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Political advertising has advanced significantly in recent decades. Historically, campaigns had limited options for where they could advertise, and those channels had limited inventory. Political campaigns primarily relied on radio, print, and linear TV to reach voters, using mass marketing strategies to appeal broadly to unspecified audiences. These mediums had limited targeting capabilities and provided few data insights. However, this has all changed thanks to the rise of technology and changing media consumption habits.
With the advent of the internet and the emergence of various digital channels, political campaigns now have more inventory and options for getting their message out there, including connected TV (CTV) — a subset of advanced TV that has become a predominant channel for digital ad spend. CTV is the fastest-growing medium for political ads, with the upcoming 2024 election expected to see $1.5 billion in CTV marketing ad spend (nearly half of all political digital advertising dollars!). CTV’s share of political ad spending is set to jump from 2.7% in 2020 to 12.8% this year. The Harris campaign is leading the charge, allocating $200 million for digital ads, much of which will go to streaming platforms.
CTV advertising promises to be an effective method for political campaigns trying to reach voters with personalized content in 2024. Let’s look at CTV political ads a little closer and overview the implications for your political campaign.
The growth of CTV in political advertising
CTV has become central to political ad strategies in helping campaigns gain exposure through targeted, personalized ad experiences to specific audience segments based on demographics, behaviors, and interests. With CTV advertising, political campaigns have become more adaptable to changing viewer preferences and can ensure their messages resonate with diverse audiences across digital platforms. This strategy represents a critical opportunity for political campaigns to tap into the growing viewership of streaming and adjust their marketing plans to meet voters where they spend their time.
Although traditional broadcast TV remains at the forefront of political advertising, recent increases in CTV political ad spending in 2024 reflect shifting media consumption preferences toward streaming services. Today, the average American adult spends almost 2 hours per day on CTV devices. It’s worth noting that CTV has the most significant audience share with Millennials, which makes CTV an especially worthy investment for targeting the younger generations whose voting habits aren’t as established yet.
2024 political ad spending
Compared to the previous U.S. presidential election year in 2020, campaigns and interest groups are expected to increase their political ad spending promoting causes and candidates by almost a third in 2024, totaling approximately $12.32 billion, according to Reuters. This is said to encompass all advertising for federal, state, and local politics, including lobbying and election activities.
While traditional media still dominates political ad spending, digital platforms are growing, with 45% of digital ad spending projected to be allocated to CTV for its refined targeting capabilities and increased inventory in this election cycle. For reference, only 19% of digital political ad spend went to CTV in 2020.
While the presidential election tends to garner the most attention among voters, it’s essential to note that political ad spending goes well beyond the big race; over 500 seats are up for election in 2024. Down-ballot races and issues in state and local elections will significantly impact where ad dollars are allocated.
Experian’s relevant ballot initiative audiences
If you’re looking to reach voters based on their attitudes and behaviors around crucial ballot measures, Experian offers over 240 politically relevant audiences that can help. Our consumer behavior and interest audiences can fine-tune your targeting for local and national ballot initiatives if, for example, you were targeting military families who favor initiatives supporting veterans or households with children interested in supporting school funding. This precise targeting ensures your political ads reach the most receptive audiences and maximizes the impact of your ad spend.
Third-party cookie deprecation and CTV
The phase-out of third-party cookies has created a challenge for political campaigns relying on digital advertising strategies. In the past, political advertisers have used cookies to track a user’s web activity to understand their browsing behaviors across sites and create detailed profiles for targeting purposes. However, due to recent changes in online privacy regulations, third-party cookies are going away.
Political advertisers have recognized the need for innovation and are exploring new avenues for effectively reaching target audiences without third-party cookies. CTV has arisen as a promising solution, as it doesn’t rely on these cookies to paint a picture of audiences and offers an alternative for precise, privacy-compliant targeting and ad spend optimization. CTV publishers tend to know quite a bit about audiences, including their viewing habits, location, preferred CTV devices, and more — and utilizing this information can give your campaign deeper, more accurate data without invading user privacy.
Benefits of CTV over traditional TV advertising for political campaigns
CTV political ads are a great way to familiarize a candidate’s core audiences with their message and engage them with the campaign. Here are some specific ways a political campaign can benefit from CTV in its advertising strategies.
Broadened access to data
Traditional broadcast and cable TV are a means of one-way communication. This means viewers consume broadcasted content without direct interaction or a feedback loop for tracking engagement and behavior data.
CTV solves the limitations of traditional TV by offering access to more data than linear TV using technology and internet connectivity to gather real-time insights. CTV data on audience interactions, preferences, demographics, behaviors, location, income, and more enable precise targeting and tailored messaging for more impactful campaigns. Furthermore, digital infrastructure enables CTV devices to track clicks, ad impressions, and conversions, which marketers can use to understand interests, viewing habits, and audience demographics more effectively. To sum it up, CTV broadens the scope of data available for political campaigns to refine their targeting.
Targeted, personalized ad experiences
With traditional TV advertising, marketers have historically had to rely on mass marketing strategies, broadcasting ads to a general audience and hoping to reach the right demographic segments. This imprecise approach limits a marketer’s control over who sees their ads and wastes time and money.
In contrast, CTV platforms can collect abundant data on viewer behavior, preferences, and demographics, helping advertisers precisely target audiences and reach groups most likely to benefit from the ads. With CTV, advertisers can segment audiences based on gender, age, interests, location, and past viewing behavior. This level of granularity enables them to customize their messages to resonate with specific people and increase the relevance and effectiveness of their political ad campaigns. By delivering ads to the right groups of people at the right time, CTV helps advertisers maximize campaign impact and drive better results.
It’s worth noting that streaming viewership is beginning to change. Although younger generations have engaged the most with CTV, there is research to show that older generations are starting to help fuel its continued growth. Gen X and Baby Boomers have begun to embrace streaming and seek out ad-supported services to ad-free alternatives. These gradual shifts in behavior highlight the importance of understanding streaming generations to reach target audiences effectively.
Real-time ad campaign optimization
While traditional TV relies on fixed ad placements, CTV offers programmatic buying, which refers to buying and selling ad placements on CTV through automated technology. Programmatic CTV advertising is highly data-driven, which gives advertisers flexibility in their messaging strategies, helps them refine their targeting, and deliver relevant ads to the right people at the right time. With real-time analytics, campaigns can monitor ad performance, adapt to changing circumstances, and make data-driven decisions to maximize advertising impact and budget efficiency leading up to the election.
Challenges and considerations for advertisers
Despite how widely beneficial CTV advertising can be for political campaigns, marketers also need to be aware of its limitations.
Navigating ad fraud
Ad fraud is a major problem for unsuspecting advertisers. CTV ad fraud involves fake CTV devices or bots mimicking viewership and cheating marketers into paying for unviewed or non-existent ad placements. According to DoubleVerify’s Global Insights, CTV bot fraud increased nearly 70% in 2022 compared to the previous year, with CTV fraud instances tripling since 2020. In 2023, digital ad fraud cost the marketing industry $84 billion. These ad fraud schemes are rising due to the high CPM of CTV ads, leading to a bigger payout for fraudsters who steal ad dollars.
One of the primary challenges is the need for better technological safeguards to detect and mitigate illegitimate traffic, such as bot activity. Political advertisers often rely on third-party ad fraud and verification technologies to avoid falling victim, but these solutions cannot guarantee complete protection. This usually leaves advertisers unaware of fraudulent activities until they’ve already incurred financial losses.
As political campaigns increasingly embrace CTV political ads, they become bigger targets for fraud and must make protection and measurement central to validating their campaign efficacy in conjunction with robust fraud detection measures. These efforts can help protect the integrity of political ad campaigns, mitigate fraud, and ensure messaging reaches genuine voters.
Ensuring ad effectiveness
Measurement and attribution of CTV political ads can be challenging. CTV offers better insights into audience preferences and behavior than linear TV, but despite the existing measurement tools, CTV is fragmented, involves many platforms, and lacks standardized metrics and attribution models tailored to political campaign goals. These problems make it hard to compare campaign performance, track CTV users across their viewing experience, and ensure ads appear in the right environments.
To fully understand your ad effectiveness, you should ensure accurate tracking mechanisms of audience behaviors with individual ads to assess the impact of CTV campaigns on voter engagement and turnout. This will help you better understand how to achieve campaign objectives, where to focus your efforts, and how to appeal to viewers in future campaigns.
It may also be helpful to understand some of the metrics advertisers currently employ for CTV measurement, including completion rate and return on ad spend (ROAS). Because CTV ads often can’t be skipped, this advertising strategy has a high completion rate, sometimes nearing 90%. ROAS is more focused on what you get in return for your ads, allowing you to track profits per dollar spent on ads. Political marketers can also use metrics like campaign impressions, total reach, view-through rate, and cost per completed view to understand how their ads are performing.
Ethical considerations related to transparency and misinformation
Political advertisers are responsible for upholding transparency and accuracy in their messaging to build trust with voters. Given how polarized the current political climate is, misinformation could make or break a political campaign. Whether intentional or unintentional, spreading misinformation through CTV can undermine the democratic process and erode public confidence in political institutions. Political marketers must do their best to prioritize ethical conduct, adhere to regulatory guidelines, and ensure their ads convey truthful information to voters.
Looking ahead: CTV in the 2024 elections
The current election cycle promises record-breaking political ad spending in 2024 and will underscore CTV’s role in shaping the future of political communication and engagement. With shifting viewer preferences and the ongoing evolution of digital media consumption habits, political campaigns need to look at CTV as a critical platform for voter engagement so they can allocate resources and shift their strategy to harness its full potential.
Using the targeted capabilities and expansive reach CTV advertising offers, political entities can optimize ad creative for the streaming environment, implement data-driven targeting strategies, and effectively connect with voters across diverse demographics and geographic regions.
Reach your ideal voters with Experian’s political audiences
Effective audience targeting is essential for political campaigns wanting to sway voters and shape public opinion in the next election. Don’t miss the opportunity to reach your ideal voters and make a lasting impact in the 2024 elections! With Experian’s political audiences, you can target voters based on their political affiliations, personas, and attitudes toward relevant ballot initiatives in your advanced TV advertising.
Experian offers a comprehensive range of political and geo-indexed audiences designed to help political campaigns and organizations connect with desired segments in a meaningful and impactful way. Our geo-indexed audiences can help you discover, segment, and craft messaging without the use of sensitive personal information, so you can confidently reach your target audience without sacrificing data privacy.
Our syndicated audiences also span multiple verticals and categories. With over 240 politically relevant audience segments available for activation, you can confidently execute your political campaign marketing strategy with precision and impact. When you connect with our audience team, we can also help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice.
Partner with us to reach your ideal voters and make a lasting impact in the 2024 elections.
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As Earth Day approaches, it’s the perfect opportunity for marketers to explore innovative ways to engage with eco-conscious customers. With a strong and growing interest in sustainable business practices worldwide, green audiences are becoming increasingly influential. In addition to being good for the planet, engaging these customers is great for any brand or organization striving to become more eco-friendly and socially responsible. By taking advantage of this timely event and using appropriate tools, you can create personalized campaigns that will both promote your brand and increase customer loyalty. Eco-conscious audiences In this blog post, we'll cover three eco-conscious audiences to target this Earth Day: Solar energy GreenAwareTM Electric vehicles Solar energy Our first eco-conscious audience is Solar energy. Consumers in this audience show an inclination toward harnessing the power of the sun as a clean, renewable energy source. Our audience data can provide valuable insights into the Solar energy consumer base, including their age, education level, occupation, household income, and communication preferences. Let's explore these metrics to better understand how to reach this group effectively. Age and living situation Consumers in our Solar energy audience are more likely to live in a home with two or more adults and are between the ages of 45-74. Education level and occupation Consumers in our Solar energy audience are more likely to have graduated from college or graduate school and work in management-level occupations. Household income Consumers in our Solar energy audience have household incomes of more than $75,000 and their homes are valued at over $550,000. Preferred engagement channels Consumers in our Solar energy audience are most receptive to ads served through digital channels like digital newspapers and email. Solar energy audience pairings Consumers in our Solar energy audience also belong to three of our Mosaic® USA groups: Power Elite Flourishing Families Booming with Confidence Our consumer segmentation portal of 126 million households and 650 lifestyle and interest attributes empowers marketers like you to precisely target your ideal audience and communicate with them on a personal level. Mosaic’s data segments the U.S. into 19 overarching groups and 71 underlying types, giving you the insights needed to anticipate the behavior, attitudes, and preferences of your most profitable customers and communicate with them on their preferred channels, with messaging that resonates. Learn more about Mosaic GreenAware Our second eco-conscious audience is GreenAware. GreenAware segments the 126 million U.S. households within Consumer View into four distinct groups. Each group differs in their attitudes and behaviors toward purchasing products that are environmentally safe and working with companies that are eco-conscious. We created these groups using an enhanced application of traditional statistical clustering techniques based on environmentally relevant measurements in Simmons' National Consumer Study. Based on the distinctive mindset of consumers toward the environment, you can learn how environmental concerns fit into their lives through four major consumer segments: Eco-Friendly Enthusiasts Sustainable Spectators Passive Greenies Eco Critics Let's dive deeper into each group to understand their unique perspective on the environment and how this impacts their attitudes and behaviors. Eco-Friendly Enthusiasts This eco-conscious segment prioritizes a green lifestyle and takes pride in avoiding products that harm the planet. With traditional and liberal values, they embrace optimism and prioritize family. With their children out of the house, they take the time for some well-deserved rejuvenation and are committed to a healthy lifestyle. Some members of this group are transitioning into retirement and welcoming a new chapter in their life. Mature adults and retirees College graduate or more Above average income May be married or single Typically own their homes Sustainable Spectators This segment aspires to be more sustainable, but they struggle with translating their green ideas into action. They have a soft spot for a cozy home. While their love for interior design and taking care of their own space is evident, they're always looking for new experiences and opportunities to learn. Staying healthy and active is a top priority for this group, so it's no surprise that they're always looking for ways to stay fit and feel their best. Established and mid-life adults College graduate or more High income Typically married Likely to own their homes Passive Greenies This is the largest and one of the most youthful groups. Known for their love of exploration and self-discovery, they may not have fully embraced eco-conscious behaviors yet, but they are eager to stay current with the latest technology and trends. With their incredible ability to multitask, they're always on-the-go, and constantly seek the next best thing. Mainly young adults and diverse Education ranges from high school through some college Below average income More likely to be single or divorced Typically rent Eco Critics This group is not likely to be eco-conscious and may have negative attitudes about the environment. They are confident, driven, and focused on their personal growth. They crave instant gratification, seeking out quick and easy solutions to their everyday decisions. They place a high value on entertainment, their social life, and carefully curate their image. Young and established adults Education ranges from high school through post-graduate studies High income Married or single Typically own their homes Let's take a look at how the GreenAware segments stack up against each other in terms of age, household income, education level, and media preference. How do they compare? Let's find out. Age Consumers in the Eco-Friendly Enthusiasts segment are the oldest of the four GreenAware segments – about half of the consumers are 65 or older. Eco Critics are the youngest segment, with over half of consumers in this group between ages 25-44. Household income Sustainable Spectators and Eco Critics are the wealthiest GreenAware segments. The average household income of consumers in these segments is above $100,000. Passive Greenies have the lowest household income, with a majority below $50,000. Education level and occupation Passive Greenies are more likely to work Blue Collar jobs and have the lowest level of education. As the wealthiest segments, Sustainable Spectators and Eco Critics have the highest levels of college degrees and work in management, business, and financial operations. Eco-Friendly Enthusiasts are the most likely to be retired and out of the workforce. Preferred engagement channels Streaming TV is the preferred engagement channel for all GreenAware segments. Eco-Friendly Enthusiasts prefer digital channels like digital newspapers, mobile SMS, and email. They also engage with traditional channels like direct mail and newspaper. Passive Greenies have a high preference for digital display, mobile SMS, digital video, broadcast cable TV, and radio. Eco Critics have a high preference for digital channels like digital newspapers, mobile SMS, and digital display. Sustainable Spectators strongly prefer digital newspapers. They don't show as strong of a preference for mobile SMS and digital display as Eco Critics and Passive Greenies. GreenAware audience pairings Six of our Mosaic groups have at least one GreenAware segment with 10% or more of the population. For more precise targeting, below are suggested Mosaic audiences you can pair with each GreenAware segment: Eco-Friendly EnthusiastsSustainable SpectatorsPassive GreeniesEco CriticsBooming with ConfidencePower EliteSingles and StartersPower EliteAutumn YearsBooming with ConfidenceGolden Year GuardiansSuburban StyleGolden Year GuardiansSingles and Starters Electric vehicles Our third eco-conscious audience is electric vehicles. Electric vehicles (EVs) are having a major moment in the automotive industry. This is no surprise given that new EV models are being released and an increasing number of charging stations are popping up around the country. As EVs become more prominent, it's essential to stay up to date on relevant trends to make informed decisions about what lies ahead. The demand for electric vehicles (EVs) is on the rise Consumers are embracing the EV revolution, showing their desire for a cleaner, greener future. Automotive marketers are increasingly looking to reach in-market EV shoppers and current alternative fuel vehicle owners due to the growing availability of electric vehicles, improved infrastructure, and rising popularity. In 2022, EVs charged up the market and accounted for a remarkable 6% of new retail registrations. While Tesla continues to dominate the EV market, Ford, Chevrolet, and Hyundai are starting to compete, each holding more than 3% of the market share of new retail EV registrations. Geography Where are we seeing the most new retail EV registrations? The top designated market areas (DMAs) for new retail EV registrations are mostly located in heavily populated, coastal cities like Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY. The fastest growing DMAs, however, are in smaller cities like Tucson, AZ and Oklahoma City, OK. Generational demographics Gen X and Millennials make up the largest percentage of new retail EV buyers at 37.5% and 34.4%. Gen Z and the Silent generation represent the smallest shares at 5% and 2.1%. Boomers hover between Gen X and Millennials' share and account for 20.6% of new EV retail purchases. EV audience pairings Our top five Mosaic groups for new EV buyers include: American Royalty Cosmopolitan Achievers Philanthropic Sophisticates Couples with Clout Fast Track Couples How to target consumers in-market for electric vehicles We offer 70+ audiences that are focused on likely buyers and owners of EV and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles. We also offer a subset of 28 audiences focused on individual EV/PHEV vehicle models. Below is how you can find a few of these audiences on-the-shelf of most trusted advertising platforms: Autos, Cars, and Trucks > In Market-Fuel Type > Electric Autos, Cars, and Trucks > In Market-Fuel Type > Used Electric Autos, Cars, and Trucks > In-Market Make and Models > Tesla Autos, Cars, and Trucks > In-Market Make and Models > Chevrolet Bolt EV We can help you reach eco-conscious consumers Earth Day is a great opportunity to get creative with your marketing efforts with our three eco-conscious audiences: Solar energy, GreenAware, and electric vehicles. To find out how you can add eco-conscious audiences to your marketing plan, contact us. Get started today Latest posts
Advertisers are always looking for ways to improve the targeting and effectiveness of their campaigns. One strategy that's gaining popularity lately is using curated private marketplace (PMP) deals, allowing advertisers to buy premium ad inventory in a private auction environment. But how do data providers and PMPs work together to make PMP advertising more successful? What is a private marketplace (PMP)? Advertising PMPs, or private marketplace deals, are a type of programmatic advertising where advertisers and publishers negotiate and set up a direct deal between themselves to buy or sell advertising inventory in a private auction environment. In PMP deals, publishers can make their premium inventory available to a select group of advertisers, who can bid on it in a private auction using demand-side platforms (DSPs). These private auctions typically offer higher-quality inventory and a more targeted audience than open exchange auctions, which are accessible to all advertisers. However, traditional PMPs had their limitations, including often being limited to accessing inventory from a single publisher group. Audigent takes PMP advertising to the next level with SmartPMPs Audigent's key differentiator is that instead of activating audience data from the DSP, which is the industry standard, they integrate directly with supply-side platforms (SSPs). By taking this route, audience data and inventory from hundreds or even thousands of publishers can now be packaged together into a single deal ID / SmartPMP. SmartPMPs empower media buyers with the ability to access and buy against unique, customizable data segments on premium curated publisher inventory in combinations that otherwise would not have been available. Activating data via the supply-side also enables supply-side optimizations. This means that instead of simply being a data provider, Audigent plays an active role in the success of media buyers' programmatic campaigns by optimizing toward performance goals in coordination with demand-side buyers. The result is the full alignment of demand- and supply-side technologies for the first time in programmatic. SmartPMPs drive campaign performance Audigent performance data compared to the programmatic open exchange: How Experian and Audigent partner in PMP advertising Experian and Audigent collaborate using Consumer View audience data. By supplying valuable insights into users' interests, behaviors, and demographics, we help advertisers create more targeted and personalized ad campaigns with Audigent. This can lead to higher engagement rates, greater brand awareness, and increased conversions for Audigent and Experian clients. By activating Experian data via Audigent SmartPMPs, advertisers unlock the ability to reach highly engaged users across premium, curated inventory sources on key channels like connected TV (CTV), display, video, and more. Unlock the potential of programmatic advertising with us Our strategic collaboration with Audigent is transforming the programmatic advertising space. Our partnership enables our customers to tailor their ads directly to their desired audience. This elevated personalization results in higher conversion rates and optimized campaigns for superior ROI performance. Contact us for more information about our digital audience segments on the Audigent platform. To learn more about our partner Audigent, visit www.audigent.com. Contact us Latest posts
A successful back-to-school campaign strategy starts with identifying the key audience segments to target. Over half of all searches related to back-to-school happen within a select group of consumers – knowing which ones can go a long way in forming an effective marketing strategy. Focus on this smaller, targeted set to maximize your efforts. With over $72 billion projected in total U.S. back-to-school retail sales this year, you can capture more spend than ever before during this big shopping season by tailoring your strategy to a smaller set of targeted shoppers. Experian data can help you make the most of your back-to-school campaigns by uncovering the top five back-to-school audiences. Five audience segments for 2023 Our data provides key insights into who these shoppers are and how to reach them, allowing you to create personalized content tailored to their needs. What are the top five audiences you should add to your 2023 back-to-school campaign? High-Net-Worth Households Bilingual Multi-Generational Households Suburban Savvy Shoppers Young Suburban Families Tech-Savvy Families What do these audiences look like? Who are they? Where do they shop? Let's review each audience in a little more detail. High-Net-Worth Households This group consists of households with above-average income and education levels. They often lease luxury cars, purchase products in every channel, travel extensively, and are philanthropic supporters of the arts. Key features Wealthy Highly educated Lease luxury cars Purchase products in every channel Travelers Philanthropic supporters of the arts Bilingual Multi-Generational Households Large households in multilingual neighborhoods, filled with married parents and their kids. They are financially cautious, bilingual, and participate in team sports. Key features Bilingual Large households Married with kids Financially cautious Team sports Suburban Savvy Shoppers Middle-aged couples and families who earn above-average incomes, maintain active lifestyles, and spend their money on quality home products and furnishings. Key features Affluent Athletic activities Home products & furnishings Sporting goods High-priced children’s clothing Young Suburban Families This segment includes households in the middle child-rearing stages of life, typically with a dual income household and multiple children of school age. They typically have spacious single-family residences in suburban neighborhoods that are slightly above average in housing values. On weekends, these suburban young families often engage in activities like skateboarding, biking, and video games with their children. Key features Comfortable lifestyle Children’s games Wholesale members Family-centric activities Tech-Savvy Families Highly educated, affluent couples in their peak earning years, with a preference for both traditional and digital media, who live in upscale housing and are savvy investors and environmental philanthropists. Key features Highly educated Affluent Upscale housing Savvy investors Environmental philanthropists Tech apprentices Watch our 2024 video for tips from industry leaders for back-to-school In our new Q&A video with Experian experts, we explore changing consumer behaviors surrounding back-to-school shopping in 2024. In the video, we discuss: Anticipated shifts in consumer behaviors and shopping habits Tactics we predict marketers will employ to navigate signal loss Which channels will be the most successful And more! Watch now Latest posts