Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Have Been Spending the Most Money on These Ads

As the presidential race enters its final week, Hillary Clinton has been dominating the national ad spend, but Donald Trump is making up for lost time with a late, pricey surge, topping $1 million a day. According to data from iSpot.tv, which tracked national campaign spending from Oct. 18 to Oct. 30, Clinton outspent Trump nationally by $2.1 million, and her national spots aired almost two and a half times as often as Trump's did. In that two week period, Trump spent $7.8 million on national TV advertising, running 10 ads a total of 926 times. Clinton spent $9.9 million during that span, running 12 ads a total of 2,397 times. iSpot.tv's data does not include local ad spending, where both candidates are flooding markets in battleground states like Florida and Ohio. During those two weeks, Trump's ads appeared on TV screens 491 million times nationally, and had an average view rate of 91.8 percent (meaning 91.8 percent of each ad was actually watched, on average). Clinton's ads appeared on TV screens 620.6 million times nationally with an average view rate of 85.8 percent. It's not surprising that Clinton's view rate is lower, given that she is running more national ads than Trump and audiences have had more exposure to her spots, and are therefore paying less attention to them. Trump is focusing on bigger audiences, with 20 percent of his spending coming during prime-time hours. Clinton has dedicated 16 percent of her national ad budget to prime time, but she has spread her ads across more networks and dayparts, especially daytime and early fringe. The iSpot.tv data shows that Trump has been making a late surge in national buys, spending more than $1 million per day beginning Oct. 26. According to iSpot.tv, Trump's national ads aired most frequently on Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and CNN. He's targeting major broadcasts like the NFL, the World Series, college football, The Voice and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Clinton, meanwhile, has been focusing on CBS, TNT, NBC, FX and A&E. Like Trump, she also has run national ads during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but she's also targeted NBA basketball, Today, Jimmy Kimmel Live and American Horror Story: Roanoke. Trump's biggest spend day is Sunday (NFL day), with $2.1 million spent on the last two Sundays, while Clinton peaks with Wednesday—when American Horror Story airs—with $2.0 million spent over those two Wednesdays. During that time, Trump's most aired, and most watched, national ad was "Change," which launched on Oct. 18 and focuses on Clinton's inability to enact meaningful change during her many decades in D.C. It aired 411 times and received 232 million national impressions. It had an estimated national spend of $4.9 million and a 85.3 percent view rate. The Trump ad with the highest national view rate is "Laura," which also came out on Oct. 18 and focuses on a mother whose sons was murdered by an "illegal alien." That spot had 44 million impressions and an average view rate of 98.3 percent. Clinton's campaign spent the most on its "Silo" ad, in which a former missile launch officer talked about his fear of Trump controlling the launch codes. That spot, which came out on Oct. 1, had 110 million national linear impressions on a $2.1 million spend. It had a 82.6 percent view rate. But Clinton's most viewed ad during that time period was "Measure," which focused on improving the lives of American children. It launched on Oct. 6 and had 121 million impressions on a $1.7 million spend. She had the highest average view rate for "Barbershop," which came out on Oct. 24, and featured African-Americans at a barbershop talking about Clinton, tying her to President Obama. The spot earned a 99.3 percent view rate with 3.8 million national impressions. Clinton's national ads are reaching more women (53 percent of the audience for her ads is female), while the gender split from Trump's ads is an even 50-50. Trump's national ads have been reaching an older audience than Clinton's spots. The demo breakdown of the audience for Trump's ads is 26.8 percent adults 18-34, 35.8 percent people 35-54 and 37.4 percent people over 55 years old. Clinton is reaching 28.0 percent adults 18-34, 36.2 percent people 35-54 and 35.8 percent people over 55.

Convergent TV

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Have Been Spending the Most Money on These Ads

His late surge of daily national spend tops $1 million

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch