• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 12, 2020

Political ad spending during the 2020 campaign cycle will approach $7 billion, accounting for 1.4% of all media advertising revenues, according to a first-ever political ad forecast issued by eMarketer. The estimate, which covers the 2019-20 political campaign period, represents an increase of 63% over the comparable presidential election cycle in 2015-16, and is fueled in part by the growth of political digital advertising.

eMarketer estimates digital political ad spending will top $1 billion for the first time.

Even so, TV still continues to dominate political campaign strategies for federal, state and local offices, as well as issues-oriented campaigns.

eMarketer estimates political TV ad spending will reach $4.55 billion.

"That means in the 2019-20 cycle, spending on political TV ads will account for 3.2% of all TV advertising and 66.0% of all political ad spending," eMarketer's report states, adding, "TV’s share of political advertising is up a bit from the prior election year, as it takes share from radio and print."