Trump's campaign booked out YouTube's homepage for Election Day. YouTube won't let that happen again — but insists it's nothing to do with Trump.
- YouTube confirmed to CNBC on Monday that from next year, it won't let advertisers book out its main homepage slots — also known as its masthead — for days at a time.
- Donald Trump's campaign booked out the masthead for Election Day and the days running up to it.
- Google insisted the decision has nothing to do with Trump's campaign, and is intended to give advertisers "budget flexibility."
- Both Trump and Joe Biden have spent huge amounts on digital advertising for the election, and Biden has actually outspent Trump on Google ads. Google owns YouTube.
- A communications expert from the University of Oxford questioned whether Trump booking out YouTube's masthead on Election Day would actually sway any voters.
President Donald Trump's huge YouTube ad spend is the last time any campaign will be able to book out the platform's homepage for days at a time.
YouTube confirmed to CNBC Monday that from 2021, advertisers won't be able to book out its homepage slot for a whole day — as Trump has done on Election Day.
Trump's YouTube ad strategy became apparent in February, when he reserved the banner ads on YouTube's homepage for the days leading up to, and including, Election Day. Per the New York Times, it costs roughly $2 million per day to book that slot, also also known as YouTube's "masthead."
Trump also booked out the YouTube masthead for 96 hours in August, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.
YouTube denied its decision had anything to do with the election.
"This change gives advertisers more budget flexibility and applies across all verticals — not just political advertisers," a YouTube spokesperson told CNBC.
YouTube's parent company Google said the change was not connected "in any way" to the presidential election.
Biden actually spent more on Google ads than Trump
Despite Trump's YouTube blitzes, Biden actually spent more than him on Google ads.
Google's transparency report for "Biden for President" shows an overall spend of $80.4 million, while "Donald J. Trump for President" has spent $76 million.
But Trump appears to have spent more money on individual ads — his $76 million was used to place 26,811 ads, while Biden's $80 million got him 56,720, Google's data shows. This means Trump spent an average of $2,835 per ad, while Biden only spent $1,410.
This could suggest that Trump's strategy was more focused on big-ticket ad spends — such as booking out the YouTube masthead.
"In some way, buying ads on YouTube makes sense as it is not only a popular social media platform but also an increasingly important news sources for many Americans," Felix Simon, a political communications expert at the Oxford Internet Institute, told Business Insider.
Simon cited a September Pew Survey that found 26% Americans said they got news on YouTube.
Nonetheless, Simon questioned the effectiveness of buying out YouTube's masthead on Election Day.
"It's extremely unlikely that these ads will sway anyone's opinion or voting intention so late in the game, which begs the question why the Trump campaign has bought these spaces at this time in the first place," he said.
The 2020 presidential race has seen a ballooning overall spend on digital and social media advertising. Bloomberg reported both the Democrat and Republican campaigns spent more twice on Facebook advertising than they did in 2016.
According to Facebook's Ad Library, Trump has spent more than $126 million on Facebook ads — that's combining the ad spend from Donald Trump's official page plus the ads from the "Team Trump" page — while Biden spent $98.8 million overall.