It’s a bit like the holiday season. Fall hasn’t even started, it’s still 86 degrees outside and yet, there they are: in mid-August the holiday shelves start appearing. “Gosh, they start earlier every year”.
The same phrase could be applied to political advertising. We’ve only just seen the back of the midterms but there’s no end in sight for political ads as Georgia looks set to hold its Senate Run-Off on 12/6, as well as run-offs in Trenton, Austin and Laredo coming up in December and local government elections. That’s not even to mention the imminent announcements for Presidential hopefuls. Once the race for 2024 kicks off it will be an advertising frenzy through to 11/5/2024.
So as a political campaigner, how do you cut through the noise and get your supporters to their polling places? Lighthouse-Ameribase is here to help you ensure your message is heard.
Embrace Nascent Channels
Much has been written about the importance of social media in past election campaigns. Barack Obama was the first Presidential candidate to really embrace the medium and since then social media has grown in importance, especially for courting younger voters under the age of 30 who, according to Pew, trust news from social media as much as news from traditional media sources.
Joe Biden is the most recent politician to put his faith in social, having met with TikTok influencers in Washington prior to the midterms, in the hope that their posts would encourage young voters to vote Democrat.
However, due to Apple’s iOS privacy update in 2021, it has become increasingly difficult for political campaigns to carry out targeted campaigns in platforms like Facebook, resulting in many campaigners switching their budgets from social platforms to streaming platforms.
In fact, according to eMarketer, CTV ad spending among political campaigners increased by 1,500% during the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period during the 2020 elections. They also believe that the percentage of spending flowing to CTV is expected to rise even further as target audiences broaden as the general election approaches and budgets grow.
If you’re looking to run CTV political campaigns, speak to us at Lighthouse-Ameribase. We have TV-enabled segments which allow marketers to reach their audience based on interest categories.
We can also create custom audiences using key demographics such as age, gender, location, political affiliation and more. Learn more about our CTV audiences >
Stop Wasting Ad Spend
Back in 2020, entrepreneur and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent a staggering $1 billion+ of his own money, of which 70% went towards advertising, before bowing out of the race. Much of this advertising would have been targeted towards potential voters using demographic data.
Yet with companies like independent data evaluator, Truthset, highlighting the inaccuracy in demographic marketing data, it does make you wonder how much of that $700MM was wasted in inaccurate ad spend.
For example, they conducted a study of African American marketing data which showed that on average, for every dollar spent targeting an African American consumer (using these segments), 73 cents was spent reaching a non-African American consumer.
Could that mean then that the Bloomberg campaign wasted as much as $511MM on inaccurate targeting in their political advertising? And if so, how much could that have influenced Michael Bloomberg’s decision to pull out of the race?
The fact is many political campaigns are aware they’re working with sub-standard marketing data but they simply factor this inaccuracy into their ROI projections.
What if instead of continually washing money down the drain you could be confident in your campaign targeting? They do say after all that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Why not try a different data provider in your next campaign whose data accuracy quality has been validated time and time again? Lighthouse-Ameribase has the highest number of #1 rankings for accuracy across 25+ different demographics segments and consistently indexes above industry average for many more segments. Learn more about how we ensure maximum data quality >
Reach Key Gen Z Voters
The 2022 midterms officially put paid to the myth that the young don’t engage with politics. For years it’s been believed that young voters simply don’t turn up at polling places yet in the midterms, about 1 in 8 voters overall were under the age of 30.
And it’s not just about voting - 25-year-old Maxwell Alejandro Frost made history in central Florida by being elected as one of the youngest Congressmen, making him the House of Representatives’ first Gen Z member.
As the dust settles and political analysts begin to realize just how key the Gen Z vote is for future election campaigns, it’s worth noting that Lighthouse List excels in providing young adults aged 18-24 segments.
Already available in the LiveRamp DataStore and coming soon to TruAudience's Data Marketplace, these age segments are ideal for political campaigns that target Gen Z voters. Learn more about our demographic audiences >
Location, Location, Location
It might be a pearl of wisdom for real estate but “Location, Location, Location” is just as true for political campaigns. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and if you want to be sure your candidate will win in his/her congressional district, state, region or division, you need to know you’re reaching voters in the right location.
That’s why you’ll be pleased to learn our geographical data has recently been validated and, in addition to coming out tops for Census Region and Division, our state data ranks within the top 3, with many states ranking no. 1.
In fact, no matter which race you’re running in, if your voters are out there, we’ll find them. We can help you target by registered party or donor, by voter type, by interest or cause, by multicultural group as well as by location.
African American Independents who are based in Pennsylvania, lean left and are concerned about the environment? Check.
Hispanic Republicans who live in California & are concerned about fiscal conservatism? We’ve got them.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your upcoming political campaigns, why not give us a call? We’re here to help with segment suggestions for congressional, state and local elections and can also provide further details on custom audiences.
