Blog

Benefits of online ad serving for political ads

While some websites choose to steer clear of political content, there are plenty more who are willing to accept them on their pages. This may explain why so many people campaigning for office are now turning to the internet, more specifically, adservers, to get their message out to the voting public. Yes, politicians still go the traditional routes in getting their message out, including TV ads and printed flyers. However, the internet now serves as one of the most effective ways to reach a lot of people very quickly. There are very definite reasons why online ad servers are great for political ads, so let’s take a look at a few.

Comparatively low cost

Political campaigns require a lot of money to run, and it is often the politician with the most money spends the most on advertising. Traditional methods of campaigning, such as mailing and distributing thousands of flyers and other forms of print media, can quickly become expensive and take a big bite out of the campaign’s budget. In comparison, advertising online is much more affordable. Plus, the advertising can be scaled up or down to suit the size of the campaign. For example, someone running for mayor of a small town would not need the same sort of campaign as a state governor.

Wider reach

More and more younger people are registered to vote these days and those voters can be difficult to reach and persuade via the traditional advertising channels. The younger generation spends a lot of time on their phones and other mobile devices, and so it is easier and quicker to reach them using online mobile ad serving.

Easy ad production

A campaign that uses flyers will have design templates ready to send to the printers. In this case, the online/digital version can likely re-use the same template of the print version with quick adjustments and customizations. There is a lot of work needed and hassles to make any sort of change to printed flyers, but that is not the case with online advertising. It is much easier to change digital ads than it is to make changes to print media.

Quick set-up and no contracts

Traditional non-political advertisers typically keep a campaign going for months. For those advertisers, a long-term contract might make sense. However, that is not the case for political advertising campaigns. The election season is usually no longer than a few months and can have long gaps in between. This is why online ad serving works so well because campaigns can be added and removed quickly without the need for any long-term contract. Ads on ad servers are easy to set-up, changed or updated as often as needed.

Excellent targeting options

One of the best things about running political ads on an online ad server is the ability to target people based on many different factors. For example, you could choose specific geographical areas or certain device types to display ads to, or perhaps a certain age group or demographic. There are many options here, allowing politicians to get the message out to their core base, or to create ads and messages for people who may still be on the fence.

Related

• Five avoidable mistakes of political ads

  "Everywhere you turn right now, you run into ads put out by politicians and their political parties, with all of them telling you that they are the right person to vote for. It used to be that you could simply turn off the TV to avoid such ads, but the internet is now a place where political ads run wild. " More
• Issues with political advertising

  "Many website publishers serve advertising on their pages with creatives that are related to their chosen industry or subject. However, there are often available ad inventory for other types of ads. " More
• Political ad serving in a divisive world

  "It is often said that you should avoid discussing politics or religion, simply because both subjects are issues that tend to be very divisive. With that in mind, some publishers are a little iffy about running election ads on their websites, as the last thing anyone wants to do is alienate a large segment of their audience. " More