In this series, we’ve aimed to share three key strategies that political advertisers should consider for their digital campaigns if they want to win big during an election year. In this final installment, we are focusing on the importance of having an effective delivery method of a campaign message to connect with voters.

In order to be truly effective, candidates need to deliver powerful messaging. By delivering a custom and engaging ad to voters in key districts, a candidate can really reinforce their campaign messaging, all of this through the person’s mobile phone — the device they are most likely to be using. 

You may be thinking, yes we know we want to advertise on mobile to drive home our messaging. But consider working with a technology partner that has the capabilities to develop truly impactful custom, dynamic messaging through different creative formats. 

Dynamically optimized creatives 

Dynamic creative optimization refers to a form of advertising technology that allows an advertiser to personalize ads based on the user viewing their ad at that time, as well as to optimize on which creative is performing best, all in real-time. 

This can be extremely beneficial when it comes to political advertising because it means that you can deliver tailored messages at scale. For instance, if you are running for a Governor seat, you can look at which campaign aspects resonate more in which areas of the state. If you know a potential voter is in a location where schools are a big issue, you can target them with an ad that highlights your stance on education, while you can deliver a different ad on another aspect of your platform to someone in a separate part of the state.

Creative formats that re-engage users after the fact 

Another thing to consider when developing your advertising strategy is how you can re-engage a potential voter whether they have previously clicked on an ad or you want to remind your constituents to go out and vote. 

A smart and impactful way to incorporate this into your campaign is to work with a partner that has experience in developing creative formats that are effective in urging user interaction. For example, there are formats that allow a user to save an event in their mobile wallet. On a determined day or time, the advertiser can send the user a push notification that reminds them of the upcoming event. This can be used to further remind your audience to vote for your candidate. In addition, an advertiser can smartly develop retargeting ads that are specific to a user who clicked on an ad earlier in your campaign. The candidate can remind them they’ve shown interest and that they should go out and vote for them. 

Formats that play off of mobile device functionalities

Working with a partner that has a library of innovative and proprietary creative formats also allows you to deliver really unique messages. This allows an advertiser to retain voters’ attention and boost engagement by leveraging smartphones’ native sensors. 

Delivering a potential voter an ad format that asks them to engage with your format, whether it is by using a format that combines your message with an interactive feature that provides the ability to discover specific campaign components or comes with an interactive slider that gives the ability to switch between two creatives, offers the opportunity to highlight multiple aspects of your campaign platform to raise awareness. Delivering an ad that encourages people to interact is an effective way to raise awareness and boost recall, all tactics that can help drive voters to the polls on behalf of your candidate. 

Make sure that you check out all the insights from this series by reading the rest of the posts here:

  1. Leverage mobile to reach registered voters at home in the US
  2. Target registered US voters by their location and political affiliation
  3. Reach registered US voters based on past behaviors and social interest