• by Wayne Friedman , October 8, 2020

The Biden For President campaign continues to outspend the Donald J. Trump campaign in national and regional TV spending over the last two weeks. Biden is also ahead in local TV spend.

For September 24 through October 7, Biden placed 2,621 airings of commercials on national and regional TV (an estimated $21.7 million) with Trump at 946 airings ($6.5 million), according to iSpot.tv.

Biden produced more than double the TV impressions, at 2.0 billion, versus 862.9 million for Trump.

The results were similar to the previous two-week period (September 10-September 23): Biden placed 2,137 airings of commercials ($20.6 million), with Trump at 432 airings ($5.2 million). Biden impressions were also higher at 2.1 billion, versus 739.9 million for Trump.

Presidential campaigns typically spend more when it comes to individual states.

Biden spent approximately $37 million on local TV advertising ($42 million in overall TV advertising), according to Advertising Analytics, for the week of September 26 through October 2. Trump came in at $18.3 million in overall TV spend.

According to 97th Floor, a digital marketing agency, Florida -- a major swing state -- received a big piece of Biden’s local TV spending to date: $4.5 million.

Advertising Analytics says that for the week ending October 2, Biden was the top digital advertiser -- spending $12.1 million on Facebook and Google -- while Donald Trump was at $9.4 million.

The previous week witnessed similar results, with Biden spending $12.3 million and Trump coming in at $6.9 million.

That said, Trump spent more on digital media than Biden in earlier periods.

In a three-month period from June through August, the Trump campaign spent a collective $42.1 million on Google and YouTube advertising, according to 97th Floor. Biden was at $27.8 million for the same three-month period.