Harris-Walz Announce Largest Digital Ad Buy In Presidential History

CHICAGO, August 19, 2024 – The Harris-Walz campaign announced over the weekend the largest digital ad buy in presidential campaign history, reflecting a strategic adaptation to the growing dominance of streaming and social media channels.

The campaign placed more than $200 million in digital ad reservations on streaming platforms including Hulu, Roku, YouTube, and audio platforms Spotify and Pandora, ahead of the Democratic National Convention this week. 

“We believe we are well on pace to spend more on digital persuasion media than any political organization ever,” Quentin Fulks and Rob Flaherty, deputy campaign managers, wrote in a memo on Saturday. This is part of a broader $370 million plan that covers both digital and television ads to run from Labor Day to Election Day.

The Harris-Walz campaign's aggressive digital focus marked a shift in approach to reach voters through non-traditional media channels. 

The campaign has already spent $57 million on Google and Meta ads since President Joe Biden exited the race in late July, vastly outpacing former President Donald Trump’s $5.6 million expenditure on digital ads during the same period, according to a Financial Times analysis.

Trump’s digital ad strategy this year sharply diverged with his campaign in 2020, which “spent $91 million on online ads by this point in the year. All told, he spent $275 million on Facebook and Google ads during his failed campaign in 2020,” reports the FT.

The Harris-Walz campaign is also outspending Trump in traditional media, committing $286 million for TV and radio ads, when including money pledged while Biden was the Democratic candidate, compared to Trump's $187 million.

This aggressive spending strategy reflects a general rise in ad expenditure, with $247 million already committed by both campaigns and their allies for August alone, a 19% increase from the same period in 2020.

While the Harris-Walz campaign's pursued a bold digital strategy, the Trump campaign and its allies appeared to be pursuing more traditional mediums. The Trump-aligned Preserve America PAC, significantly funded by Las Vegas Sands Corp. shareholder Miriam Adelson, is set to surpass its $100 million ad expenditure from 2020.