What Political Advertisers Should Ask Digital Ad Partners Before the 2024 Election Season

As we head toward what seems to be an intense and highly competitive 2024 election season, there has never been more interest in the power of digital ads to get the vote out.

At the same time, there has never been this much change this fast in the digital media world, and the landscape for political advertising has changed radically, even since 2020. The industry acceleration of connected TV (CTV) during and after the pandemic to the more recent shift away from linear TV following the writers’ strikes (resulting in a lack of quality content on TV), digital media is seeing its day as the priority medium for reaching consumers.

The intense spending ramp-up seen during the last presidential race led to several gubernatorial contests in 2021, which saw significant upticks in search and social media advertising. This year is forecasted to be even more dynamic as experts predict the future of political advertising will rely heavily on CTV.

These changes intensify the importance of getting the best results from media dollars — the best insights, reach and value. This means selecting the right programmatic partner is crucial more so now than ever. Here are six questions political advertisers should ask their DSP today:

1. CAN YOUR DSP PROVIDE YOU WITH THE ATTENTION, SERVICE AND FLEXIBILITY IN STRATEGICALLY EXECUTING YOUR CAMPAIGNS? 

Political cycles are unique in that their regular occurrence every few years allows for predictability in general media strategies. But when you’re up and running — will the demand side platform (DSP) you’re working with be responsive when you need to adjust on the fly? Do they have the flexibility to onboard quickly for new opportunities or the technological expertise to check the boxes of a nuanced strategy? Working with a DSP who will make adjustments, offer thoughtful feedback and provide results and insights when you need them will allow you to run your campaigns with confidence. While the build-up to a launch takes time, time is of the essence when the window starts to close as we near Election Day.

2. CAN YOUR DSP HELP YOU WITH PLANNING AND FIGURING OUT WHERE YOUR AUDIENCE IS BEFORE YOU START TO EXECUTE?

Reaching voters should be table stakes for any ad campaign — identifying the right ones accurately and efficiently can make the difference between success and failure. Given the limited timeframe of the political season, it’s imperative to hit the ground running because there are no re-dos or do-overs after ballots are cast. Gaining the ability to forecast a potential audience’s scale, the costs associated with reaching those voters and where your media will be running is vital in this category. Political advertisers need to get their plans as close to perfect as they can upfront because there is simply less time to optimize or change course.

3. DOES YOUR DSP HAVE THE RIGHT CHANNEL, SUPPLY, AND DATA INTEGRATIONS?

While first-party data remains king, ensuring the DSP you work with has a deep roster of integrated data providers and off-the-shelf, pre-approved supply is critical. For instance, reaching consumers who have historically voted or favored one side of the aisle each year is an easy starting point, but what about reaching the new voter audience? Current data that is derived from real-world touchpoints should enable marketers to reach target audiences and voter groups with a personalized consumer experience. From there, activating upon that data across the ecosystem — whether via open exchanges or quality private marketplaces — should allow advertisers to be even more precise and deliberate in their efforts, while providing flexibility to manage scale and efficiency across all channels.

4. IS THE DSP READY TO TAKE ON THE COOKIELESS FUTURE?

In Q1 2024, less than three months away, Google will officially begin deprecating the cookie. This means that the time to ensure those formerly “new solutions” have worked, and will continue to work into the primaries and general elections. While it’s not too late to begin testing those cookieless solutions, now is the time to settle on your strategy and align with a DSP with the experience and capability to help guide your media into this new future. Your partner should have options across all digital channels with a sound strategy on assessing performance and optimize media accordingly to get the most from your media, whether that’s accurate reach and frequency or efficient attribution from all channels — especially CTV.

And while many of these new entrants’ methodologies may seem sound and practical, how do you know they’ll work when it comes to activation? It is crucial to ensure that a potential partner is  consistent with its technology and adaptive. Right now, political candidates need help from experts versed in how digital advertising currently works while preparing for upcoming changes (such as the elimination of the cookie) down the road.

5. CAN THE DSP SCALE IN THE MARKETS YOU NEED, WITH REACH TO QUALIFIED VOTERS?

Political elections are generally seen as national events, but what about localized elections? Not only does that require a vastly different strategy, it also requires you to partner with a DSP who can scale at a granular level amongst eligible voters. When delivering media, most platforms can layer on a geographic target, but the market-by-market scale can vary widely. 

Therefore, advertisers should determine if such DSP partners have access to scaled data on registered voters — especially within niche markets like district- or county-level polls — which will help to avoid wasted impressions, allowing for media budgets to be stretched further without sacrificing accuracy.

6. CAN THE DSP HELP YOU UNDERSTAND PERFORMANCE ACROSS ALL CHANNELS AND ANALYZE OUTCOMES?

Regardless of category, marketers are looking to seamlessly move from planning to activation across the digital screens where their target consumers will be. This audience reach is particularly crucial in the high-speed world of political campaigns. Initial campaign strategy might offer a few months lead time, but what happens when things change at the 11th hour? We’ve seen it every political cycle; new campaign funds may arrive after launch, and you need to be tactful on how and where to execute that additional media. 

Conversely, if funds are redistributed, then you need to know where you can pull from without sacrificing the performance or shaking the balance of your original strategy. Having near-real-time insights into the channels, audiences and formats will allow you to have confidence in any on-the-fly adjustments you may need to make. The same goes for measurement, where such campaigns must accurately quantify and inform how many people they reach with ads and how often. A holistic view of a campaign’s complete advertising efforts is everything when budgets are limited, and conditions are ever-changing.

Simply put: political advertisers need DSP partners who can help them quantify whether or not their campaigns are working. While this starts with having confidence in your DSP to provide the attention and service you will need throughout the campaign journey, the ability for the same DSP to have the technical capabilities to plan, activate and measure in the ever-changing landscape that is digital media is critical — and where partnering with Viant’s DSP can help. Accurately gauging your return on investment (ROIs) can be the difference between a victory speech or hitting the drawing board in two years.

Learn more about how Viant’s DSP can help you get ready for the 2024 Election Season by reaching out to our team today.