How to Use Data Empowered Political PMPs for Political Marketing
As the 2024 election season heats up, political campaign marketers are preparing to reach voters with precision and impact. The stakes are high, and the competition steep for political campaign marketing, making it even more critical for digital marketers to find ways to cut through the noise to deliver highly relevant and personalized ads to the right audiences.
This election cycle has witnessed a surge in political ad spending, mirroring the programmatic advertising landscape’s increasing reliance on private marketplaces (PMPs). According to eMarketer, US political ad spending is expected to increase 156.3% compared to the 2020 election cycle. This significant surge, now representing 28.1% of political ad spending, highlights the importance of utilizing data-driven strategies for successful political campaign marketing and audience targeting.
In this article, we outline four key tips for using programmatic curation to optimize your political campaign marketing efforts, ensuring your message reaches the right voters at the right time.
1. Target Audiences by Political Affiliation
When it comes to political campaign marketing, political affiliation is one of the most obvious places to start targeting voters. Understanding and categorizing audiences by their political affiliation allows political campaign marketers to craft messages that resonate deeply, encouraging voter turnout and support.
Lotame’s Data Empowered Political PMP Packages offer a robust selection of seasonal audience segments based on past voting behavior, party affiliation, and political donations. These segments maximize targeting and ad spend by ensuring political campaigns reach specific voter groups with tailored messaging and less waste.
Some of the top-performing political affiliation segments from the last election season include:
- 2008 Primary Voter
- 2012 Primary Voter
- Democratic Party
- Eligible Voters
- Independent Party
- Moderate/Independent
- Past Primary Voter
- Political Donor
- Political Donor: Democrat
- Political Donor: Republican
- Republican Party
- Somewhat Conservative/Leaning Republican
- Somewhat Liberal/Leaning Democrat
- Very Conservative/Hard Republican
- Very Liberal/Hard Democrat
By using these political audiences, you can ensure that your messages are tailored to the specific political beliefs and behaviors of your audience. For instance, a campaign targeting “Very Liberal/Hard Democrat” voters might emphasize progressive policies and social justice issues, while messaging for “Very Conservative/Hard Republican” segments would likely focus on traditional values and fiscal conservatism. Whether you’re reaching out to loyal party voters, persuading swing voters, or rallying those who have contributed to political campaigns in the past, these segments provide a powerful foundation for precision targeting.
With the rise in digital ad spending, it’s more crucial than ever to use data effectively. By leveraging Lotame’s Data Empowered Political PMP Packages, focused on political affiliation segments, political marketers can better allocate their ad dollars, ensuring that every impression counts.
2. Use Political PMP Packages Empowered by Audience, Context and Analytics
Voting behavioral audience data is highly actionable, especially combined with intelligently formed contextual targeting to increase scale and diversify strategies. Lotame’s curated Political PMP packages are custom-built using machine learning models which surface high-affinity, contextually relevant content consumption categories across web, mobile and CTV app for users in politically relevant segments.
Key Benefits:
- Custom-Built with AI: High-affinity content consumption categories identified and mapped using AI.
- Validated by Experts: All AI mappings are confirmed through human intelligence.
- Maximized Reach: Anti-targeting and segment suppression minimize overlap and enhance targeting.
Layering audiences and analytics with smart contextual strategies to unlock new audiences can be a highly effective strategy while using guardrails to minimize user duplication.
For example, “Baking” and “Wellness” content indexes higher for Democratic voters, while “Photography” and “Thriller & Crime Show” content indexes higher for Republican voters. Lotame’s predictive analytics platform uses these insights to curate targeted private marketplace (PMP) deals with highly relevant sites and apps, with optional audience suppression (e.g., excluding “Independent Voters”) to support political marketing campaigns in this election cycle.
3. Target Battleground and Swing States
Swing states are the key battlegrounds in any election, often determining the outcome of presidential races. These states, with unpredictable voters, can swing either way, making them the primary focus of any serious political marketing campaign. The importance of these states cannot be overstated; winning a swing state can make or break a campaign.
With Lotame’s political PMP packages, political marketers can zero in on battlegrounds, ensuring their resources go where they matter most. The ability to identify and target voters in these states with pinpoint accuracy gives campaigns a significant advantage.
Top performing audience segments for targeting swing state voters include:
- 2020 Primary Voter
- Past Primary Voter
- Always Votes in Presidential Elections
- Sometimes Votes in Presidential Elections
- Eligible Voters in Swing States
- Democratic Party
- Independent Party
- Republican Party
By focusing on these audiences, campaigns can target their efforts on the voters who are most likely to sway the election outcome in these pivotal states. For example, “Eligible Voters in Swing States” is a crucial audience segment that allows campaigns to target voters who may not be consistent voters but could be persuaded with the right messaging. These voters often hold the key to victory in states where the margin of error is slim.
In addition to targeting specific voter segments, campaigns must also consider the local issues that matter most to swing state voters. This could include economic concerns, education, or other region-specific issues. By aligning your messaging with the concerns of voters in swing states, you can increase the likelihood of swaying undecided voters in your favor.
3. Target Moderate Voters
Moderate voters often hold the balance of power in elections, making them a crucial demographic to target. These voters, who do not strongly identify with either major party, can be swayed by persuasive arguments from both sides. They may lean slightly toward one party but are open to other viewpoints, making them ideal targets for campaign messaging that speaks to their concerns and values.
Lotame’s data segments for moderate voters include:
- Moderate/Independent Party
- Somewhat Conservative/Leaning Republican
- Somewhat Liberal/Leaning Democrat
- Social Issues & Advocacy
- Green Living & Environmental Issues
- Human Rights & Liberties
- Financial Issues & Advocacy
Focusing on these segments allows campaigns to deliver messages that resonate with moderate voters, addressing the issues that matter most to them. For instance, “Somewhat Conservative/Leaning Republican” voters might respond well to messages about fiscal responsibility and national security, while “Somewhat Liberal/Leaning Democrat” voters might be more concerned with healthcare reform and environmental protection.
Moderates often determine the outcome in competitive districts and states, where every vote counts. By speaking directly to their concerns—whether they involve economic issues, social justice, or environmental policy—campaigns can persuade these voters to support their candidate.
Political marketers should also consider the media channels that these voters are most likely to engage with. For example, moderate voters may consume a mix of traditional and digital media, making it essential to have a presence across multiple platforms.
Leveraging CTV and Other Channels
Connected TV (CTV) is rapidly emerging as a crucial platform for political advertising. With the rise of streaming services and the decline of traditional cable TV, CTV offers a unique opportunity to understand and reach voters in a more engaging and targeted way. For example, TV show, network, and genre data can provide clues about a consumer’s likely political leaning. Lotame’s Data Empowered Seasonal and Evergreen PMPs, including our Political PMP Package, are designed to help political marketers smash KPIs, delivering in full, fast. With available inventory across all channels—CTV, Display, Video—Lotame’s Curation solutions ensure your political marketing campaign messages are impactful and far-reaching, delivered to the right audience at the right time.
Smarter, Faster and Easier Political Campaigns with Data Empowered Political PMPs
Even if your campaign is already in full swing, these targeting tips can help refine your strategy and improve your results. By leveraging Lotame’s Curation solutions, you can find the right audience across all data sources, blending data and ad placements for better performance and scalability, and ensure your campaign messages resonate with voters nationwide.
As digital political ad spending continues to grow, with projections reaching $3.46 billion in 2024, campaigns that fail to embrace these advanced targeting strategies risk missing the mark on performance goals.
Ready to take your political marketing campaign to the next level? Explore Lotame’s Data Empowered Political PMP Packages today and reach the voters you’re trying to influence the most this election season.