Internet Marketing Lessons from the Obama Campaign

This morning I found this very interesting & informative Clickz article: Google Grabs Most of Obama's $5 Million in Online Ad Spending

The article details how the Obama campaign has spent over $5 million on online advertising this year with dollar figures for specific publishers.  Where has the campaign chosen to spend the majority of its' money?  Most of all, SEARCH!!  Over three million dollars (about 60%) has been spent with Google, with Yahoo a distant second followed by Centro (which buys ads on TV station, radio station & newspaper websites), CNN.com, MSN & Facebook.

The fact that the Obama campaign has chosen to spend the most money on search makes a lot of sense as this enables them to reach people who are actively seeking to learn more about or read editorials, blogs or news about candidates & issues AT THAT MOMENT!  Talk about reaching your target audience!   

Some of the key advantages of Internet advertising are very applicable to political campaigns.  Here are just a few examples:

• Online advertising tends to be much cheaper and produce a better ROI (Return on Investment) than traditional advertising so campaigns can get more bang for their buck
• Online advertising is more effective at directing people to a website (all people have to do is click on an online ad vs. having to go to the web after being exposed to an ad in another medium).  Thus, folks are more likely to view a candidate or organization's content, donate online or forward it to a friend.
• The geographic targeting can be much more precise online, so that fewer ad dollars are wasted communicating with voters outside of a candidate's district.  This is a real problem in Cincinnati, as we border Indiana & Kentucky.  Whenever I hear a radio ad or see a TV ad on a Cincinnati station for a Kentucky candidate I feel bad for them as I know a huge percentage of the people who just heard or saw the ad won't be voting in their district. 
• The demographic and psychographic (values, beliefs, interests, lifestyle) targeting opportunities online are huge, particularly on social profile sites where members have provided that info in their profiles, such as age, marital status, political leanings, favorite candidates, etc.   
• Better tracking of results.  A campaign can track: exactly how many saw the ad, how many people clicked on the ad, what those people did on the website (donated, emailed a friend, etc.) and how much money they donated.  So a campaign can compute exact ROI figures and the cost of acquiring a new supporter.

Other campaigns, organizations and businesses can learn from this example.  If you'd like to put some of these advantages to work for you, Call me!  937-312-1400.

(I'm Rob Bunting the I-marketing Czar and I approved this message)

      

Comments

[Nicole Amsler]

You crack me up with the "I am Rob Bunting...and I approve this ad."

Food for thought...Are searchers looking for new information when researching candidates or are they looking to reinforce their already formed opinions?

I found it fascinating that "who should I vote for" ranked medium high for search terms. I find it more disturbing that there are 20 million sites answering this question. They would be better suited twirling a Magic 8 ball.

It will be interesting to see how this election plays out--with a tech-savvy campaign by Obama and McCain not even having an email account. I would venture to say this is the last election where BOTH candidates don't shovel half their money into online ventures.

Great post.

N@

[Hotel internet marketing]

Glad I stumbled into this article! Finally, got what I was looking for!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it smile I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

[Rob Bunting]

Thanks for the comment 'Hotel Internet Marketing', it's nice to have a comment from a reader Down Under and I'm glad it was just what you were looking for.

Also, thanks to Nicole for her comment back in September. I think your comment about people using search to learn more about candidates is interesting, my view is at least some people are making an effort to do ANY research on a candidate. My view is most people know very little about who they are voting for or against, so any online researching is at least a start.