Harris spends 10 times as much as Trump on digital ad blitz

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Kamala Harris has spent 10 times as much as Donald Trump on digital advertising since becoming the Democrat’s presidential candidate, a sign the campaigns are diverging in their tactics to reach voters and small-dollar donors.

Harris has spent $57mn on Google and Meta ads since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, compared with just $5.6mn by Trump, according to a Financial Times analysis, as the Republican conserves cash and relies on traditional media to carry his message.

The Democratic candidate’s digital ad blitz is part of $139mn spent on the tech platforms by the Biden-Harris campaign since the start of the year, compared with $22.5mn from Trump and groups supporting his run.

The digital spending surge from Harris has in turn helped draw money into her campaign war chest for an election battle against Trump that is expected to be the costliest White House race ever. 

Recent polling has put Harris level or ahead of Trump in several of the swing states that will decide November’s election. She is also outspending her Republican rival in traditional advertising on TV and other media. 

Trump’s digital operation this year contrasts with his campaign in 2020, which had spent $91mn on online ads by this point in the year. All told, he spent $275mn on Facebook and Google adds during his failed campaign in 2020.

Trump’s spending gap between last cycle and this one has raised eyebrows among advertising experts who spoke with the FT.

“It just doesn’t seem like they’re playing a game that is leading towards success on election day,” said Lee Carosi Dunn, former Google GOP advertising director. “Why are you missing out on this revenue stream of small-dollar donors through digital advertising?”

Alphabet and Meta have been the main recipients of the campaigns’ online spending, giving candidates a presence on the former’s Google search pages and YouTube and the latter’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Digital advertising has become crucial to presidential candidates as they push their election messages, but is also important in soliciting donations.

The drop in digital ad spending by Trump dovetails with a fall in the share of his fundraising coming from small-dollar donations — amounts less than $200 — from 61 per cent in the 2020 election to 40 per cent in 2024.

Digital strategists said Trump’s lower digital spending reflected his reliance on so-called earned media — exposure through public appearances — as well as television ads and in-person organising.

Katie Harbath, a tech policy consultant and former political strategist and elections director at Facebook, said adverts on the platform had also lost some significance.

“Meta in particular has made [changes] deprioritising politics, and also now has fewer options for how you can microtarget the data,” Harbath said. “From what I’ve been hearing, Facebook ads are not performing as well for getting emails or donations.”

Trump’s legal fees have also soaked up about a sixth of his budget so far, giving him less to spend on advertising.

Trump campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment. Gary Coby, the digital director for Trump’s 2020 campaign, declined to comment.

Most of Harris’s digital ads are donation requests, although since August 9 her Facebook and Instagram accounts have run ads about abortion. Women make up an estimated 65 per cent of impressions on Harris’s accounts, compared with 46 per cent of Trump’s Meta audience.

Harris spokesperson Seth Schuster said her “campaign is tapping into its historic war chest to talk directly to voters where they are”.

Despite Harris’s spending on digital ads, traditional broadcast TV and radio spots still dominate campaign expenditures. Including money pledged while Biden was the Democratic candidate, the Harris campaign has committed $286mn for such ads. Much of it has been scheduled for October, as early voting begins in some battleground states weeks ahead of the election. Trump’s campaign has committed $187mn.

Harris is also outspending Trump — $56mn to $30mn — on digital streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and NBC’s Peacock, and connected TVs such as Roku and Samsung TV.

Disclosures by Elon Musk’s X show that Trump and the Republican party have spent $762,000 and $420,000, respectively, to advertise on the platform this year. The tech billionaire has endorsed Trump for the presidency and held an event on the platform with him this week.