Even as voters shift to streaming and mobile, political ad dollars still flow to old-school TV.
What to Know:
- Only 13.5% of political ad budgets go to digital, compared to 56% for broadcast TV
- Commercial advertisers now spend 78% of their budgets on digital
- Campaigns treat YouTube and CTV like traditional TV screens, wasting their potential
- Gen Z and millennial voters are being left behind by these outdated media strategies
- Both parties risk 2026 and 2028 losses unless they radically shift ad spending online
A harsh new report from Tech for Campaigns reveals that political advertisers are still significantly underinvesting in digital platforms. This trend persists despite ample evidence that voters, particularly younger demographics, have migrated online.
Source: Tech for Campaigns, “2024 Political Digital Advertising Report.” Data from eMarketer, Statista, and AdImpact.
The numbers don’t lie: just 13.5% of political advertising dollars were spent on digital in 2024, while 56% went to broadcast TV. In contrast, commercial advertisers put 78% of their budgets toward digital platforms. Campaigns are not just behind; they’re moving backward.
Why Campaigns Can’t Quit TV
Political advertisers continue to believe that television is the most effective way to persuade voters, despite clear data suggesting otherwise. It’s a habit rooted in decades of political orthodoxy, where big broadcast buys were synonymous with campaign strength. But that model no longer matches voter behavior. Streaming now accounts for more viewing than cable and broadcast combined, per Nielsen.
Source: Nielsen. The Gauge: Nielsen’s Total TV and Streaming Snapshot. May 2025. Data via Nielsen National TV Panel. Copyright © 2025 The Nielsen Company.
Political campaigns, particularly Democratic ones, continue to sideline digital strategies. There’s a reason for that. Broadcast TV is safe. It’s predictable. It's a line item that older consultants understand. But in an era of social media political influencers, 15-second YouTube pre-rolls, and even shorter human attention spans, predictability isn’t performance. If anything, it’s a liability.
CTV & YouTube Are Underutilized
TFC’s report focuses on Connected TV (CTV) and YouTube, identifying them as two of the most powerful platforms within the digital ecosystem. Nearly half of every donated dollar in 2024 presidential campaigns went toward TV-style ads. The problem? Those same ads were often repurposed and dumped onto CTV and YouTube without any optimization. That’s bad for a campaign.
Image generated by DALL-E
“What works on TV often feels out of place or gets skipped entirely on digital platforms,” the report warns.
YouTube and Connected TV (CTV) represent more than just new screens; they embody distinct user behaviors. Audiences interact with these platforms differently, prioritizing authenticity and favoring concise, rapid storytelling. Political campaigns must adapt by creating content specifically for these mediums, rather than simply replicating existing material.
Losing the Digital Generation
Political advertisers' inability to engage voters on their preferred platforms is a demonstrable strategic misstep with measurable and long-term consequences. Gen Z and millennials consume virtually all their political content online. They aren’t watching the show of the morning or tuning in to 30-second attack ads during the evening news. They’re on YouTube Shorts, Twitch streams, and TikTok, absorbing influencer content that’s fast, personal, and culturally native.
Image generated by DALL-E
Political campaigns continue to treat digital platforms as mere repositories for TV reruns, indiscriminately uploading old content and expecting it to resonate. This approach consistently fails, a particularly detrimental issue for Democrats.
While the Trump campaign allocated 9% of its digital budget to mobilization across Meta, Google, and CTV, Harris’ team allocated just 4.6%. Even though she spent nearly $400 million more in total, the Trump operation achieved significantly more strategic lift because they understood the mission: build and activate.
Source: Tech for Campaigns, 2024 Political Digital Advertising Report
Failure was compounded by timing. Republicans had already built deep digital roots before 2024. Democrats, as the report puts it, treated the year like a campaign sprint. In the digital age, persuasion isn't a last-minute effort starting after Labor Day. It's a continuous process that begins years earlier, built one click, one share, and one podcast episode at a time.
Sustained vs. Seasonal Infrastructure Division
The clearest line in the digital sand is one of tempo. Republicans have mastered an always-on model, while Democrats continue to follow an outdated boom-bust rhythm. According to Tech for Campaigns, between 2020 and 2025, right-wing advocacy groups and media companies reduced Meta spending by only 3% in off-years. Democrats? They slashed theirs by a staggering 75%.
The problem is an infrastructure failure, not just a budget issue. In Q1 of 2025, right-wing groups outspent their left-leaning counterparts on Meta by 3.5X. And it's not solely about expenditures; it's about possessing the audience. The Daily Wire and PragerU now have 2X the Instagram followers and 1.5X the YouTube subscribers of top left-wing platforms like Courier Newsroom and NowThis. Including affiliated personalities, that gap widens to 6–8X.
Source: Tech for Campaigns, 2024 Political Digital Advertising Report. Right-wing groups outspent left-leaning counterparts
Even in podcasting, the divide is glaring. Right-wing voices are featured in four of the top 10 podcasts in the U.S. as of April 2025. This includes podcasts of all genres, not just political ones. Left-wing content like MeidasTouch couldn’t gain traction until after the election, proving again that the right understood one key fact: in digital, late is the same as losing.
Platform-Native or Platform-Failure?
In 2024, despite a substantial increase in digital political ad expenditure, especially on Connected TV (CTV) and YouTube, numerous campaigns continued to prioritize traditional broadcast advertising formats. According to industry analyses, CTV accounted for a large portion of digital ad growth last cycle, yet the majority of political content on these platforms consisted of repurposed television commercials.
In 2024, nearly half of presidential campaign ad dollars were allocated toward TV-style video, yet few of those ads were built with digital-first principles in mind. This disconnect, observers suggest, represents significant untapped potential, especially for campaigns aiming to boost engagement with digital-native audiences. Looking ahead, strategists across the political spectrum may need to reconsider their creative approach if they want to effectively leverage the full value of CTV and YouTube as campaign tools.
Wrap Up
The 2024 election cycle revealed a significant disconnect: political campaigns continue to lag in allocating their spending to align with where voters consume information. Digital platforms, including YouTube, Connected TV, and social media, have transitioned from supplementary channels to foundational pillars of contemporary political outreach. Yet many campaigns continue to treat them as afterthoughts, relying heavily on traditional broadcast strategies that no longer align with voter behavior.
It's not merely about platform selection; it's about timing, consistency, and relevance. Effective persuasion today requires sustained engagement, not just a surge of ads in the final weeks. Campaigns that limit digital investment to election season are missing the opportunity to build trust, shape narratives, and mobilize supporters over time.
Looking ahead to 2026 and 2028, the path forward is clear: rebalance media budgets, create platform-native content, and maintain a year-round digital presence. A one-size-fits-all ad strategy is no longer sufficient. To achieve success, political advertisers must reach voters with the appropriate message on the correct platform at the optimal time.
