Analyzing the Biden & Trump marketing campaigns: Which one is making the most impact?

by Richard Carufel | Oct 12, 2020 | Public Relations

$Concept of American opinion, fractured before the election of the President of the United States.$

In this year’s fiery and often explosive presidential election, Donald Trump and Joe Biden both have their stables of loyalty among voters, but are battling fiercely for an ever-elusive group of undecideds—and their respective marketing campaigns may have the ability to move the needle significantly.

New research from integrated digital marketing firm 97th Floor compares the 2020 election marketing campaigns of Trump and Biden, highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each marketing campaign, compares key messages, tactics and budget spends, and shows which candidate is having the most impact on voters on specific marketing channels, including campaign websites, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, email marketing, social media, SEO, design, mobile applications, and television commercials.

Trump isn’t sharing his plans, but Biden is

“This presidential election is shaping up to be one of the most contentious of our lifetime and, from what we’re seeing, the Trump and Biden digital marketing campaigns couldn’t be more different,” said Paxton Gray, CEO of 97th Floor, in a news release. “Our study found big marketing mistakes on both sides, which could be costing the candidates campaign dollars, time, and votes. With the election only [weeks] away, the candidates are running out of time to prepare improvements that could make a difference before ballot day, but we hope this study provides insights on the digital front for future campaigns.”

Biden’s website is busy, Trump’s steadfast

Key highlights of the 2020 97th Floor Presidential Election Marketing Campaigns study include:

Google Ads

The Trump campaign paid for the keywords “how to impeach trump,” along with “speedo swim trunks,” “mens xxl swim shorts,” “trump is a disaster,” and “trump fraud.”
Florida is getting the most ad dollars. Florida alone accounts for $32.7M in Google Ad spend and 8.51 percent of ad budget between the two candidates—the largest percentage of any state.

Trump consistently outspends Biden

Florida is getting the most digital ad dollars

Facebook Ads

The Trump team’s Facebook Ads ask users to take one-sided surveys like “Official Democrat Corruption Accountability Survey” that sow distrust in Democrats, priming the user for the final question, How much will you be donating today?
Trump’s most engaged audience skews older, Biden’s is more female.

Trump spends more, but Biden moves fast

Trump creates more ad variants than Biden

TV spots

The Biden campaign is capturing swing state markets, while Trump’s campaign is spending more on the national market.
Florida the priority for the Biden campaign’s televised commercial push, with $4,460,000 spent so far (27 percent of their total commercial budget). The Biden campaign has created five different ads specifically for Florida. All the while the Trump campaign has ignored the Florida market.

Biden captures state markets, while Trump pushes national

Email

The Trump campaign lies about the content in his emails. Using subject lines like “Supreme Court Choice Attached.” But, when readers open the email there are no attachments or mentions of the enticing content in the subject lines.

Biden sends significantly fewer emails than Trump

Trump’s bait and switch emails

Social media

77 percent of Trump supporters will mention Democrats over social media, while 38 percent of Biden’s supporters mention Republicans over social media.