Guide to Political Advertising Recap: 5 Key Takeaways

With the 2024 presidential election quickly approaching, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are spending at record rates to reach voters. But who are their ads really reaching and how can candidates best reach prospective voters, particularly in crucial swing states? Samba TV dug into the data to shed light on crucial viewership and advertising insights ahead of Election Day. Read on for five key takeaways and download the report for a deeper analysis. 

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1. Both Trump and Harris are struggling to reach diverse audiences, with a relatively low proportion of Hispanic and Asian households seeing ads

Despite spending massive amounts on advertising, Trump and Harris are under-serving certain key demographic groups. With these crucial voting blocs under exposed to advertising, media agencies working for the political campaigns have a real opportunity to leverage data for real-time targeting to reach the voters more effectively.

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2. The presidential debate between Harris and Trump was the most watched TV event of 2024 outside of the Super Bowl

With over 28M U.S. households watching the debate between Harris and Trump, it’s clear that Harris' addition to the ballot sparked new viewers to show interest in following the presidential race and learn about the candidates. What’s more, viewers in crucial swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were much likely to skip the Biden/Trump debate, but watch the Harris/Trump one.

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3. Both candidates are blitzing swing states, though Harris is lacking exposure in North Carolina and Trump in Georgia

Harris’ ads have reached an average of 65% of households across the swing states and Trump’s ads have reached 62%, compared to Harris reaching an average of 32% of households in other states and Trump reaching 19%. With this election coming down to these key swing state voters, it's critical to utilize precision real-time targeting at the local and national level.

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4. To reach viewers in swing states, advertisers should lean into solutions that allow them to target viewers of the top programming in those regions

With nearly every streamer represented as one of the highest indexing programs among households in swing states (compared to the rest of the U.S.), advertisers using Samba TV solutions can target viewers of these top programs, along with cord-cutters, to reach key groups. 

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5. The majority of households in swing states are more likely to spend time watching FOX News than MSNBC

The places that people choose to get their news can shed light on how they’re engaging with politics. Within four of the six most crucial swing states, households are over-indexing more highly on right-leaning FOX News content than left-leaning MSNBC. 

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