Joe Biden's Digital Ads Are Disappearing. Not a Good Sign, Strategists Say.

[Zorro]

Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidential campaign has sharply scaled back his online advertising, cutting spending so severely since August that he is now investing only a fraction of what his top rivals are on Facebook and Google, the two dominant internet platforms.

In a race where many voters are following politics on their smartphones, Mr. Biden’s pullback is an unusual and potentially worrisome sign about his appeal among the Democratic activists, young people and donors who are especially engaged on social media. Candidates rarely withdraw so much money from their online campaigns unless they are seeing weak results in online fund-raising, according to interviews with digital strategists.

As the candidates make their final pitches to donors before a quarterly fund-raising deadline at midnight Monday, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and other top rivals are outspending Mr. Biden online. He was only the sixth-biggest Democratic spender on Facebook ads in the seven days ending Thursday, even as he was at the center of a swirling national controversy involving President Trump, Ukraine and impeachment.

Instead, he has shifted his spending priorities toward traditional tactics like buying television ads in Iowa. But that strategy has not paid dividends so far: Ms. Warren, a leading rival for the 2020 nomination, recently surpassed him in a key Iowa poll.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/us/politics/joe-biden-ads.html

[NurseJackie]

1. Hmm. Interesting observation...

Hmm. Interesting observation... but it remains to be seen if the predictions and tealeaf reading are accurate.

[Guilded Lilly]

2. There is a big, real life out there beyond Facebook and Smartphones and polls.

[cwydro]

3. Didn't they announce that they were raising lots of money just in the last week?

Seems strange.

[BeyondGeography]

4. This is called spinning

The Biden campaign cast its diminishing digital footprint as part of a broader strategy.

“Our campaign invested a robust digital spend early on to build out supporter lists, outspending all other campaigns from our launch through most of the summer,” said T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for Mr. Biden. “By strategically front-loading our investment, we were able to rapidly expand our reach early, instead of meting out our spend over a longer period of time.”

Mr. Biden’s digital spending has ticked up in recent days, as he bought a slate of Facebook ads related to Mr. Trump’s efforts to have Ukraine investigate the Biden family (“Stand with Joe,” some ads say). The exploding story line about foreign interference and impeachment has been good for Mr. Biden’s bottom line: A campaign official said the past week was Mr. Biden’s best for fund-raising since the second week of his campaign.

[cwydro]

8. Lol, "meting out our spend."

People actually talk this way?

[Cha]

5. It doesn't seem "strange" to me.

[cwydro]

6. I was commenting on the fact that the article says the cutback in advertising indicates poor

fundraising results.

His campaign recently said they were having great success in fundraising, so that makes no sense to me.

[UncleNoel]

7. Sounds like spin to me!

Trying to push the narrative that he is not attracting the online world. They have no idea whether or not his spending prioties will reap dividends or not until we have some post-whiistleblower polls.

[Cha]

13. Yeah, I take all that with a boulder of salt.

Too much crap coming down the pike.

[Butterflylady]

21. I'm not worried

In the least.

[NYMinute]

16. An astute leader whether in business or politics

figures out what the profit centers are quickly and spends on those to get a higher return, cutting off divisions that are either losing money or are not paying back much more than the burn.

A lot of companies also curtail advertising during Christmas season because of the fear of drowning out the message during Christmas sales and when people are focused on the holidays rather than campaigns. People also have less money to spend during the holidays so many ads are wasted.

This actually shows Biden and his team will make a great administration.

[cwydro]

19. Makes sense, I guess.

[Thekaspervote]

11. Nor to me... one does what works. The voting base that supports Biden are not as digitally savvy

And might not be seeing digital ads.

It is spin indeed.

[Cha]

14. I'm thinking

Joe's Team is savvy(speaking of savvy) enough to know when and where to put their money for the most bang for the buck!

[Thekaspervote]

18. Exactly!!

Such silliness that Mr. Biden hires the best advisors, some from president Obama’s team, but a pundit thinks they know better and it’s not a good sign??

[still_one]

9. Another former Politico asshole working for the NY Times. When the funding numbers come out

and if Biden's funding numbers are good, is Goldmacher going to tell us his assessment about Biden's fund raising abilities were wrong, or will he just quietly change the subject?

I cancelled my subscription to the NY Times and went to the Washington Post when they blamed the "hubris of President Obama and the Democrats" for causing the republicans to reject climate change:

"The Republican Party’s fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html

[SharonClark]

10. Keep in mind this article is about Biden's current DIGITAL strategy

I was surprised by some of the questionable cause-and-effects stated in the article and the assumption that a digital presence is the best use of campaign resources for Biden at this time.

IMHO, Biden needs to do well in Iowa (top 3) and then win big in the next few contests. A good ground game and teevee buys may be the better strategy than facebook and google.

[Thekaspervote]

12. This!

[Cha]

15. Yeah!

[George II]

17. We're a long way from February 2020.

[SKKY]

20. I literally know of ZERO people who pay attention to political adds on digital platforms...

...most still read/watch the news.