We’ve been talking about the many ways of communicating and disseminating your message.
Today we’ll discuss internet ads.
Looking for Help in Your Campaign? Call Jay at (845) 458-1210. The call is FREE.
What are Internet Ads?
If you have ever shopped for shoes on line, you may have noticed ads for shoes popping up on your computer, no matter what website you’re visiting. The shoe company got your cookie, and they now know you are an on-line shoe shopper and in the market for shoes.
Political internet advertising works the same way. It is getting cheaper and less expensive by the day because lots of political figures are beginning to use it, even small, localized low-budget campaigns.
Is it important? Last year I called a client to let him know that his principal opponent had just made a heavy investment in on-line advertising. “That’s a waste of money,” my client responded, despite my efforts to convince him otherwise. He lost by a handful of votes. On-line advertising is here to stay, and those who ignore it are destined for the loser’s circle.
Why?
Because a majority of voters no longer watch broadcast TV, and if you don’t use internet ads you are missing a significant portion of the electorate. Most of the people who vote are online, including 60% of those over the age of 65, and more than 80% of seniors who make more than $30,000 a year.
It is much easier to target internet ads to a particular demographic than TV ads because of the massive data files now available to companies that do it. One of the companies I work with has a data base containing more than 14,000 voter attributes, and they can easily match a voter file to individual IP addresses, mobile and tablet devices. In fact, internet ads are even more precise than persuasion mail.
With mail, you can target households, but you never know who in the household saw the piece, and even if everybody in the household did see it, one mail piece gets you only one impression.
Internet ads allow you to precisely target people in the household— on their mobile phones, tablet devices, computer, and commonly visited websites, and hit them with multiple impressions over a very short period of time for a fraction of what mail costs.
Last week when I did a video about social media I mentioned that I had visited Marco Rubio’s website. His internet ads have appeared on my computer screen every day since. In fact, I’ve seen more about Marco Rubio during the last week than Donald Trump. Imagine that.
Have questions? Call me at 845-458-1210 or email me at Jay@JayTownsend.com.
Last Week’s Video: Running for Office? Using Social Media to Spread Your Message