Digital political ad spending broke records in the 2020 election cycle. Grace Briscoe, senior vice president of candidates and causes at programmatic media firm Centro, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss what, when, and where political advertisers bought digital ads last year, how much attention they paid to connected TV (CTV), and why they love digital video ads so much.

Increased political ad spending contributed to a banner year for connected TV.

The influx of political content and ad dollars for the upcoming US presidential election will inevitably impact commercial advertisers on social media. Understanding the political ad cycle and consumer attitudes toward political content can help brands better reach their audiences.

How will social network ad spending and social usage change in 2020? And what will happen in hot-button areas, such as privacy, ad targeting and political advertising in social media? Here’s what we think lies ahead.

During presidential election years, the inflow of political ad dollars is a boon for TV media companies but has done little to fill the national ad spending void this year. Political TV spending is up more than 20% from 2016, per Amplifi’s Law.

eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin discusses whether major marketers will pull spending on social platforms because of brand safety and ethical concerns, what to make of Facebook's new advertiser “topic exclusion controls” test, and the types of content consumers prefer brands avoid the most. She then talks about tech companies introducing rules that favor their own business models, Facebook's relationship with political content, and whether Google is waving goodbye to Australia.

The political ad spending did come, but nothing else about last year went as expected for TV, and spending on that media type declined by 12.5% year over year, rather than increasing by our pre-pandemic estimate of 2.0%. While TV ad spending will rise again this year, by 6.7%, we don’t expect it to reach 2018 levels ever again. Out-of-home (OOH) ad spending also peaked, but in 2019.

The coronavirus and political turmoil seen throughout the region in recent months will have negative implications for traditional media. Latin America will forego its largest local sporting event this summer, the 2020 Copa América. This, coupled with the postponement of the Summer Olympics, caused an exodus of ad dollars from traditional media formats like TV and OOH.

Short planning windows are also common in political ad campaigns where marketers require flexibility as they try to efficiently unload their budgets before Election Day. In recent months, political ad spending increased amid the buildup to the election, and CTV absorbed some of those dollars. Between April and September, CTV political ad spending at supply-side platform (SSP) SpotX increased ninefold.

eMarketer analyst Ross Benes, forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom and Business Insider Intelligence senior analyst Audrey Schomer discuss Netflix subscriber and revenue growth. Will we see a "Netflix with Ads" option? Does the streaming giant have an impending content problem? They then talk about political ad spending, whether tablets will make a comeback and Google asking advertisers for identification.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom and principal analyst Nicole Perrin talk about the US political ad spending landscape. How much money is being spent, where and why? They then discuss smartphone voting, consumer attitudes on privacy jargon and how Google can profit from government search warrants.

Growth in political ad spending is expected to slow dramatically during the 2019-2020 election cycle, according to Kantar Media, which predicts political campaigns for US federal office will spend $6 billion on paid media placements this year. But a greater share than ever will be directed toward digital channels.

As campaigning for the 2020 presidential election heads into its final months, political ad spending will hit an all-time high. The highly partisan political environment is driving more Americans to donate money to their preferred candidates than in past election seasons, which in turn is funneling more money into advertising.

Google and Facebook already control 60.8% of the total US digital ad market. And when it comes to the duopoly's share of digital political ad revenues, it has an even tighter grip, with a combined 77.6% this election cycle.

US digital political ad spending will hit a record high for the 2019/2020 political cycle, crossing the $1 billion mark for the first time ($1.34 billion), as a larger number of highly engaged voters are expected to donate to the candidates of their choice in this year’s presidential race.

The role of political advertising in social media will be a key discussion topic in 2020—an easy prediction to make. Kantar Media expects that US digital political ad spending will reach $1.2 billion this year, and we believe the social platforms that continue accepting political advertisers will be major beneficiaries of that spending.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson reviews Snapchat’s recent earnings. Also, vice president of content studio Paul Verna discusses the Brexit cloud looming over marketers, how local news has remained so trustworthy and increased ad spend on political videos.

Digital campaigning is crucial to candidates running for election worldwide, and it's no different in Canada. But new requirements—which kicked in earlier this summer—mean that political parties need to be more efficient with their ad dollars. With the upcoming federal election happening in October, here's what you need to know about the Elections Modernization Act (EMA).