Biden shelling out $15M as he steps up ad buys in key battlegrounds

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President Trump’s campaign has vastly outspent Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s team so far in the general election ad wars.

But the former vice president’s campaign appears to be stepping up its game – announcing on Tuesday that it will spend $15 million to run TV, digital and radio commercials over the next week in six key battleground states that Trump carried in the 2016 election. The states are Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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The new buy, which also includes Spanish-language spots, follows Biden’s inaugural ad blitz – a $15 million buy over five weeks that just ran its course. The campaign touted that the new ad buy “marks an escalation in the campaign's ad spending heading into the general election against President Donald Trump” and pledged to “ramp up its general election paid media efforts across TV, radio, digital and print between now and November.”

The Biden campaign has been outspent nearly every week on TV and digital by the Trump campaign since the start of the general election campaign in April. Last week the Trump campaign dished out $9.8 million to run TV commercials, compared with $5.7 million spent by the Biden campaign, according to data from Advertising Analytics, a leading ad tracking firm. And the president’s team outspent the Biden campaign $6.8 million to $1.3 million to put up digital ads for the week starting July 5.

“There is no doubt that Biden is getting vastly outpaced in paid media,” noted Advertising Analytics vice president John Link. “One of the major differences is the states each campaign is targeting.”

Link noted that Trump is buying in the same six key battleground states where Biden’s placing nearly all of his money, but that the president’s also going up with ad buys in Ohio, Georgia and Iowa, three states he won in 2016 that weren’t considered to be battlegrounds when the 2020 cycle began but have become competitive. He pointed out that the president’s also placing ad buys in Minnesota, Nevada and New Mexico, three states he narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016.

While Biden’s campaign has been vastly outspent to date, his campaign’s also receiving a lot more help from pro-Democrat outside or issue groups, such as super PACs and nonprofit 501c4’s, than the Trump campaign is getting from pro-GOP groups.

“Over June and July, Dem issue groups have outspent GOP groups $29.0m to $11.0m,” Link pointed out. He added that the Democratic outside groups are “vastly outpacing” what they spent four years ago.

The Biden campaign highlighted that it’s “broadening its national cable buys on news and sports channels."

That includes a presence later this week on Major League Baseball’s opening games.

Biden spotlights the coronavirus pandemic in one of the new commercials, urging people to "wear a mask. Keep your distance. Limit the size of crowds. It may be inconvenient. It may be uncomfortable. But it's the right thing to do as an American."

And he takes aim at Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, saying “we need a president who will level with the American people, a president who will tell us the unvarnished truth, a president who will take responsibility instead of always blaming others. A president who will listen to the experts, follow the science, allow them to speak. A president who will lead and be an example for the nation.”