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Unfortunately, Republican candidates and conservative advocacy groups are also adopting advanced digital campaign strategies at a rapid pace.
Tea party groups, conservative advocacy groups and GOP candidates, like incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, are moving rapidly to supplement and even replace the standard 20th century campaign practices with 21st century advanced digital campaign strategies.
Rick Perry's campaign in particular has so far ignored traditional campaign efforts in favor of an Internet-based strategy. Perry's campaign strategy seems to to be shaping up to use online social media and contextual advertising to drive people to a rich-media campaign website that is continually updated with video shorts, including TV-style campaign ads. [DMN: Gov. Rick Perry's campaign is more text than talk | PBS: Republicans Hope to Maintain Social Media Edge into Midterm Elections | Wired White House Looks to Harness New Media | also see - "Republican New Media Caucus" | Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's new media campaign - google]
Bill White's Web Ads are popping everywhere. [White was the Democratic Candidate ramping up to run for Kay Bailey Hutchinson's (R) Senate Seat, but switched races in late 2009 to run against incumbent Tx Gov. Rick for the 2010 election] Below are two examples of Bill White Web Ads that appeared in interesting places.
The first image below is the FaceBook page for Collin County Commissioner's Court Judge Keith Self, a very conservative Republican. Notice White's web ad at the very top of the right sidebar.
The second is a national progressive news blog. The ad is targeted only for Texas readers. WebAds can be specifically targeted in many ways -- even, for example, just to people who live in Collin County and read progressive blogs and news sites.
Online Advertising Can Target Highly Desirable Audiences
Politicians have long understood the persuasive nature of television and radio ads, yard signs and volunteers handing out literature or walking around the neighborhood. They also understand the ability of cable television ads to deliver targeted messages to specific audiences. Politicians are now learning that the Internet enables them to reach voters that are prohibitively expensive or just plain impossible to reach through old-media printed newspaper, radio or television buys.
Plus, none of the traditional old-media modes of communication give the viewer or listener a direct and immediate way to respond to a call to action, ask for more information or send money to a campaign.
But, an online ad can immediately turn persuasion into action. While a television commercial can tell you that a candidate needs your help, only an online advertisement can send a viewer directly to a Web site that accepts credit cards. A radio ad can fire you up to spread the candidate’s message, but only an online ad lets you forward the message to your friends.
The majority of U.S. households now have high-speed broadband connection to the Internet, particularly in Collin Co. Among the entire population the internet has surpassed newspapers and is roughly twice as important as radio as a source of political news and information for voters. The Internet also continues to make strong gains to displace TV as the dominant information source. Among internet users and young adults, these differences are even more magnified. This provides an opportunity for political communications consultants to effectively execute Web-based campaign strategies that includes web ad campaigns.
What are web ads?
Paid Search Engine "Contextual" Web Ads – Search web ads have become big business for Internet search companies such as Google and Yahoo! Ads are served up when visitors use a search engine to look for information about a candidate, race or issue.
It is a way to connect with the core audience who has already identified themselves as interested and who are looking for information. Ads that appear in these environments are seen as less intrusive and more helpful than other forms of online ads.Text Ads – Text ads can be placed on campaign email newsletters or websites and blogs, as well as on search engine result pages.
The advantages of this type of advertising are that it is clear that the viewer is interested in the specific topic addressed by the ad, the results are measurable and costs are relatively low. Another advantage is that, as with other types of web ads, "contextual" search ads can be further geo-targeted to people living in a particular geographic area, such as Collin Co. or just some portion thereof.
Sometimes the ads are highlighted by a light colored background but there are otherwise no graphics. These ad units are challenging because of the limitations in the number of text characters that can be used and the need to compete with the other text on the page.Online Ads – Horizontal Banner ads and vertical sky scraper ads with animation, photos or rotating text have been in use for many years. Most Web browsers can see them, but increasing numbers of web users are opting to block this type of web ad.
Over time, sizes have changed, placement has been adjusted and creative tools have become enhanced. These banners are effective if placed on pages with high traffic and contextual relevance. Banner ads are relatively easy to buy, though the variety of sizes on different sites may require additional time to properly size the ad.Rich Media – Rich media ads are those that incorporate video, animation and sound and allow for more interaction with the viewer. Many require the more recent version of popular browsers, but as Americans upgrade their computer capabilities, the ability to view these ads has now become commonplace, particularly for Collin Co. Residents.
E-Mail and Newsletters – These ads appear as a text or banner ads within the body of an e-mail message. This technique provides good targeting, though the quality of the mailing list will ultimately determine the effectiveness of the ad message.
Online Ads Can Be Targeted By:
Target by Context –For example: Facebook users who live in Collin Co. who list politics and Democrat in their profile or the friends of those users, or fans of organizations associated with progressive politics are all good targets for Democratic candidate web ads. Another type of context ad display is when people use a search engine to search for information about a candidate, race or issue an ad is served up for a given set of "search words."
Target by Behavior – There are ways to target visitors to some sites where there is little known about the exact person who is seeing the ad, but there is a great deal known about people like them based on Web behavior. People who go to local news, blog and commercial websites are generally voters in those media markets. Collin County readers of the Texas Burnt Orange Report Report and national Huffington post or other progressive news sites are most likely progressives who vote and vote Democratic.
Target by Geo-location is the method of delivering web ads based on the web user's location, such as region/state, city, metro code/zip code, Internet Protocol (IP) address, ISP company or other criteria.
Costs
Cost To Create Web Ad Graphics and Copy:
Simple banners, buttons and text links are relatively inexpensive to create. Rich media banners and sky scrapers, which are typically created by advertising companies, will cost more to develop. Studio produced television ads will cost the most to create.
Today a $1000 digital HD camcorder with a $150 wireless microphone attachment and $200 worth of video and audio editing software running on a personal computer can produce excellent quality video for a campaign's YouTube video website. Many Internet-saavy young adults today create their own YouTube video.
Cost of Web Ad Placement:
Although cost-per-click (CPC) advertising is popular, CPM (cost per thousand [mille] impressions) advertising is also an effective way to reach voters on the web. Instead of paying per click, in a CPM campaign you purchase a set amount of impressions. An impression is a single instance of an ad displayed. CPM-based advertising can be a cost-effective alternative to CPC deals.
To illustrate this point, let's compare the overall expense of two similar campaigns. In CPC-based advertising, you pay for each click your ad receives. Let us say that you are spending $1 for each click; 10 clicks costs you $10.
In a CPM-based campaign, you may pay $3 for 1,000 impressions. If your ad receives a click-through ratio of just 1 percent, you're paying $3 for the same 10 clicks.
Cost for placement of online ads is dependent on:
- Popularity of the site or service – How many people does it reach?
- Quality of the audience – Based on demographics
- Degree of targeting – For example, multiple targeting for context, geo-location and other factors such as women on Facebook between 45-60 who are fans of the TDWCC, DPCC, Serria Club or MoveOn who live in Collin Co.
- Quantity of impressions being bought – Buying a few hundred thousand impressions at the very last minute will cost more than millions of impressions planned over the course of the campaign.
- Size and content of the ad – Rich media ads with video cost more; small static buttons or text ads cost a lot less.
Measures of Success
How can you measure success with our new online advertising program? Before online political ads are launched, it is necessary to determine how the success of the campaign will be measured. Some ways to determine success include:
- Increased name recognition
- Lift in favorability in polls
- Dollars raised
- Traffic generated to Web site
- Number of e-mail addresses harvested
- Increased voter registration
- Motivated, loyal base of support
- Influence swing and independent voters
- Mobilization of volunteers
- Increased voter turnout
- Amount of press coverage of candidate’s Internet ad activity
- Level of annoyance and number of complaints
The most interesting measure for many is the change in poll numbers regarding favorability, which might be seen after an Internet ad campaign runs either alone or in conjunction with other media. This sort of activity can only be measured by surveying the audience of those who saw the online ads and those who did not.
The harder to measure component is whether a voter may have been influenced by an online ad, even though he or she did not click on it or otherwise interact with the message.
Strong evidence from studies done about online ads for consumer brands suggests that the majority of the people who do not click on ads are nevertheless influenced by the message. More research needs to be conducted on the impact of the political online ads that are viewed and not clicked on.
There are different FEC rules for TV ad and Internet ads. For example: Television ads for federal candidates require certain disclaimers and ask you to identify the source of the ad’s funding. This rule is not applicable to online advertising. Similarly, rules regarding access, pricing and turn-around time to run ads also differ. Campaign Finance Reform allows for soft dollars to be spent on Internet advertising in the last 30 and 60 days before a primary and general election, while restricting the use of soft money for similar television and radio ads.
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