5% over 2020. Print, radio, and other traditional media make up the rest.

“Actors across the broad spectrum of politics are bringing in more and more money via donations each year, with sites such as ActBlue and WinRed coordinating donations and allowing individual donors to discover and give money to a wider range of candidates and causes,” said Peter Newman, forecasting director at Insider Intelligence.

Digital ad spending this political cycle will spike a dramatic 156.0% over 2020 levels to reach $3.46 billion. That means digital will make up 28.1% of total political spending in 2024 versus 14.1% in 2020. A key driver of digital is connected TV (CTV) ad spending. The category will make up $1.56 billion, up a staggering 506.3% over 2020.

“Campaigns and issue advocacy groups are shifting more spending to digital channels in line with the wider changes to the contours of the ad market, while these spenders are also taking advantage of the significantly lower costs of digital to allow broader reach, albeit in a somewhat less impactful manner,” said Newman.

Google is one of the main digital destinations for political ad spending, with its political ad revenues set to surpass $553.2 million in 2024, up 215.1% from 2020, when campaigns spent $175.6 million. Google’s share of digital political ad spending has grown from 13.0% in 2020 to 16.0% this year, partly fueled by the growth of CTV, where some YouTube political ads get served. Political ad spending is a tiny part of Google’s overall business, making up just 0.7% of its total US revenues this year, although that’s higher than the 0.4% it took up in 2020.

Social network political ad spending is a small but also growing part of the digital bundle, with spending this year climbing to $605.0 million, 86.7% higher than in 2020. Meta’s platforms, mainly Facebook, make up the largest share of social media spending. Spending on Meta’s platforms will jump 86.1% in 2024, compared with $305.7 million in 2020, to reach $568.7 million.

In general, political spending on social channels will be hampered by a variety of factors. TikTok does not allow political advertising, and X (formerly Twitter) did not until late 2022. Even though social network political ad spending is growing by leaps and bounds, it’s actually still shrinking as a share of digital political ad spending, dropping from 40.0% in 2016 to 24.0% in 2020, and to 17.5% in 2024. The drop is just because CTV and other, nonsocial digital spending has grown even faster, but the share of total political is growing, with social spending rising from 3.4% in 2020 to 4.9% this year.

“Beyond political spending, social and other digital platforms will be a focal point for conversations around hot-button topics,” said VP of Content Paul Verna. “This means brands will have to be extra cautious about exposure to hate speech, deepfakes, and other forms of misinformation amplified by generative AI. This perfect storm of risk factors will make 2024 an especially challenging year for brand marketers.”