Texas Senate Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke and President Donald Trump have one thing in common: both are leading the charge in the digital advertising wave washing over political campaigns this election cycle.

In total, House candidates have spent over $33.3 million on digital advertising in 2018 with Democrats spending the lion’s share, $23.6 million, and Republicans spending $9.6 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. On the Senate side, $29.8 million has been spent on digital advertising in total during the 2018 election cycle with Democrats spending $21.5 million of that—almost three times as much as the Republicans’ $7.2 million.

Digital advertising refers to money spent on online ads, including paid ads on social media services, such as Facebook, and video sites, such as YouTube. A little over $72 million was spent on digital advertising in total by all federal candidates—except Senate candidates who aren’t up for reelection this year—in 2018.

President Trump’s reelection campaign has spent $8.6 million on digital advertising this year in advance of his 2020 election, more than any other politician this election cycle. Trump kicked off his presidential reelection campaign at the beginning of 2017—registering as a candidate on the same day as his inauguration—earlier than any other American president in history.

Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke—who’s currently hot on the trails of Senator Ted Cruz in their closely watched race—has spent $4.7 million so far on digital advertising in 2018 compared to Cruz’s $251,000. No Republican in the House or Senate comes even remotely close to O’Rourke’s kind of spending on digital advertising. Democrats make up almost all the top spenders after Trump. Mike Braun, the Republican Senate candidate in Indiana, has spent the most out of any Republican candidate running for Congress with $658,000 on digital advertising this election cycle.

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Other notable candidates who’ve spent a significant sum on digital advertising in the 2018 election cycle include Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) with $2.4 million; Bill Nelson (D-FL) with $1.4 million; Claire McCaskill (D-MO) with $1.3 million; Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) with $925,000; Doug Jones (D-AL)—who won the Alabama special election—with $908,000; Jon Ossoff (D-GA)—who lost his special election in Georgia’s 6th District —with $899,000; Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) with $850,000 and Tim Kaine (D-VA) with $674,225.

Political campaigns and groups spent less than one percent of their ad budgets on online advertisements during the midterm elections in 2014, according to Borrell Associates, a firm that tracks advertising data. However those same groups are expected to spend more than 22 percent of their ad budgets on online spending during the 2018 midterms.

The majority of political operatives and marketers on both sides of the aisle who focus on digital advertising have high optimism that digital budgets would increase in the political realm, according to the digital advertising company Centro. Their survey showed that one of the most promising developments in digital advertising is access to higher quality and more readily available data, with 55 percent of respondents saying that their audience data was better than before.

One of the key reasons digital advertising has recently taken off within the political realm is that political advertisers are getting better at tracking the online behavior of the constituents they’re trying to influence. Unlike the 2016 election cycle, when the biggest concerns among digital advertisers were polling data and fake news, their focus has shifted to proving the impact of digital campaigns to their clients.

With people spending more and more time online and on their phones, it’s almost surprising that it has taken political advertisers this long to spend their money and resources on digital advertisements. Although Democrats in Congress have greatly outspent Republicans on digital advertising this cycle, look for the Republicans to match the Democrats’ levels of digital advertising spending in the near future. Digital advertising is here to stay.



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