Trump Banking on Cheap Facebook Ads to Win Again

New York Times: “The campaign’s digital strategy has the advantages of far more time, money and data than it did the previous cycle. But its chief asset remains the same as in 2016: a compulsively performative, pugilistic and norm-shredding candidate who demonstrably will stop at nothing to win — so prolific a generator of outrageous ad content that one 2016 R.N.C. operative likens working for him to ‘fishing with dynamite.'”

“The dynamite, as in 2016, takes the form of Facebook ads with thousands of barely detectable variants, each targeting voting groups in specific locales with specific issue interests and demographic profiles. Turning passive viewers of these ads into small donors is among Parscale’s key objectives, and not only for the money: Every online donor provides personal data for the campaign to use and the investment in Trump makes it almost certain that someone will show up to the polls and vote for him.”

“The Facebook ads themselves have always been cheap, but as The Atlantic recently reported, they now can cost 40 percent less because of coronavirus-induced market tremors.”