President Trump’s re-election campaign has spent far more than any single Democratic presidential candidate on Facebook advertising, reprising a strategy that was central to his 2016 victory.
Trump spent particularly heavily on Facebook ads at the beginning of the year, when the number of Democratic candidates was smaller. But the playing field has shifted.
Since entering the race late last month, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has pumped more than $1 million into Facebook ads, outspending Trump’s campaign for three of the past four weeks.
So far this year, Trump has spent about $5 million on Facebook advertising. Early in the year, Trump’s Facebook spending exceeded that of all of the Democratic candidates put together, though Democrats’ collective spending eventually surpassed Trump’s total.
“For a long time, Trump was running an intensive campaign that no one was paying attention to,” said Mike Schneider, a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic political and brand communications firm that is tracking Facebook spending by the presidential candidates.
“And while Democrats have picked up their efforts, they’re fighting over the same group of supporters while he’s broadly expanding his base,” Mr. Schneider said.
Much of Trump’s spending on Facebook advertising in recent weeks has gone toward ads that have been seen by older Americans, particularly women 55 and older, according to an analysis by Bully Pulpit.
Older voters are an important constituency for Trump, having favored him over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, according to exit polls. Trump also has reason to want to shore up his standing with women, as white women shifted leftward in the midterm elections.
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