Barack Obama's campaign spent at least $3.47 million on online advertising related purchases between January and April. The biggest recipient of the Democratic Presidential hopeful's online ad dollars was Google.

The search giant scored over 82 percent of money spent on online media buys for the Illinois Senator's campaign this year through April, according to information compiled from Federal Election Commission filings. More than $2.8 million was paid to Google, as listed by Obama for America in its itemized FEC reports.

After spending about $640,000 in January on online advertising, the campaign pumped its online ad budget up to over $1.9 million in February. Expenditures tapered to about $888,000 the following Month. Filings show spending of only around $234,000 in April. However, previous monthly reports suggest more April online ad payments will be reported in the future; Google didn't even appear in April spending data supplied by the campaign.

Some estimate as much as $3 billion could be spent by political campaigns leading up to the November election, so a few million seems miniscule. However, the FEC reports offer a glimpse into how the presidential campaign with the most cash is allocating its online spending.

Like countless commercial advertisers, the Obama camp has gravitated towards performance-based ad buys, and not only on Google. The other top recipients of his campaign's online ad dollars specialize in cost-per-action ads as well. In addition to Yahoo search ads, payments to performance ad networks including Specific Media, Pulse360, Microsoft-owned DrivePM and AOL-owned Quigo also showed up in FEC filings reflecting spending between January and April.

While it appears the bulk of Obama's online ad budget was spent on Google and other performance-based media, a small portion did flow towards direct buys on Web sites including Politico ($36,000), CNN.com ($24,000), and Gothamist ($2,800). Those most likely involved CPM-based display ads.

Microsoft also was listed as a recipient of online ad payments, though it is unclear whether those listings refer to MSN's display ads, sponsored search results, or both. The company received about $73,000 for online advertising between January and April according to FEC filings. Online video ad network Broadband Enterprises also garnered $80,000 from Obama's campaign in March. Missing from the reports are the names of other prominent ad networks like AOL's Advertising.com and Valueclick.

And while the news and political sites and blogs hoping to gain from election year spending are barely represented in Obama's reports, many obtained money indirectly through those Google and other ad network buys.

While Yahoo has served an abundance of online display ads during the primary season, the FEC reports indicate the company saw just a sliver of Obama's ad dollars so far this year. Compared to Google's millions, it appears about $180,000 was spent on Yahoo search ads; meanwhile payment notes indicate approximately $172,000 went towards display ads seen on Yahoo's site.

Indeed, it is not clear how much spending on Yahoo and Google went towards sponsored search ads as opposed to display ads, though there are indications. There seems to be an enormous disparity in money spent on Google AdWords sponsored links versus display ads in its content network. Itemized payments show only about $18,000 was paid to "Google Image Domain" -- possibly meaning Google's AdSense display network. In comparison, about $2.8 million was paid to "Google Inc," possibly for ads seen on Google's own site. Neither the Obama campaign, nor Yahoo and Google responded to ClickZ's inquiries regarding Obama's FEC reports.

Among social networking sites, Facebook appears to be the winner, scoring about $47,000 in online ad dollars from the Obama camp. Some of those line items were payments of less than $100, indicating some Facebook purchases may have been made by state or local branches of the campaign. MySpace collected about $11,500 from Obama for America through April, while Community Connect, publisher of ethnic and lifestyle-oriented social networks, took in about $5,000.

Online local media outlets were also beneficiaries of Obama's still active primary battle for the Democratic nomination. The campaign paid about $250,000 to local online media buying firm Centro through April, though some of that money most likely went towards creative services. The company designed and placed expandable video-enabled banners aimed at Texas and Ohio primary voters in late February.

Source: clickz.com