Facebook Political Ads 2020: Ranking Of Facebook Ad Spend By Candidate

Biden Asleep At The Wheel, Bloomberg Makes It Rain, Trump Is Trumping

By: 
January 2, 2020

The election is heating up and so is political ad spend on Facebook. In this post we rank and break down Facebook ad spend for the top presidential candidates.

We also share links to each candidate's political ad history - just click the image for a given candidate below. You'll be taken to Facebook's Ad Library where you can see what ads each candidate is running and the associated ad spend. This Facebook political ad history is updated live, so be sure to check back as the campaign continues.

There are a few notable trends:

  • Donald Trump continues to outspend everyone. By a lot. The New York Times covered this trend well in mid-2019, and the stark difference persists today.
  • Joe Biden is dramatically underinvesting in Facebook outreach. Biden's digital team may be overly confident, digitally naive, or saving money for a big ad spend later in the campaign for a risky, David v. Goliath competition with Trump's well oiled Facebook ad machine.
  • Warren and Buttigieg are the leading Democratic spenders, but Sanders and Bloomberg significantly outpaced the rest of the field closing out 2019.

1. Donald Trump: $26,713,819 spent May 2018 - December 2019 | $458,984 spent December 25 - December 31, 2019

Donald Trump Facebook Ad Spend, Source: Facebook

2. Elizabeth Warren: $6,920,314 spent May 2018 - December 2019 | $262,182 spent December 25 - December 31, 2019

Elizabeth Warren Facebook Ad Spend, Source: Facebook

3. Pete Buttigieg: $6,702,179 spent May 2018 - December 2019 | $222,998 spent December 25 - December 31, 2019

Pete Buttigieg Facebook Ad Spend, Source: Facebook

4. Michael ("Mike") Bloomberg: $6,531,438 spent May 2018 - December 2019 | $1,248,538 spent December 25 - December 31, 2019

Mike Bloomberg Facebook Ad Spend, Source: Facebook

5. Bernie Sanders: $6,517,989 spent May 2018 - December 2019 | $687,945 spent December 25 - December 31, 2019

Bernie Sanders Facebook Ad Spend, Source: Facebook

6. Joe Biden: $3,510,877 spent May 2018 - December 2019 | $93,806 spent December 25 - December 31, 2019

Joe Biden Facebook Ad Spend, Source: Facebook

7. Amy Klobuchar: $2,297,026 spent May 2018 - December 2019 | $36,766 spent December 25 - December 31, 2019

Amy Klobuchar Facebook Ad Spend, Source: Facebook