Exclusive: Biden Vastly Outspending Trump On Digital Ads

President Joe Biden's campaign is vastly outspending Donald Trump's campaign on digital advertising in the 2024 election, allowing Biden to reach more voters with targeted social media messaging in key battleground states, a Newsweek analysis shows.

The Biden campaign has spent $5.6 million in advertising with Facebook and Instagram's parent company Meta in the last 90 days, from Dec. 18, 2023 through March 17, according to a review of Meta's publicly available advertising data.

During that same period, the Trump campaign spent just $846,992 with them.

Biden is outspending Trump by an even wider margin on advertising with Alphabet Inc.'s Google, which owns YouTube. The president's reelection campaign has spent $3.71 million with Google on digital advertising since last August, including $1.2 million this month alone. In the last 90 days, the campaign has run 818 ads with Google.

The Trump campaign has only spent $1,400 on four Google ads during the same period.

The massive digital advertising gap, which hasn't been previously reported, highlights different strategies by the Biden and Trump campaigns. Both candidates won enough delegates earlier this month to clinch their party's nominations, setting up a likely rematch this fall.

"The Biden campaign is clearly investing in a comprehensive digital strategy to win in November, while the Trump campaign seems to be barely spending at all beyond the basics of winning the primary and small-dollar donor outreach," said Josh Klemons, the founder of Reverbal Communications, a social media and digital strategy firm.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not respond to a Newsweek request for comment.

"Our campaign is capitalizing on our massive fundraising advantage – driven by grassroots support from around the country – where it counts the most: reaching voters where they are, early and often – unlike Donald Trump, whose cash-strapped basement campaign is focused on promoting a toxic agenda of slashing Social Security and banning abortion nationwide while doing nothing to appeal to the voters who will decide this election," Biden campaign senior spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement to Newsweek.

Biden did not face a strong primary challenge, allowing his campaign to focus its digital strategy on voters in swing states ahead of the general election in November.

Since late December, 86 percent of the Biden campaign's Facebook and Instagram ads have run nationally, reaching voters across the country. But the campaign has also run single-state ads that only appear in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, four battlegrounds that are expected to help determine the outcome of the race because of the Electoral College system that decides who becomes president.

The president's reelection campaign has also run ads on social platforms owned by Meta in more than four dozen different zip codes, as well as citywide ads targeting voters in places like Phoenix, Atlanta and Philadelphia — major cities that will play a key role in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The campaign has also run targeted ads in small towns in states such as Wisconsin and cities such as Dearborn, Michigan, where Biden faces a backlash from Arab and Muslim American voters over his support for Israel in its war with Hamas.

Fundraising Advantage

Biden's digital ad blitz reflects a broader fundraising advantage over Trump. The president and Democrats raised $53 million in February, and the Biden campaign and its affiliated committees this month reported having $155 million in cash-on-hand for the election.

Trump and his joint fundraising committee brought in $20 million last month and the campaign said it had had $41.9 million in cash.

In contrast to Biden, the Trump campaign's digital advertising in the past three months has focused on early primary states that the former president needed to win to stave off several high-profile Republican challengers. The campaign so far has run 30 percent of its digital ads with Meta in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Approximately 57 percent of Trump campaign's digital ads on Meta-owned platforms have run nationwide, data from the social media giant shows. The campaign has also run targeted digital ads in cities and towns across the country, in places such as Dayton, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia.

But the campaign has yet to run state-specific ads in top general election battleground states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Apart from the number of ads and total digital spending there are also big differences in Biden and Trump's messages on social media. Biden's digital ads have focused on persuading voters to back him in November, while Trump's have been largely focused on generating donations or urging supporters to attend his campaign rallies.

"Biden's cash advantage gives him the luxury to focus on persuasion, and now is a good time to do it," said a Republican strategist who asked not to be named to offer a candid assessment of both campaigns.

The Trump campaign's digital advertising is not targeting voters in the six to eight states that matter, the source added.

In recent weeks, for example, the Biden campaign has run ads on Google directing voters to the campaign website to learn about the president's economic policies and student loan forgiveness program, among other issues. Biden also appears in a video ad highlighting his administration's efforts to lower drug costs and protect access to abortion services.

"Donald Trump is obsessed with revenge. I'm focused on the future," Biden says in the opening line of the ad.

Of the four ads the 2024 Trump campaign ran on Google since last August, three urged backers to buy tickets to campaign events. The other ad, a video of Trump speaking at a campaign rally, ran for three days last fall from Oct. 24-26.

"Together we will complete the mission, we will cross the finish line, we will evict crooked Joe Biden from the White House," Trump says in the ad.

Both candidates have other ways to reach voters besides placing ads with some of the largest social media companies.

The Biden campaign also runs television ads and the president has appeared on other social media platforms such as TikTok, despite Biden's support for a bill in Congress that would ban the Chinese-owned video sharing app in the U.S.

Trump has also run TV ads and speaks out frequently on Truth Social, a company he founded after leaving office. Trump also receives free, round-the-clock media coverage due to his 2024 campaign and legal problems.

Biden trails Trump in some national and battleground state polls, has low approval numbers and faces questions about his age. His digital advertising operation alone won't play a pivotal role in the election, the Republican strategist argued.

"At the end of the day, if Biden has twice as many digital ads than Trump, I don't think we can say that prevents Trump from winning," the GOP source said.

Still, Biden's early advantage has left Trump playing catchup, Klemons, the social media and digital consultant said. "It's surprising to see how far behind [on digital advertising] the Trump campaign truly is at this point," Klemons said.

Update 03/21/24 5:26 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comment from a Biden campaign senior spokesperson.