Political Campaign Advertising
You Don't Need Russian Hackers to Win an Election.
Campaign advertising is changing at a phenomenal rate and candidates who don’t buy in will be left behind. Voter targeting has been refined to borderline-creepy levels. The platforms we spend all of our time on know us better than we know ourselves. Why? Because we show them with our digital actions every single day. We can now target individuals who are absolutely guaranteed to vote and meet them wherever they are as many times as we want. On the couch, at the dentist office, at night in bed. A personal, one-on-one consultation with each member of the voting public.
It’s a great time to be a candidate – but only if you know how to play the game.
Tell us a little about your campaign and get a FREE custom mailer design for your campaign sure to get the votes you need.
The Game Plan for a Win
Know Your Demographics
We’re all familiar with the old saying, “Don’t tell me, show me.” No place is this more true than with your electorate. Thankfully, your local board of elections has made it easy to “show you” who the electorate is and how they vote. Publicly available information will break down the profile of registered voters to far more detail than anyone cares to observe. Want to target male, blue eyed democrats over 5’9″ tall that vote in off-year elections? No problem. Of course it wouldn’t be worth the effort to target in that level of detail, but the sweet spot lies somewhere in between that example and just marketing to everyone in your city, county or state.
The 2nd element is an understanding of which issues resonate with your voter base. This is the more subjective of the 2 and requires a bit more insight. The issues that speak to a more diverse urban district will be vastly different than a rural election between 2 very similar county candidates. Furthermore, important issues change over time. In 2001 national security was at the forefront. In 2008 it was the economy. In 2018 the opioid epidemic and sexual abuse is of far greater importance. Know your issues and know the times you live in.
Know Who You Are
In product advertising we have this little thing called the “USP” or Unique Selling Position. It’s just like it sounds. It’s you, the candidate’s, unique set of qualifications and experience that sets you apart from the competition and makes you the clearly best choice for the position.
This is where Updraft can really begin to help. A public servant not well versed in sales would probably list off a very broad and eye-glazing list of general bullet points that are easy to ignore. “Well frankly I have the most experience, am the most knowledgeable, and I’m tall and handsome.” Through our interview process we’ll draw out those 3 or 4 primary qualifications that the other candidates don’t have. For example, in a race for county judge, our client might state he has the most experience. Digging deeper we may learn that he has spent time as both a prosecutor and a defense lawyer. He also practiced as a JAG lawyer in the military and is called on multiple times a year through referrals to defend women in domestic abuse trials. See the difference? The key is to then create ad copy around those deeper points to make an emotional connection with the electorate and then back it up with the unique qualifications.
Show the Voters
This is where it gets fun. As an advertiser well versed in a variety of media and platforms, we dive into our advertising toolbox and bring out the right tools for the job based on the candidate and budget.
- Facebook Ads - If you only have $100 to spend on your campaign, it's all going to Facebook Ads. In other words, in today's world there is so much attention focused at Facebook and the advertising is so cheap and targeted and there are so many ad formats that you shouldn't entertain any other media platforms until Facebook is covered. With a custom audience, you can actually upload your prime voter list and target specifically those voters. Facebook will match the names and addresses with users and then create an audience of just those users to advertise to. Zero wasted ad spend. There's just no better way to get your message to the voters. A vibrant and active Facebook page can also work to amplify your message via shares by reducing costs and adding social proof.
- YouTube - With the explosion of video media YouTube has become a major player not just because it's where videos live, but because of the advertising options available and the low price. While it lacks some of the super-specific targeting like Facebook has, we can still dial in to a given electorate through radius targeting and demographics. The key here is relevance. A user has to realize in that first 5 seconds the video is playing that this is information highly important to them and they should stick around to watch. This is done with local visual triggers to keep a viewer locked in. The great part is that in the skippable pre-roll format, you don't pay until the viewer watches 1 minute of video. Updraft can consistently get 25% view rates at a cost of $0.15 each. A 1-minute sales video sales pitch to a voter for 15 pennies? Sign me up!
- Direct Mail - Updraft is pro-direct mail, but not at the expense of some of the less expensive and more effective digital counterparts. The positives about direct mail is that we can quickly reach every household with a targeted message. The negatives are cost. It's so disproportionately expensive compared to Facebook Ads that in a campaign with limited budget we'd only serve these to every-election voters and much older demographics.
- Website - Skipping a proper website would be a bad idea. This will serve as your digital "campaign headquarters." Remember, the electorate will desire to consume their information in different ways and it's your job to serve them their meal however they like it cooked. Some will arrive at their decision via posts seen on social media. Some will arrive via video testimonial videos they saw on YouTube. Others will want to go to your website and read that list of qualifications. Once a user hits the website we can also re-target them on Facebook and Google Ads. It's just another part of a well oiled digital marketing machine.
- Yard Signs - Updraft is pro-yard signs, but not to extremes. Yes, they offer some name recognition and social proof ("My neighbor Billy has a sign and I've talked with him and we have the same values.") However, statistically speaking winning the "yard sign battle" gives little to no bump toward a victory. We'd advise to reserve some budget for signs.
- Print Media - Print media is one of those you should only pursue if you have excess budget. There is limited attention to print publications of any sort, it's too expensive, there's very limited targeting, and zero analytics to measure return. Remember for the individuals who are 100% completely offline, we're already reaching them with mailers and with perfect targeting via the voter list from the board of elections. Don't be the candidate that is still subsidizing print sales executives because they gave you distribution numbers. There are so many better ways to spend campaign money.