Political advertising is continuously evolving, moving from a predominantly print-based medium to one that includes radio, television, and digital advertising on social media platforms, websites, search engines, and more. Before delving headfirst into creating ads for your campaign, it’s best to familiarize yourself with the basics.
What is political advertising?
Overall, political advertising is widely known as a type of campaigning that enables candidates to speak to voters directly and influence the political debate. Political advertising allows candidates to reach audiences who might not otherwise have been following the race. Candidates can increase their name recognition, bring attention to crucial issues, and expose the flaws of their competitors by running advertisements across multiple media platforms. Additionally, political advertising is used in ballot initiatives, GOTV efforts, voter registration, and more.
Why is digital advertising key to a campaign’s success?
There are various advertising channels for reaching voters (print, radio, etc.). Digital advertising helps you target the exact audience of voters you need to win and lets you reach a more granular audience than traditional advertising methods like broadcast television. Additionally, it allows you to monitor progress daily and pivot messaging as you see fit. In the 2019-2020 election cycle, compared to the 2016 election cycle, political candidates and interest groups tripled spending on digital political ads. If there’s a moment to embrace digital marketing for your political campaigns, that moment is now. With midterms around the corner, a digital strategy will help drive winning results.
What tools and technology could help move the needle?
When running digital marketing political campaigns, you’ll want to work with a political advertising partner with access to a demand-side platform (DSP) and technical know-how to place your digital ads across the internet. The right technology will have features that will help you plan your campaign, launch it and optimize it smoothly and efficiently—key elements for political campaigns to look out for include: match rates and access to brand-safe inventory. According to a Pew Research Center survey, approximately 65% of U.S. adults use digital sources to learn about upcoming elections. Now is the time to create a competitive advantage by capturing voters’ attention with digital ads.
How can DSPolitical support your campaign?
We’ve built DemocraticAds.com to ensure our clients have the best access to programmatic digital advertising across the internet. DemocraticAds.com is the original self-serve platform trusted by thousands of candidates and causes since 2014 to reach voters and win, putting the power of digital advertising campaigns in the hands of down-ballot candidates across the country. Discover the powerful capabilities of DemocraticAds.com for yourself.