Ever since Meta removed the two-year prohibition it had placed on former President Donald Trump earlier in the year, the Facebook and Instagram platforms have become a significant part of his campaign fundraising strategy. Since the New York City indictments against Trump were announced in April, the exposure his campaign ads have gained on his Facebook and Instagram accounts has greatly increased.
Since Meta relaxed its two-year ban on former President Donald Trump earlier this year, his campaign fundraisers have been using its Facebook and Instagram platforms as a critical tool.These outlets provide Trump with access to millions of potential donors who have not been a part of his traditional political base, a resource that he cannot get from his own social media site, Truth Social, or from his numerous mass emails.Meta reports that it has 202 million daily active users in the U.S. and Canada, offering a huge audience to people viewing Trump's political ads.Beginning in April, when he was first charged in New York City, the number of impressions garnered by his campaign ads on Facebook and Instagram have gone up significantly, according to the company's data.The most popular post lately has been Trump's Aug. 24 mugshot in Georgia, the first ever for a former president - it has been seen in at least 18 versions of the same ad and has earned over 1 million impressions in the last week.The ads also feature links to a fundraising page for the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, which helps fund the Trump campaign and a leadership PAC (Save America) dedicated to covering the ex-president's legal expenses.The Trump camp has reported raising over $9 million since he was charged in Georgia.
The Trump campaign did not disclose the amount of fundraising attained through Facebook, yet a Trump digital fundraiser implied to CNBC that this increase is likely due to the previous president's reinstated attempt to bring in money through the Silicon Valley-owned networks. The fundraiser, unnamed for the purpose of freely discussing internal campaign strategy, doubted the statement. Social media impressions are observed as one of the most significant metrics, mainly for digital ad buyers, since it stands for "the number of times any content from your page or about your page entered a person's screen," according to Facebook. Andrew Arenge, the director of operations for the University of Pennsylvania's program on opinion research and election studies, revealed to CNBC that higher impressions can be a decisive variable in the process of generating funds for campaigns. Arenge's team examines digital ad spending for Democrats and Republicans alike. He went on to explain to CNBC through X, formerly known as Twitter, that "the value of running fundraising ads on digital versus say television, is that there is less friction between when an individual sees the fundraising appeal and when they can actually donate the money, so getting an ad in front of more eyeballs should provide more opportunity for the campaign to see more people click on the ad thus an opportunity to raise more money." Trump's Facebook ad impressions have cost his political operation very little, making it a cost-effective way to raise money for both his campaign and legal defense efforts. According to data from digital ad tracker FWIW, the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee spent just over $77,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads in the week he was charged in Georgia. The Meta ad archive displays that since early June, the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee has spent more than $500,000 on digital Meta ads. No public data is showing how much the Meta ads have specifically earned for the Trump campaign. Political strategists assert that Trump's regaining access to Facebook is essential to his ability to raise money electronically and serves as a lifeline to his 2024 campaign, despite his legal trials. Alex Conant, a partner at Firehouse Strategies and former advisor to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently commented to CNBC that "online donations are the lifeblood of Trump's campaign. Without access to those donors, he'd struggle to raise sufficient resources." Trump's campaign raised more than all of his Republican primary opponents in the second quarter, according to Federal Election Commission records. Despite the fact that his rivals had difficulty gathering contributions from 40,000 people in order to be eligible for the first Republican debate, Trump has gathered at least 400,000 individuals to donate to his campaign since it began last year through June, according to NBC News. Brad Parscale, who was Trump's original 2020 campaign manager and a key component of the former president's digital fundraising platform during their triumphant 2016 White House run, informed CNBC that many of his company's customers noticed significant digital fundraising success after the mugshot was released. Parscale, founder and partner at digital fundraising firm Campaign Nucleus, currently has the Trump campaign and Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump's presidential run, as clients, according to FEC records. He stated that "since President Trump posted his mugshot, Campaign Nucleus has witnessed substantially increased activity, and many of our clients have seen an increase of up to 3x their normal fundraising."
Since regaining access to his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, Trump has increased his presence as his legal woes worsen. In August, Trump, along with 18 other cohorts, was indicted in Georgia for supposedly illegal activity in attempting to overturn the 2020 election in the state. Additionally, in New York, he stands charged with falsifying business documents related to the concealment of hush money payouts to two women. Special counsel Jack Smith has also charged Trump with two federal cases concerning how he dealt with confidential government accounts after his departure from office, and for endeavoring to toss out the victory of President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Christian Ferry, a veteran Republican operative who once worked for Senator John McCain and Trump confidante Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), stated that the President's Facebook ads are symbolic of a "desperate need" to raise money for his campaign and legal fees. Ferry commented that, regardless if Trump is liked or not, the more platforms he has access to, the higher the possibility of obtaining small-dollar donations.
Although Trump has been banned from the sites, his political team continued to advertise on the platform well into August 2021 as evidenced by archived posts. Facebook's 2019 ruling permitting politicized ads containing falsified information to stay on the site without any consequences has granted Trump the ability to disseminate falsehoods on his posts. For example, some of his recent ads deceptively allege that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis allows violent criminals to run uncontrolled in her city, which is false; reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, violent crime in the area has actually dropped by 20% in the past year.
A representative for Trump's campaign did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Meta declined to comment when asked on Monday about the Trump advertisements on its platforms.Trump's re-entry into Meta platforms will bring his messaging to an audience with an evolving demographic, given that recent polling indicates more young people are using Instagram.Data from a Pew Research survey from 2022 revealed that 62% of teens ages 13 to 17 had recently been using Instagram, whereas the same age group's usage of Facebook had dropped to 32% by 2021 according to the poll.However, research by Insider Intelligence has shown that Facebook's user demographic has grown in recent years. The data firm predicts that by 2026, around 28% of Facebook's users will be between 18 and 34 years old.Financial limitations of political networkApart from the new Meta ads, Trump's political network has had difficulty in raising funds to support his presidential campaign as well as related legal fees. According to FEC records, his leadership PAC, Save America, brought in more than $15 million yet spent over $20 million on legal fees in the first half of the year.By the beginning of the second half of the year, Save America had only $3 million left in its coffers. The Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, which accounts for the majority of Meta ad spending for Trump, raised more than $53 million in the same period and transferred over $31 million to various affiliated committees, such as Save America.It was left with just over $5 million going into the second half of the year.
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