Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How much of Google's U.S. election advertising is video, in our own count of Google's transparency data; what a U.S. election cycle spends on ads, by AdImpact, the Wesleyan Media Project, OpenSecrets and the Brennan Center; what the Federal Election Commission records; what TV station groups book in political revenue, from their SEC filings; how spending splits between broadcast, streaming and digital; how many ads air and how many attack; which platforms accept political ads; the FEC and FCC disclosure rules; AI in political ads; and where the popular political-ad numbers came from. Counts, spend and rules only: this page takes no side.
In our count of Google's transparency data, 66.5% of U.S. election ads Google first served in 2024 were video, up from 57.1% in 2020. (Our count)See details
In 2026, through October 31, the video share of U.S. election ads on Google reached 81.3%. (Our count)See details
Of 2024 U.S. election ads on Google that spent at least $10,000 each, 88.2% were video. (Our count)See details
U.S. election-ad spend on Google reached $1,082,178,400 in 2026 by late October, already above the $841,782,100 of all of 2024. (Our count)See details
Gray, Sinclair, TEGNA and Scripps booked $1,637.8 million in political revenue in 2024, 12.2 times their 2025 total. (Our sum of SEC filings)See details
Political ads were 14.4% of E.W. Scripps's total revenue in 2024. (Our calculation)See details
AdImpact counts $11.2 billion in U.S. political ad spending for the 2023-2024 cycle; no government agency publishes a total. (AdImpact)See details
Of 2026 House, Senate and governor ad spending to October 25, 52.8% went to local broadcast and 23.2% to streaming. (Wesleyan Media Project)See details
AdImpact's final 2024 connected-TV figure was 76.9% above its own early projection. (Our calculation)See details
Spending on AI-made political ads passed $137 million by mid-October 2026, against under $50,000 in the whole 2024 cycle. (Wesleyan Media Project)See details
A federal candidate's TV ad must show its written disclaimer for at least 4 seconds. (FEC rule)See details
One political ad exposure moved vote choice by 0.7 percentage points on average in 59 experiments. (Science Advances)See details
How much of Google's U.S. election advertising is video?
Most of it, and the share keeps rising. In our count of Google's political-ads transparency data, 66.5% of the U.S. election ads Google first served in 2024 were video, up from 57.1% in 2020. In 2026, through October 31, the share was 81.3%. Across everything in the data, from May 2018 to October 2026, 57.8% of U.S. election ads were video.
We downloaded Google's own bundle (last updated October 31, 2026), kept every ad whose regions include the United States, and counted each ad once, in the year it was first served. The data covers only advertisers Google has verified for election ads and only what Google defines as an election ad: issue ads and ordinary YouTube uploads are not in it. The yearly table is published as google-us-political-ads-by-year.csv.
The bigger the ad, the likelier it is video. Of 2024 ads that spent at least $10,000 each, 88.2% were video; in 2026 to date it is 94.7%. Of 2024 ads with at least 1 million impressions, 90.1% were video.
Video ads cost more each. The median 2024 video ad spent $500-$600, against $0-$100 for the median image or text ad (Google publishes spend per ad only as a range). The 2026 median video ad is in the $1,000-$1,500 band.
Only 30.9% of 2024 video ads spent under $100, compared with 64.3% of image and text ads.
Summing the lower bound of each ad's spend range, video accounts for at least 78.6% of 2024 U.S. election-ad spend on Google.
Image ads fell from 21.8% of U.S. election ads in 2020 to 11.9% in 2024.
Video ads ran for a median of 8 days in 2024, against 12 days for image ads and 14 for text ads.
How much is spent on Google election ads?
Google's data reports $3,270,947,600 in U.S. election-ad spend by 18,050 verified advertisers from May 2018 to October 31, 2026. By calendar year, its weekly spend data shows $578,361,700 in 2020, $366,829,000 in 2022 and $841,782,100 in 2024. In 2026 the total had already reached $1,082,178,400 by the week starting October 25, more than all of 2024, before the November 3 election.
The biggest single week in 2024 was the week starting October 27, at $107,513,200; in 2026 it was the week starting October 18, at $127,185,700.
4,784 verified advertisers spent money in 2024, up from 3,415 in 2020; 6,150 had done so in 2026 through October.
Spend is concentrated: the 10 biggest advertisers account for 20.0% of all U.S. election-ad spend in the data, and the median advertiser has spent $5,900 in total since 2018.
California received the most spend since 2018, $390,902,700, followed by Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The bundle holds only 545 U.S. ads first served in 2018, so we leave 2018 out of the trend.
How much is spent on political ads in a U.S. election cycle?
About $11 billion in a presidential cycle, by the ad tracker most often quoted. AdImpact, a company that tracks and sells political ad data, counts $11.2 billion for the 2023-2024 cycle and $11.6 billion projected for the 2025-2026 midterm cycle (projection made June 2026) (AdImpact). Its December 2024 review gave $11.1B for 2023-2024 (AdImpact); its later pages say $11.2 billion, so we print both. AdImpact counts broadcast, cable, radio, satellite, digital and connected TV ad buys; no government agency publishes a total of political ad spending.
The academic tracker counts a narrower slice. The Wesleyan Media Project identified nearly $4.5 billion in TV and radio ads in 2023-24 federal and governor races through October 27, 2024, excluding digital (Wesleyan Media Project). Of that, over $3.4 billion went to local broadcast or national network ads and $770 million to cable. For the 2025-26 House, Senate and governor races, Wesleyan's count across all platforms passed $7.1 billion by October 25, 2026 (Wesleyan Media Project, AdImpact data).
Totals for whole elections, not only ads, are larger. OpenSecrets, which analyses FEC filings, projected in October 2024 that the 2024 federal cycle would cost at least $15.9 billion (OpenSecrets), and on October 30, 2026 projected $11.9 billion for the 2026 federal midterms, against $8.9 billion in 2022 (OpenSecrets). It projects outside spending in 2026 federal races at $3.9 billion (OpenSecrets). The Brennan Center counts more than $1.9 billion from dark money groups in the 2024 federal cycle (Brennan Center).
September is when the money arrives. Congressional ads aired in September rose from $589M in 2022 to $821M in 2024 and more than $1B in 2026, by AdImpact's count (AdImpact). In that month, Republican advertisers aired $596.8M in congressional ads and Democratic advertisers $397.6M. Pennsylvania drew $1.2 billion in 2024, over 12% of the national total, the only state on record above $1 billion in a single year (AdImpact).
What does the Federal Election Commission record?
The FEC records what committees raise and spend, not what they spend on ads. Committees describe each payment in their own words, and FEC guidance accepts a broad purpose such as "Media" (FEC). So FEC totals are the ceiling within which ad spending sits, not a count of it.
Spender (FEC)
2019-2020
2021-2022
2023-2024
House and Senate candidates, disbursements ($ millions)
The 2023-2024 presidential total was less than half of 2020's. 109 people filed reports for the 2024 presidential race. In 2023-2024, 2,526 super PACs reported $5,013.0 million in disbursements (FEC), and super PACs made $2.7 billion of the independent expenditures (FEC).
The 2026 cycle so far. Through June 30, 2026, House and Senate candidates had reported 2,036.7 million dollars in disbursements, against 1,756.7 million at the same point in 2022 (FEC). Independent expenditures stood at 643.4 million dollars, against 419.4 million at the same point in 2022 and 736.5 million in 2024 (FEC). Super PACs held 1,280.3 million dollars in cash on June 30, 2026 (FEC).
How much political money do TV station groups book?
Hundreds of millions of dollars each in an election year, and almost nothing in between. Four large U.S. local TV station groups, Gray, Sinclair, TEGNA and E.W. Scripps, together reported $1,637.8 million in political advertising revenue in 2024 and $134.7 million in 2025, by our sum of their SEC filings: 12.2 times as much in the election year. In 2024, political ads were 13.6% of Gray's total revenue, 12.0% of TEGNA's and 14.4% of Scripps's; in 2025 they were 1.4%, 1.4% and 1.0%.
Nexstar published year-on-year changes rather than totals for 2024 and 2025, so it is left out of the sum. Sinclair's 2020 total revenue still included its regional sports networks, and political ads were 27% of its advertising revenue that year (Sinclair). In 2024 they were 26% of its local media advertising revenue (Sinclair). Political ads were 14.0% of Gray's total revenue in 2022, 10.4% of TEGNA's and 8.5% of Scripps's. Nexstar said it had stations in more than 80% of the markets with contested elections in 2024 (Nexstar), and its fourth quarter of 2024 alone brought $254 million in political revenue (Nexstar).
2026 so far. In the first half of 2026, Gray reported $113 million (Gray), Nexstar $194 million including the TEGNA stations it bought (Nexstar), Sinclair $77 million (Sinclair) and Scripps $39.8 million (Scripps). Scripps reported nearly $81 million in the third quarter and on October 28, 2026 forecast about $275 million for the year (Scripps). Graham Holdings' TV division credited a $29.3 million rise in political advertising for its third-quarter 2026 growth (Graham Holdings).
Other video and audio sellers disclose only changes. Fox said about $550 million of its TV advertising increase in fiscal 2025 came mainly from political advertising (Fox). Charter's ad sales rose $288 million in 2022 (Charter) and fell $312 million in 2025 (Charter), mainly on political revenue. Graham's TV division reported an $88.5 million political increase in 2020 (Graham Holdings), and radio group Cumulus $13.8 million in 2022 (Cumulus).
How much goes to broadcast, streaming and digital?
Broadcast TV still takes about half, and streaming is the fastest-growing share. Of 2025-26 House, Senate and governor ad spending through October 25, 2026, 52.8% went to local broadcast, 23.2% to connected TV and streaming, 12.5% to digital platforms and 8.6% to local cable, in the Wesleyan Media Project's analysis of AdImpact data (Wesleyan Media Project). AdImpact says broadcast's share of political spending fell below 50% for the first time in the 2024 cycle (AdImpact), when connected TV took 21%, or $2.3 billion (AdImpact).
For 2026, AdImpact projected in June 2026 $5.6 billion in broadcast TV (48% of the total) (AdImpact), $2.7 billion in connected TV (23%) (AdImpact) and $1.6 billion on Facebook, Google, Snapchat and X (AdImpact). It tracked $110.8 million in political CTV spending in 2025 by early June, against $58.2 million at the same point in 2023 (AdImpact).
Online platforms' own libraries add up to a smaller sum. The Brennan Center counts $1.9 billion spent on 2024 election ads on Meta, Google, Snap and X (Brennan Center), with Google, including YouTube, at $846 million and Meta at more than $1 billion (Brennan Center). Advertisers spent $1.35 billion on Google and Meta, more than half of it in the final two months (Brennan Center). Federal general-election candidates spent nearly $580 million on Meta, Google and Snapchat ads over the 2024 cycle, against almost $150 million on Meta and Google in 2022 (Wesleyan Media Project; 2022).
The 2020 presidential general election shows the older mix. Of $1.79 billion in ad spending from April 9 to Election Day, broadcast TV took $987 million (55.2%) and digital $435 million (24.3%), in Kantar/CMAG estimates published by Wesleyan (Wesleyan Media Project). In 2024, Kamala Harris put over 40 percent of her general-election media budget into digital ads and Donald Trump 22 percent (Wesleyan Media Project). Ad content differs by medium too: in the 2024 presidential race, 53.6% of Meta ads and 28.2% of Google ads were purely promotional, against 17.9% of TV ads (Wesleyan Media Project).
How many political TV ads air, and how many attack?
Millions per cycle. Presidential ads aired 2.35 million times on broadcast TV in the 2019-2020 cycle, more than double the 1.03 million of 2015-2016 and up from 1.43 million in 2011-2012 (Wesleyan Media Project). Senate races saw 2.33 million airings in 2019-2020, up from 1.33 million in 2017-2018 (Wesleyan Media Project). Over 4.9 million ads aired in federal races on broadcast and national cable from January 2019 to October 18, 2020 (Wesleyan Media Project).
Congressional and governor campaigns aired 3.66 million ads in 2017-2018 to late October 2018, 59% more than in 2014 (Wesleyan).
Senate races drew $1.2 billion in TV ad spending for nearly 1.5 million airings in 2023-24 through October 27, 2024; House races nearly $850 million for 1.2 million airings (Wesleyan; House).
In the 2024 presidential race, including primaries, pro-Democratic TV ads aired 563,588 times and pro-Republican ads 630,740 times from January 2023 to October 27, 2024 (Wesleyan).
In 2025-26, House races had well over 1.5 million broadcast airings by late October 2026, the most of any cycle since 2012 (Wesleyan), and governor races over 2 million (Wesleyan).
Outside groups sponsored over 1.5 million broadcast spots in the 2020 cycle, about one federal ad in four (Wesleyan), and 243,652 "dark money" ads aired in federal races from January 2017 to October 25, 2018 (Wesleyan).
Attack ads are common but not a fixed majority. Negative ads were 34 percent of 2020 presidential ads from April 9 to Election Day, down from 52% in 2016 and 61% in 2012 (Wesleyan Media Project). In 2018, 48 percent of federal ads after Labor Day were purely negative and 69% contained an attack (Wesleyan). In 2025-26, almost 40 percent of Senate airings are coded as attacks, a lower share than in the previous five cycles (Wesleyan).
Which platforms accept political video ads?
Google, YouTube, Meta, X, Snapchat, Reddit, Spotify and Roku accept U.S. political ads under their own rules; TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Advertising, Pinterest, Netflix and Twitch do not. Each row below is the platform's own policy page or announcement.
Platform
U.S. political ads
Key rule or date
Source
Google and YouTube
Accepted after verification
Verification required since May 2018; targeting limited to age, gender and location since January 6, 2020
The platforms that accept political ads publish them. Meta's Ad Library held more than 18 million U.S. entries for political, electoral and social issue ads as of February 2026, each kept for seven years (Meta). Meta began its 2026 pre-election block on new political ads at 12:00 a.m. PT on October 27, 2026 (Meta). In January 2020 Meta said over 85% of U.S. presidential candidates' spend on Facebook went to campaigns aimed at audiences of more than 250,000 people (Meta). X said in 2026 that it allowed political campaign ads in 14 countries, including the United States (X).
Google verifies advertisers before they can run election ads and removes the ads of those who do not. It verified more than 5,900 new U.S. election-ad accounts in 2022 (Google) and more than 8,900 new election advertisers worldwide in 2024 (Google), and removed 10.7 million election ads from unverified accounts in 2024, against 7.3M in 2023 and 2.6 million in 2022 (Google). After polls closed in 2020 it paused more than five million ads through early December (Google).
Both Google and Meta stopped political ads in the European Union in October 2025 rather than comply with the EU's new political advertising regulation: Meta from October 6, 2025 (Meta), and Google before the regulation took effect in October 2025 (Google).
What disclosure rules apply to political video ads?
A federal candidate's TV ad must show a written disclaimer for at least 4 seconds, in letters at least 4 percent of the picture height, under FEC rule 11 CFR 110.11 (eCFR, FEC). The candidate's "I approve this message" statement, if spoken over a picture, needs an image of the candidate filling at least 80 percent of the screen height (eCFR). Paid internet video ads must show an on-screen disclaimer for at least 4 seconds without the viewer clicking anything, under a rule that took effect March 1, 2023 (eCFR; FEC).
A TV or radio ad that names a federal candidate within 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary, and can reach 50,000 or more people in the race, is an "electioneering communication" (eCFR).
Anyone spending more than 10,000 dollars on those in a calendar year must report to the FEC by the next day (eCFR).
Independent expenditures of 10,000 dollars or more must be reported within 48 hours, and in the final 20 days, 1,000 dollars or more within 24 hours (eCFR; eCFR).
Broadcasters carry their own duties, set by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission:
Lowest unit charge. In the 45 days before a primary and the 60 days before a general election, stations may charge candidates no more than their lowest rate for the same class of time (eCFR, FCC rule 73.1942).
Sponsor identification. TV political ads must name the sponsor in letters at least four percent of the picture height for at least four seconds (eCFR, FCC rule 73.1212).
Political file. Stations must post each political ad request, its rate and air times online and keep the record for two years (eCFR, FCC rule 73.1943). The FCC moved these files online in stages: the big-four network stations in the top 50 markets from August 2, 2012 (FCC), all other TV stations by July 1, 2014 (FCC), cable, satellite and larger radio stations from June 24, 2016 (FCC), and the remaining radio stations by March 1, 2018 (FCC). The FCC said in 2024 that it first required political files more than 80 years ago (FCC).
AI disclosure, proposed. The FCC proposed on-air disclosure of AI-generated content in political TV and radio ads in a notice released July 25, 2024 (Federal Register), with comments due September 4, 2024; it said it was not proposing a ban (Federal Register). We found no final rule as of October 31, 2026.
The platforms set their own AI rules. Google has required election advertisers to disclose synthetic content since mid-November 2023, for image, video, and audio content (Google). Meta has required disclosure of AI-made or altered political ads in certain cases since January 2024 (Meta), and from June 1, 2026 adds its own label to ads it detects were made with third-party AI tools (Meta).
How much are political ads using AI, and what do voters think?
AI-made political ads went from almost none in 2024 to well over $100 million in 2026. The Wesleyan Media Project identified less than $50,000 in spending on AI-generated political ads in the 2024 cycle (Wesleyan Media Project). By mid-October 2026 it counted 220 ads made at least partly with AI, with more than $137 million spent on them (Wesleyan), and by October 29 more than $187 million across 289 ads (Wesleyan). It describes both as undercounts that include minor uses of AI. Of the 2026 ads, 81 percent were sponsored by Republican candidates or groups and 12 percent by Democrats, and only 27% carried an AI disclaimer (Wesleyan). As of September 4, 2026, 69% of identified AI-made ads carried none (Wesleyan).
Voters across parties want rules:
76% of U.S. adults were concerned in September 2026 that misleading AI audio or video would affect the 2026 midterms (UC San Diego, 5,016 adults, September 1-9, 2026) (UC San Diego).
43% of registered voters said in fall 2026 they had been fooled by an AI political ad (Scripps News with Talker Research) (Scripps News), and 77% of Democratic and 79% of Republican voters said there should be rules on AI in politics (Scripps News).
73.7% of U.S. adults said in May 2026 that campaigns should always have to disclose AI use in campaign messages (Verasight).
In 2024, 57% of U.S. adults were extremely or very concerned that AI would be used to spread fake information about the presidential candidates, including 56% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats (Pew Research Center, 9,720 adults, Aug 26-Sep 2, 2024). Only 20% were confident tech companies would prevent misuse of their platforms (Pew).
66% of U.S. adults in October 2023 favoured a federal ban on AI-made false or misleading images in political ads (AP-NORC).
How many people work in political organizations?
The number nearly doubles in election years. Private-sector U.S. political organizations (NAICS 813940: campaign committees, parties and political action groups) averaged 15,670 employees in 2024 and 8,879 in 2025, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (BLS; BLS): 76.5% more in the election year. The pattern repeats: 16,597 in 2020, 9,535 in 2021, 14,477 in 2022 and 8,834 in 2023 (BLS). There were 3,781 such establishments in 2024, with average annual pay of 70,406 dollars (BLS; BLS). Ad agencies, media buyers and production companies that campaigns hire are counted in their own industries, not here.
What the popular political-ad numbers really say
Five claims recur in coverage of political advertising. We traced each to the organization that produced it.
"$X billion will be spent on political ads this cycle"
These are forecasts by companies that sell ad data or buy ads, made at different times with different scopes. AdImpact first projected $10.2B for the 2023-2024 cycle in September 2023 (AdImpact), raised it to $10.69B in July 2024 (AdImpact), and reported $11.1B in its December 2024 review (AdImpact); by September 2025 it counted $11.2B (AdImpact). The final was 9.8% above its first projection. For 2021-2022 it projected about $9B in July 2021 (AdImpact) and counted $8.9B, 1.1% lower. The larger 2024 figures come from other scopes: eMarketer forecast $12.32 billion for calendar 2024 including issue ads (eMarketer, Internet Archive), and GroupM projected over $16 billion across 24 markets (GroupM, Internet Archive). For 2026, AdImpact projected $10.8B in September 2025 (AdImpact) and $11.6 billion in June 2026 (AdImpact). Use instead: a forecaster's final count, labelled with its scope and date, and never compared with another forecaster's number as if they measured the same thing. The FEC cannot settle it: it records disbursements, not ad spend.
"Streaming will take X% of political ad spend"
The forecasts ran low. AdImpact's first CTV forecast, made with CrossScreen Media in July 2021, was $1.5B for 2021-2022 (AdImpact). For 2023-2024 it projected over $1.3B in September 2023 (AdImpact), and eMarketer forecast $1.56 billion (eMarketer, Internet Archive). AdImpact's final was $2.3 billion, 21% of the cycle, 76.9% above its own early projection. For 2026 it projects $2.7 billion, 23% (AdImpact); Wesleyan's count through late October 2026 has broadcast at 53 percent and streaming at about a quarter (Wesleyan Media Project). Use instead: AdImpact's 21% final for 2024 and the Wesleyan 2026 count, labelled partial.
"Most political ads are negative"
It depends on the year, the sponsor and whether "contrast" ads count. The Wesleyan Media Project codes ads as positive, negative (focused on attacking) or contrast (both), a scheme it describes in its analysis of close to 900,000 airings in 2010 (Wesleyan Media Project). In the 2024 general election, candidates' own federal-race TV ads aired 484,924 times with a contrast tone, 444,980 times positive and 374,529 times negative (Wesleyan). Outside issue groups' ads were mostly negative: 618,009 negative airings (Wesleyan), against 89,431 for party ads (Wesleyan). Use instead: tone by sponsor, with the definition.
"Political ads don't change votes"
The research finds small effects, not none. Coppock, Hill and Vavreck tested 49 ads from the 2016 presidential campaign in 59 experiments with about 34,000 people (Science Advances, PubMed). One exposure moved candidate favorability 0.05 points on a five-point scale and vote choice 0.7 percentage points (Science Advances, Europe PMC). Kalla and Broockman's meta-analysis of 40 field experiments put the best estimate of persuasion in general elections at zero (American Political Science Review, IDEAS). Sides, Vavreck and Warshaw, using TV ad volumes from 2000–2018, found effects up and down the ballot, much larger in down-ballot races (American Political Science Review, IDEAS). Use instead: "small per ad, larger in down-ballot races", with the effect sizes.
"Deepfake ads flooded the 2024 election"
Not in paid advertising. Wesleyan found less than $50,000 spent on AI-generated political ads in the whole 2024 cycle. Meta said AI content was less than 1% of the election, political and social misinformation its fact-checkers rated in 2024 (Meta), and that its image generator rejected 590,000 requests for images of the candidates in the month before the election (Meta). The 2024 Pew figure often quoted, 57%, measures concern, not exposure (Pew Research Center). The rise in AI-made ads is a 2026 story (see the AI section above). Use instead: Wesleyan's counts by cycle.
"Meta (or Google) makes $X from political ads"
Neither company reports political ad revenue. The only primary Meta figure we found is Mark Zuckerberg's estimate on the third-quarter 2019 earnings call that ads from politicians would be less than 0.5% of Facebook's 2020 revenue (Facebook earnings call transcript). Dollar figures for Google, such as eMarketer's forecast of $553.2 million in 2024, are vendor estimates (eMarketer, Internet Archive). Use instead: advertiser spend from the platforms' own transparency data, such as our Google count above or the Brennan Center's totals.
We started from the questions people search for about political ad video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 258 figures from 33 publishers.
On October 31, 2026, each of the sourced figures on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: the Federal Election Commission's statistical summaries and the eCFR text of its rules; FCC rules and orders through the eCFR and the Federal Register; Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW open data; the 10-K, 10-Q and earnings filings of Gray, Nexstar, Sinclair, TEGNA, E.W. Scripps, Graham Holdings, Fox, Charter and Cumulus on SEC EDGAR; Wesleyan Media Project releases; AdImpact's own releases; OpenSecrets and Brennan Center reports; Pew Research Center, AP-NORC, UC San Diego, Scripps News and Verasight surveys; the journal and repository pages of the persuasion studies; and the platforms' own policy pages and announcements (Google, Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, Reddit, Spotify, Roku, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pinterest, Netflix, Twitch), some through Internet Archive captures where the live page refuses scripts. Our own figures come from Google's political-ads transparency bundle, downloaded on October 31, 2026 (last updated that day). We left out four presidential-committee advertising totals from the FEC's API because the API's public key was rate-limited during the final check, AdImpact's cycle report behind a sign-up form, Meta's Ad Library spend report (it renders only in a logged-in browser session), and GroupM's December 2023 U.S. report, which we could not load.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
VIDEO ads / all ads with First_Served_Timestamp in 2026 = 122,545 / 150,673 = 81.3%. 2026 is partial: ads first served 2026-01-01 through the bundle's last refresh on 2026-10-31, before the 2026-11-03 general election
568,430 VIDEO / 982,982 all = 57.8%. Non-video: 229,975 IMAGE and 184,577 TEXT. 2026 is partial: ads first served 2026-01-01 through the bundle's last refresh on 2026-10-31, before the 2026-11-03 general election
VIDEO ads with Spend_Range_Min_USD >= 10,000 / all ads with Spend_Range_Min_USD >= 10,000 = 14,110 / 16,006. Google publishes each ad's spend only as a USD range (e.g. 0-100, 100-200 ... 1,000-1,500 ... 3,000,000+), so per-ad spend figures here are ranges or lower-bound sums, not exact dollars
VIDEO ads with Spend_Range_Min_USD >= 10,000 / all ads with Spend_Range_Min_USD >= 10,000 = 19,734 / 20,836. Google publishes each ad's spend only as a USD range (e.g. 0-100, 100-200 ... 1,000-1,500 ... 3,000,000+), so per-ad spend figures here are ranges or lower-bound sums, not exact dollars. 2026 is partial: ads first served 2026-01-01 through the bundle's last refresh on 2026-10-31, before the 2026-11-03 general election
Median of Spend_Range_Min_USD across 112,334 VIDEO ads falls in the published 500-600 range; across 56,621 IMAGE+TEXT ads it falls in 0-100 (lower median). Google publishes each ad's spend only as a USD range (e.g. 0-100, 100-200 ... 1,000-1,500 ... 3,000,000+), so per-ad spend figures here are ranges or lower-bound sums, not exact dollars
Median of Spend_Range_Min_USD among VIDEO ads: 2022 500-600, 2024 500-600, 2026 1000-1500. Google publishes each ad's spend only as a USD range (e.g. 0-100, 100-200 ... 1,000-1,500 ... 3,000,000+), so per-ad spend figures here are ranges or lower-bound sums, not exact dollars. 2026 is partial: ads first served 2026-01-01 through the bundle's last refresh on 2026-10-31, before the 2026-11-03 general election
ads whose published spend range is 0-100 (or 0-0) / all ads of that type. Google publishes each ad's spend only as a USD range (e.g. 0-100, 100-200 ... 1,000-1,500 ... 3,000,000+), so per-ad spend figures here are ranges or lower-bound sums, not exact dollars
sum(Spend_Range_Min_USD) for VIDEO / sum for all ads. A lower-bound share, not exact spend; the open-ended top band and in-range spend are not counted. Google publishes each ad's spend only as a USD range (e.g. 0-100, 100-200 ... 1,000-1,500 ... 3,000,000+), so per-ad spend figures here are ranges or lower-bound sums, not exact dollars
sum of Spend_USD in google-political-ads-advertiser-stats.csv over 18,050 advertisers whose Regions includes US (18,000 with spend above $0). Google rounds advertiser spend to $100. The weekly file sums to $3,275,040,300 for the same advertisers; the per-state advertiser file sums higher because each state row is rounded separately
advertisers sorted by lifetime Spend_USD; top 10 sum / total. Top 100 = 52.82%. Cumulative spend first passes 50% at advertiser #84. Lifetime totals across cycles; names deliberately not listed
sum of Spend_USD in google-political-ads-advertiser-weekly-spend.csv for U.S. advertisers, weeks starting in 2020. Week attribution follows Week_Start_Date, so a week straddling New Year counts in the earlier year
sum of Spend_USD in google-political-ads-advertiser-weekly-spend.csv for U.S. advertisers, weeks starting in 2022. Week attribution follows Week_Start_Date, so a week straddling New Year counts in the earlier year
sum of Spend_USD in google-political-ads-advertiser-weekly-spend.csv for U.S. advertisers, weeks starting in 2024. Week attribution follows Week_Start_Date, so a week straddling New Year counts in the earlier year
sum of weekly Spend_USD for U.S. advertisers, weeks starting in 2026 (last week in file: 2026-10-25, possibly incomplete). Not adjusted for inflation; the 2026 figure is a midterm-year partial and includes ballot-measure and state races. 2026 is partial: ads first served 2026-01-01 through the bundle's last refresh on 2026-10-31, before the 2026-11-03 general election
weekly Spend_USD summed across U.S. advertisers, max week in 2026. 2026 is partial: ads first served 2026-01-01 through the bundle's last refresh on 2026-10-31, before the 2026-11-03 general election
sum of Spend_USD by Country_Subdivision_Primary across advertisers in google-political-ads-advertiser-geo-spend.csv. Next: Texas $200,874,500, Georgia $196,040,800. Per-row rounding makes state sums slightly higher than the national total
distinct Advertiser_ID with weekly Spend_USD > 0 in weeks starting in the year. 2022: 4,375. 2026 is partial: ads first served 2026-01-01 through the bundle's last refresh on 2026-10-31, before the 2026-11-03 general election
Dataset limit, not a market figure: the 2018 data in today's bundle appears truncated (ads/advertisers may have aged out or been removed). Our 2018 count should not be compared with later years
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
No official total of political ad spending exists. The FEC records what committees raise and spend, not what they spend on ads; the cycle totals here come from a vendor (AdImpact) and an academic tracker (Wesleyan) with different scopes.
2026 figures are partial. The general election is on November 3, 2026; every 2026 figure stops at the date shown and most are projections or counts to date.
Our Google count covers only verified election advertisers. Issue ads, unverified advertisers and ordinary YouTube uploads are not in Google's data, spend per ad is published only as a range, and 2018 coverage is thin.
Station-group revenue is not market revenue. The four groups we sum own a large share of U.S. local TV stations but not all of them, and their footprints changed through acquisitions (Nexstar bought TEGNA in 2026).
Vendor figures are labelled. AdImpact, eMarketer and GroupM sell ad data or buy ads; their projections are marked as projections with the date made.
AI-ad counts are undercounts. Wesleyan identifies AI use from the ads and disclosures it can see, and its counts include minor uses of AI.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/political-ad-video-statistics#DRV-003. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Political Ad Video Statistics." Last verified Oct 31, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/political-ad-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, October 31). Political ad video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/political-ad-video-statistics
MLA
“Political Ad Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 31 Oct. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/political-ad-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Political Ad Video Statistics.” Last modified October 31, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/political-ad-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_political_ad_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Political Ad Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/political-ad-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-10-31}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is January 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Oct 31, 2026: First published with 258 figures from 33 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How much is spent on political ads in the U.S.?
AdImpact, which tracks and sells political ad data, counts $11.2 billion for the 2023-2024 cycle and $8.9B for 2021-2022, and in June 2026 projected $11.6 billion for 2025-2026. No government agency publishes a total of political ad spending.
What share of political ads are video?
On Google, 66.5% of the U.S. election ads first served in 2024 were video, and 81.3% in 2026 through October 31, in our count of Google's transparency data. Of 2024 ads that spent at least $10,000 each, 88.2% were video.
How much political ad money goes to connected TV?
AdImpact's final count for 2023-2024 put connected TV at 21% of political ad spending. For 2026 House, Senate and governor races to October 25, the Wesleyan Media Project counts 52.8% on local broadcast and 23.2% on streaming.
How much do TV stations make from political ads?
Gray, Sinclair, TEGNA and E.W. Scripps together reported $1,637.8 million in political revenue in 2024 and $134.7 million in 2025, by our sum of their SEC filings.
How long must the disclaimer appear in a political TV ad?
Under FEC rules, the written disclaimer in a federal candidate's TV ad must be visible for at least 4 seconds, in letters at least 4 percent of the picture height. Paid internet video ads must show an on-screen disclaimer for at least 4 seconds.
Do platforms require AI disclosure in political ads?
Google has required election advertisers to disclose synthetic content since mid-November 2023, and Meta since January 2024 in certain cases. The FCC proposed an on-air disclosure rule in a notice released July 25, 2024 but had not adopted one as of October 31, 2026.
Which platforms ban political ads?
TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Advertising, Pinterest, Netflix and Twitch do not accept political ads, by their own policies; TikTok set out its ban on October 3, 2019. X, which banned them from November 22, 2019, began accepting them again in the U.S. in 2023.
Do political ads change votes?
Their measured effects are small. In 59 experiments on 2016 presidential ads, one exposure moved vote choice by 0.7 percentage points on average, and a meta-analysis of 40 field experiments put the general-election persuasion effect at zero.
