Digital political advertising has become a multibillion-dollar part of election campaigns, but the totals depend on the platforms, definitions and dates included. The figures below focus mainly on the United States and distinguish reported spending from forecasts, with measurement periods stated explicitly.
Contents
- Spending on Google and Meta
- Which races received the money
- The wider platform market
- Verification and election-ad transparency
- Broader advertising forecasts
- How to read these statistics
Spending on Google and Meta
The Brennan Center’s Online Political Spending in 2024 analysis recorded $619,090,533 in election-related digital advertising on Google and Meta between January 1, 2023, and August 31, 2024. The figure is a platform-reported total for that period, processed as of October 2, 2024, rather than a complete estimate of every digital political ad purchase.
At least $248 million of the $619.1 million total focused on the presidential race. Nearly half of the overall total—$281 million—came from spenders that may hide some or all of their donors. Among advertisers on Google and Meta known to support a party, spending in favor of Democrats was more than three times the amount spent for Republicans.
The two platforms together account for almost half of the U.S. digital advertising market, which helps explain why a two-platform total can still be a useful indicator of campaign strategy. It should not, however, be treated as the entire market.
The Brennan Center limited its analysis to advertisers that spent at least $5,000 during the cycle. Its underlying records came from Google’s weekly Transparency Reports and Meta’s daily Ad Library Reports. Because the platforms use different definitions, the comparison is not perfectly uniform: Google includes ads featuring elected officials, candidates, parties, ballot measures, initiatives and proposals, while Meta includes ads by or about candidates, political figures, political parties, political committees and issue ads.
These definitions affect what enters the count. An issue advertisement can be included even when it is not a conventional candidate advertisement, and the same political subject may be classified differently on the two services. The $619,090,533 figure therefore describes the Brennan Center’s defined universe of ads, not every message that a voter might consider political.
Which races received the money
Among the ad buys that the Brennan Center could target to a specific office, 64% concerned presidential candidates. Presidential advertising in that category totaled $248 million. Senate spending represented 19% of targeted-office ad buys and totaled $73 million.
The remaining $232 million targeted multiple races, discussed political issues rather than elections, or could not be categorized. This is an important distinction when comparing office-level totals: the uncategorized or multi-race amount is large enough that presidential and Senate figures do not describe the full spending picture.
| Brennan Center category | Reported measure | Period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Google and Meta election-related ads | $619,090,533 | Jan. 1, 2023–Aug. 31, 2024 |
| Presidential focus | At least $248 million | Same analysis |
| Senate spending | $73 million | Targeted-office ad buys |
| Multiple races, issues or uncategorized | $232 million | Same analysis |
| Donor-obscurable spenders | $281 million | Same analysis |
The Brennan Center also found that Democrats and their allies spent more than three times as much as Republican and Republican-aligned counterparts on federal races. This comparison applies to the analysis’s identified party-supporting advertisers and should not be generalized to all political communication or all spending channels.
The wider platform market
A later Brennan Center analysis, Online Ad Spending in the 2024 Election Totaled at Least $1.9 Billion, expanded the platform coverage to Google, Meta, X and Snap. It relied on political advertising data reported between January 1, 2023, and November 9, 2024, with coding and processing as of May 12, 2025.
The four platforms together accounted for at least $1.9 billion in political advertising for the 2024 election. Meta reported more than $1 billion, Google reported $846 million, Snap reported $27 million and X reported $24 million.
| Platform | Political advertising reported |
|---|---|
| Meta | More than $1 billion |
| $846 million | |
| Snap | $27 million |
| X | $24 million |
| Four-platform total | At least $1.9 billion |
The later analysis adds scale but does not make the two Brennan Center totals directly interchangeable. The first analysis covered Google and Meta through August 31, 2024 and used a $5,000 advertiser threshold. The later analysis extended the reporting period to November 9, 2024 and included two additional platforms. Different coverage, definitions and processing dates can all change the result.
The later analysis also found that parties and outside groups were much more likely than candidates to use negative ads. Candidates’ advertising goals were evenly split between persuading voters and fundraising. Those findings show why spending totals alone do not describe the content or purpose of campaign advertising: the same dollar amount can support persuasion, donor acquisition or attacks on an opponent.
Verification and election-ad transparency
Google’s Ads Safety Report 2024 reported that it verified more than 8,900 new election advertisers in the past year and removed 10.7 million election ads from unverified accounts. Google described 2024 as a major year for global elections, with half of the world’s population living in a country that went to the polls.
Google said its election-ad transparency measures expanded to new countries in 2024. It also said it was the first company to launch disclosure requirements for AI-generated content in election ads. These are platform-policy and enforcement statements, not independent measurements of the total volume of political advertising worldwide.
The same report gave broader advertising-safety figures for 2024. Google removed more than 5.1 billion advertisements, restricted more than 9.1 billion advertisements and suspended more than 39.2 million advertiser accounts. Its advertiser identity-verification program covered more than 200 countries and territories, and more than 90% of ads seen by people on Google came from verified advertisers on average.
Google also reported blocking or removing 415 million ads and suspending more than 5 million accounts for scams-related policy violations in 2024. It took action on 1.3 billion publisher pages and broader site-level enforcement action on more than 220,000 publisher sites. These numbers cover Google’s overall advertising and publishing systems, not only political advertising, so they provide context for enforcement capacity rather than a political-ad total.
Enforcement and impersonation scams
The Ads Safety Report 2024 said Google made more than 30 updates to its Ads and Publisher policies during the year and launched more than 50 enhancements to its models. Its AI-powered models contributed to detection and enforcement on 97% of the pages on which it acted last year.
Google also reported permanently suspending more than 700,000 offending advertiser accounts tied to public-figure impersonation scams. Reports of that type of scam ad dropped 90% after the enforcement change. The figures describe Google’s reported enforcement result and the scam category identified in its report; they do not establish that all political impersonation attempts were detected or removed.
Verification and transparency are especially relevant to election advertising because spending can be substantial while the identity of the funder remains difficult to interpret. In the Brennan Center’s Google-and-Meta analysis, $281 million came from spenders that may hide some or all of their donors. That figure concerns donor visibility, not proof that the underlying advertisements violated platform rules.
Broader advertising forecasts
The BIA forecast Record $11.1 Billion in Political Ad Spend in 2024 estimated total U.S. political spending at $11.1 billion in 2024. BIA said that would be $2.2 billion higher than in 2022 and $1.5 billion higher than in 2020. These are forecasts, not post-election audited totals.
Traditional advertising was forecast to account for 70.2% of total political ad spending in 2024, while political digital ad spending was forecast at $3.3 billion. BIA separately forecast $4.6 billion for over-the-air television, $536 million for over-the-air radio, $1.1 billion for cable and $1.0 billion for connected television and over-the-top services.
The BIA U.S. Local Advertising Forecast 2024 put TV digital political spending at $333 million. BIA also estimated $1.3 billion in PC/laptop political spending, $132 million more than in 2020. CTV/OTT political spending was forecast to rise from $74 million in 2020 to $1.0 billion in 2024, an increase of $944 million. Over-the-air television political spending was forecast to be $163 million higher than in 2020.
| BIA 2024 forecast category | Amount or share | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Total U.S. political spending | $11.1 billion | Forecast |
| Political digital advertising | $3.3 billion | Forecast |
| Traditional advertising share | 70.2% | Forecast |
| TV over-the-air | $4.6 billion | Forecast |
| CTV/OTT | $1.0 billion | Forecast |
| PC/laptop | $1.3 billion | Forecast |
The BIA figures use a broader market definition than the platform reports. They include political advertising across traditional and digital channels, whereas the Brennan Center figures count defined platform-reported ad libraries. A forecast of $3.3 billion in digital political advertising therefore cannot be compared as if it were the same measure as $619,090,533 on Google and Meta or at least $1.9 billion across four platforms.
How to read these statistics
The clearest pattern is growth alongside measurement complexity. One source reports $619,090,533 on two platforms through August 2024; a later analysis reports at least $1.9 billion across four platforms through November 2024; and BIA forecast $3.3 billion for the broader U.S. digital political advertising market for all of 2024.
The dates, geography and definitions explain much of the difference. The Brennan Center platform analyses are U.S.-focused election-spending studies with stated inclusion rules and processing dates. Google’s safety report describes global elections and worldwide enforcement systems, while BIA’s figures are U.S. market forecasts. Treating these as one single series would mix observed platform reports, broader market estimates and forecasts.
For readers comparing future figures, four checks matter: identify the platforms included, note the reporting window, check whether the number is reported or forecast, and distinguish candidate ads from issue ads or multi-race activity. Those checks are necessary before interpreting a change as a real increase or decrease in digital political advertising.