It’s November 04, 2008 and Barack Obama, a little-known senator created history as the first African American to win the Presidential in the United States. As TV pundits and political analysts debated how Obama managed this historic feat, there seemed to be a consensus when it came to one of the key factors in his surprising win. Barack Obama, they said, ignited hope and a desire for change in how politics was done. And he used social media, online advertising and technology to do just that. Above all, in that process, he changed political marketing forever. In the US and beyond (Canada included).
Obama’s campaign went big with over $16 million on online advertising in 2008. Compared to a measly $3.6 million spent by John McCain’s camp tells half the story.
In about 12 years since then, online advertising’s share in US political advertising has just exploded. Together, the Trump and Biden Campaign spent over $175 million on online advertising platforms – a lion’s share going to Facebook. This represents a staggering 792% increase in online political advertising!
In Canada, while our numbers are significantly smaller, the growth has been equally significant and dramatic. For instance, the three major political parties spent at least over $10 million on online advertising in the 2019 Federal election. The overall spend increases manifold when you include third-party advertising and online media used in political and local campaigns.
There’s one key reason behind this rise of online advertising in political campaigns in Canada – it simply works! As a Digital and Social Media Marketing Agency for Political Campaigns, we can attest to the effectiveness of these strategies.
Here are some key reasons why online advertising works in political marketing
1. Unparalleled reach
Canada is known to be one of the world’s most connected populations. With over 25 million social networking users, we have a social network penetration rate of 67 percent! That is 25 million and more potential viewers for political messages available at a few clicks. Platforms like Facebook and Google further allow advertisers to select and curate custom audiences as per their needs.
Compare this with traditional political marketing channels. These include canvassing, tele-calling, lawn signs, flyers, banners or radio advertising. While definitely important for any campaign, such approaches suffer from key limitations. Limitations including limited scalability, inaccurate data, need for human resources and lack of measurable results and accountability. Using TV and mass media channels involves significant overheads and budgets. Similarly, such platforms often reach out to a generic or homogenous audience and offer limited data on engagement and response.
2. Microtargeting
Online advertising channels like Facebook and Google encourage advertisers to find and target the kind of audience they desire for a paid communication. The kind of audience to be used can include various demographic characteristics like age, location as well as interests or online behaviours.
For political campaigns, this is golden. It allows campaigns to find the right kind of people that will engage with their key policy issues or causes. In addition, campaigns can showcase different messages to different audiences and evaluate response and future action. This is a flexibility which no other mass media tool can offer.
A key aspect for any political campaign is to make sure that their advertising budget is spent within their riding or constituency. That is another feature where online advertising shines. Campaigns have the ability to geo-fence their target location carefully and only show their ads to people who live or reside there.
3. Return on Investment
Political campaigns spend a lot of their effort in fundraising and are required to keep a close watch on every dollar going out. This is another area where online advertising really shines. All popular platforms like Facebook and Google ads offer granular metrics on the results ad campaigns achieve. Whether that’s website views, number of times a video was watched or how many people were reached, there’s all kinds of data available. For every $1 a political campaign spends on online advertising, they can be sure of the impact it makes.
In the 2015 Federal Election, Tom Pitfield, the Liberals’ chief digital strategist for the campaign commented how “digital had the greatest ROI (amongst all their advertising platforms)” and how they “focused on it as a strategic advantage”.
We have managed numerous digital campaigns for political candidates and parties. Naturally, we have seen some interesting trends (with certain assumptions). Here are some major ones that highlight the ROI aspect of online advertising in political marketing –
- Average cost of reaching 1000 people in a Canadian riding ranges from $4 to $10
- Average video view cost ranged from 3 cents to 10 cents (for 10-second continuous views)
- Post engagements (share/like/comment) ranged from $0.15 – $0.80
Very few mass-media platforms can compare with those kinds of metrics. This explains the fondness modern campaign managers have for social media and online advertising.
4. The Perfect Testing Ground
The rise of digital media and online advertising in political campaigns doesn’t mean that traditional tools aren’t required anymore. In fact, online advertising can serve as the perfect testing ground for campaigns.
A key characteristic of a Facebook or Google campaign is the ability to A/B test different messages, images or videos as well as custom audiences. All within a small testing budget. Furthermore, campaigns can track performance of each ad set on a daily basis and turn off any non-performing ones with a couple of clicks.
For instance, testing which issues or messaging connects better with the voters online before committing to these through mainstream channels.
Certainly, Online advertising and traditional political marketing can complement each other to be part of a holistic winning strategy. Above all, this strategy can be one that connects with all kinds of voters across demographics.
5. Building Momentum and Fundraising
Online advertising allows political campaigns to amplify the work they do on ground – knocking doors and meeting voters. With the power, reach and affordability of digital tools, campaigns can build momentum and get people ‘talking about’ the issues that matter. There’s a reason why the mainstream media covers ‘what’s trending on Facebook or Twitter’.
Moreover, online advertising often contributes to creation and expansion of ‘viral moments’ and that extends to the political world as well. Political Campaigns often spend their money and efforts to promote certain ‘hashtags’ and issues they aim to insert into the mainstream conversations.
Most importantly, online advertising can complement a campaign’s attempt to fundraise 24×7, 365 days a year. Many provincial and national parties employ sophisticated email marketing tools that create and send personalized emails to donors. Such emails are pretty common around key local or national ‘newsworthy’ moments.
To sum up, here are the key reasons why online advertising works for political marketing
- Platforms such as Facebook and Google offer an unparalleled reach and opportunity to engage with hyper-connected Canadians.
- Microtargeting audience and potential voters by interests and demographics allows us for a niche approach.
- Return-on-investment and accountability of online advertising outshines other mass-media tools.
- Online advertising can help A/B test messaging and assets and issues that work the best with voters.
- Ability to fundraise digitally all the time and amplify on-ground work to create a momentum that translates into political wins.
As a Digital and Social Media Marketing Agency for Political Campaigns, we understand these dynamics deeply and help clients navigate the digital landscape effectively.
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