This article by John Sides, Lynn Vavreck and Christopher Warshaw is published by the Cambridge University Press. Here is an excerpt:

How much does televise campaign advertising affect election outcomes in the United States? This has been a pertinent question since the first televised advertisements were aired during a 1950 Connecticut Senate election and then by President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 campaign (Benoit Reference Benoit2018). Answering this question helps illuminate the motivations behind voting behavior, the influence of mass communication on the electorate, and how much candidates’ resources and messages can help them win elections. Moreover, the aggregate effect of televised advertising may determine the actual winner in at least some races, thereby affecting the composition of government and the direction of public policy.

Political campaigns spend a great deal of money on television advertising. According to Fowler, Ridout, and Franz (Reference Fowler, Ridout and Franz2016), over $2.75 billion was spent to air over 4.25 million ads in the 2015–2016 election cycle. This includes about 1 million airings in the presidential race, 1 million airings in Senate races, 620,000 airings in House races, and 1.25 million airings in other races at the state and local levels. Spending on television advertising constitutes about 45% of a typical congressional campaign’s budget (Jacobson and Carson Reference Jacobson and Carson2019).

Research on televised political advertising has made significant progress in estimating its influence on voting behavior (for overviews, see Fowler, Franz, and Rideout Reference Fowler, Franz and Rideout2016; Goldstein and Ridout Reference Goldstein and Ridout2004; Jacobson Reference Jacobson2015). Studies have found associations between television advertising and individual vote intentions, aggregate vote shares, or both (e.g., Huber and Arceneaux Reference Huber and Arceneaux2007; Rideout and Franz Reference Ridout and Franz2011; Sides and Vavreck Reference Sides and Vavreck2013; Spenkuch and Toniatti Reference Spenkuch and Toniatti2018). In presidential general elections, the persuasive influence of television advertising appears to be larger than that of other electioneering such as canvassing or mail, the influence of which is quite small, even zero (Kalla and Broockman Reference Kalla and Broockman2018).

See more information on this article here.