How Political Campaigns In 2020 Will Affect Your Media Budget

Illustration by Eric Knepp

Politics. It’s a topic to steer clear of at the dinner table. But of course, there’s always a news-obsessed relative who has a few too many and just can’t help themself from bringing up their presidential preferences. Meanwhile, everyone else sits quietly, waiting for enough time to pass to change the subject without being rude.

This year is an especially heated election year, and there’s seemingly more drama than even 2016 brought to the dinner table. But don’t worry, we aren’t going to bore you with political opinions here. We just want you to know what’s coming if you’re buying media in the coming year — you’re about to spend a lot of money to compete with highly funded political ads.

What you need to know

According to the Wall Street Journal, 2020 is a political year that will shatter records, with a national ad spend that’s projected to reach $10 billion, up 59% from the 2016 election year.

The dramatic influx of political dollars into every media channel is going to create immense competition, and your cost to effectively advertise will be higher.

Now that 2019 is a wrap, you know what you spent on media this year and how effective your efforts were. Step 1 to prepare for the madness that’s coming is to educate yourself. So, here are the five things you need to know to get ahead of the curve:

1. Lock in your schedules early and at one time, rather than purchasing on a monthly or quarterly basis, to mitigate the risk of space selling out.
2. Build increases into your media plan to maintain adequate coverage. **Percentage varies by the specific market’s propensity for political concentration.
3. Seek alternative media options, such as out of home (billboards, print, etc.), where space cannot be preempted, or cinema theater ads, which remain a political-free zone.
4. Secure broadcast space as a package, rather than only via spot schedules, since bundled buys are difficult to divide and less likely to be gobbled up as quickly.
5. Carefully consider campaign timing as related to key election dates.

If your media team can stay ahead and anticipate the changes coming, you can still compete in the saturated marketplace 2020 has in store. But don’t put off planning. Those painful political ads are coming.