Since January 2007, the presidential candidates have generated more than 277 million display ad impressions. From display and search advertising to viral marketing, political online marketing has proven to be a highly effective form of raising campaign funds & influencing voters. Clearly, presidential campaigning has evolved significantly since Dubya was re-elected almost 4 years ago.
This past January, Barack Obama raised more than $36.8 million dollars -- the most ever raised in a month during a presidential primary. It's not surprising that Obama's online advertising initiatives have led to much of his great fundraising success.
With so many dollars being spent on political online advertising, there comes the question, are the candidates making the most out of their online spend? While I would prefer to give advice to my candidate(s) of choice, the ion blog is not quite The Huffington Post, so I took a non-biased look at where Obama, Clinton, & McCain are sending their paid clicks.
Campaign conversions
Each candidate is participating in PPC advertising on Google. And like most advertisers on Google, Clinton, Obama, & McCain's paid clicks are focused on getting respondents to convert -- whether in the form of a campaign contribution or signup. Below are some ads and subsequent landing pages from COM (Clinton, Obama, & McCain).
Takeaway Number 1: Segment your voters
Political landing pages present the PERFECT opportunity for candidates to segment their audience. Yet, COM's landing pages are one-size-fits-all in nature.
As any marketer knows, the great benefit of market segmentation is the ability to classify a market (voting base) into distinct categories, and ultimately focus that marketing strategy to a segment's needs, interests, attitudes etc.
COM (Clinton, Obama, & McCain) could have (and should have) first segmented their clicks. Politics is all about appeal -- and appealing to a unique audience is possible with post-click segmentation. COM's post-click landing pages could have segmented by demographic or political issue, and each subsequent page that a voter lands on could pitch according to issues that are relevant and meaningful to that segment/voter. The candidates could use post-click segmentation to tap into a new voting base, and also strengthen their current.
The Obama campaign focuses on "Change we can believe in". That's great -- we all want change ... but what I want to know more about is what Obama is going to change to help MY life, and after clicking on an ad, I want to know about it right away. A basic Obama landing page could initially segment by political issue, and ask the question "What's important to you?" 1) The economy 2) Iraq 3) Global Warming 4) All of the above. Those subsequent pages would then appeal more to the voter and increase the chances of them donating or signing up.
As COM continue to campaign across the nation, visiting each of their unique "segments", they are missing the chance to rally each of those unique audiences post-click as well.
Takeaway Number 2: Increase your donations by being polite
While politicians aren't generally prized for their manners, that doesn't necessarily mean their landing pages can't be courteous. It's quite rude to ask for a donation after only 1 click, and as much as I love (or don't love) Hilary Clinton, I would be hesitant to donate right away. Instead, this landing page would be much more effective if it first segmented its respondents, and then asked for a donation only after telling the visitor why voting for Hilary would improve their lives. I would be much more inclined to donate to Hilary's campaign if she told me how that would benefit me, instead of just helping her win.
Conclusion
While the candidates may not have gotten their post-click strategy right this time, there is always room for improvement. Maybe they'll get it now, or maybe not until 2012. But as Obama has proven, online contributions can profoundly affect a political campaign. And, as our clients know and prove everyday, effective post-click marketing increases conversions by 2-10x. Just imagine what could have happened had the Hilary campaign used LiveBall -- she could have increased her online contributions by 2 (or 10x).
-Megan Leap
