Your marketing budget needs to adjust as the presidential election cycle nears— Costs are already going up in key primary and “swing” states, and just as bad response rates are going down because of so much advertising clutter and distraction.

Here are 10 Things You Should Know…

1) The election will see increases in political ad buys between now and December

Then there will be a pause in political marketing until Jan 1st .

From Jan. 1st to March 5th (Super Tues.) expect an insane amount of money being spent, hurting commercial marketing campaigns—especially in states where elections will be going on (Click HERE to see my article: Surprising Political Ad Spends: How the Midterm Elections Are Creating Record Breaking Ad Spends That Are Impacting You and Your Future).

2) Latest political ad spend

$834 million has already been spent in the first three quarters of 2023 going into the 2024 election cycle. This is a 75% increase in ad spending over the 2020 election.

3) The Presidential race

Spending has seen a combined total of $217 million, with Republican spending making up over 82.5% of the total.

The rest of the money is from US Senate campaigns, state elections, Congressional elections, and local elections.

4) President Biden

President Biden has spent more than most Republican primary contenders despite no serious Democrat opposition.

So far, he’s spent over $5.1 million, concentrating ads in swing states– Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He’s also added North Carolina (Click HERE to see my article: Behind the Curtain: Biden /DNC’s Odd New $25 million Marketing Campaign)

Biden even ran commercials during the last GOP debate.

5) MAGA Inc is a PAC paying ads for Trump’s Reelection

Trump has spent $24.3 million—80% of the PAC’s spending has gone to national TV ads.

From a marketing campaign perspective, he’s ignoring digital marketing, which is a mistake.

6) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

DeSantis’ Never Back Down PAC has spent $37.4 million on ads to date.

Most of his money has been targeted to Iowa.

Iowa is the first state that chooses its preference for president.

7) Sen. Tim Scott

Scott has spent $18.5 million. He has over $33 million reserved for the upcoming months.

8) Nikkie Haley’s PAC, SFA Fund

Haley’s fund has spent $14.1 million on ads.

She’s focused mainly on Iowa and New Hampshire, the second primary state.

Haley’s PAC is the 5th biggest advertiser in the presidential race.

9) Vivek Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy’s PAC is called American Exceptionalism. It’s spent over $4 million on ads.

His ads are more effective than the other candidates because over half of his ads have gone to digital ads on Google and Facebook, which is smart marketing on his part. It’s more targeted.

10) Iowa is the first primary

The state of Iowa itself has seen $71.9 million dollars spent on the presidential primary race.

New Hampshire, which holds the second primary, has seen close to $44 million.

Avoid the primary states and the “swing” states to maximize your ad spend and maintain your ROI.

Note: Need Help on how best to strategize? Or need help in political advertising?

Contact Michael Oppenheimer by phone at 615-933-4647 or by email at [email protected].