2024 election ad spending expected to top $10 billion, smashing Biden-Trump 2020 record

The 2024 election cycle is expected to be the most expensive of all time for political ad spending, totaling $10.2 billion across all media, according to new projections from AdImpact released Tuesday.

That figure would exceed by more than $1 billion the current record, which was set during the 2020 election cycle when then-President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden.

The previous presidential election cycle, in 2016, totaled $2.6 billion in political ad spending.

AdImpact projected that the 2024 cycle will show a 13% increase from four years earlier. The projected figure includes political expenditures across broadcast, cable, radio, satellite, digital and internet-connected TV.

The group anticipates at least $7 billion of the 2024 total will go toward TV ad spending.

More than a quarter of that $10.2 billion total, $2.7 billion, will come from presidential ad spending alone, according to AdImpact. Most of that chunk, $2.1 billion, is expected to be spent during the general election.

But Congress is hardly expected to scrimp. The Senate is projected to shell out $2.1 billion in ad spending this cycle, while the House is predicted to spend $1.7 billion.

Gubernatorial ad spending, however, is expected to decline compared with expenditures in the 2022 cycle, since fewer than half as many seats are up for reelection. About $400 million will be spent on those 14 races in 2024, AdImpact projected.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.