The 2024 election is projected to be the most expensive cycle in history, according to an AdImpact report released Tuesday.
Why it matters: Presidential general election spending is expected to swell to $2.1 billion, with seven battlegrounds driving three-fourths of that spending.
AdImpact projects that Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada and Wisconsin will make up 76% of the presidential general spending.
Zoom in: Some of these states also have competitive statewide races, and are likely to draw in large sums of spending across the 2024 cycle, per AdFirm.
Overall, Arizona is projected to see $821 million in ad spending during the 2024 cycle, followed by Pennsylvania ($725 million), Michigan ($659 million) and Nevada ($576 million).
Arizona is also home to the contentious and unpredictable Senate race emerging over Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat. It’s projected to be the most expensive Senate race in the cycle, per the firm.
California is expected to see nearly $1.2 billion in spending overall, with Democrats vying for outgoing Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat and the highest number of competitive House races in the country, per the firm.
Zoom out: Overall ad spending across 2024 elections is projected to total $10.2 billion, a 13% increase over the $9 billion spent during the record 2020 cycle.
The firm projects $2.1 billion for Senate races, $1.7 billion for House races, $361 million for gubernatorial and $3.3 billion on down-ballot races.
The Biden campaign has already invested heavily in early ad spending, launching a $25 million, 16-week TV and digital campaign largely aimed at swing voters, the Washington Post previously reported.
The large-scale ad buy comes earlier in the cycle than efforts from Barack Obama and former President Trump’s re-election efforts, per the Post.

Axios