5 Political Campaign Video Ideas
Online video was once an expensive luxury reserved only for well-funded political campaigns and viewers with a good internet connection. Today, video is everywhere. You can shoot video (and even edit it) from just about any mobile phone and easily share clips to social media.
Video is an effective visual marketing tool for political campaigns of all sizes. As of 2020, there were an estimated 232 million video users in the United States. So a good video holds great potential for engagement and shares from voters and supporters.
For most campaigns, video clips are uploaded to YouTube and uploaded directly to campaign social media accounts, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Video content can be easily embedded into a campaign website or blog. Organizations with larger budgets may use paid video hosting services to avoid advertising and branding from appearing with their clips.
Whether you plan to create professionally edited videos or quick clips recorded from a mobile phone, you may be struggling for content ideas that appeal to voters.
Here are a few suggestions on how to use video for your political campaign:
Create a personal introduction to voters
A personal introduction on a campaign website home page is a great way for voters to see and hear the candidate. A short, personal message about the candidate or why he or she is running can help give depth and personality to the site.
Let Us Create Your Candidate Intro Video!
Kick off your YouTube channel and with an intro video branded with your campaign and messaging.
Repurpose your campaign commercials
Your television (and radio) ads should be converted for placement on the web. You may want to name the the videos by date and subject. You can place your most current ads on your site’s home page to keep your site content fresh. When they are posted to your campaign’s YouTube channel, you will want to make sure the video’s title and description include relevant keyword phrases, as that can help them appear in search results.
Sometimes campaign ads go viral. This usually happens for either humorous or especially hard-hitting videos. In many cases, these are professionally produced.
Remember, online has far fewer restrictions on content. Sometimes a political advertisement that gets rejected by mainstream media outlets ends up getting even more exposure online than it would have had if it ran regularly in the first place. This, of course, begs the question of whether certain ads are purposely made conversational just to call attention to them when they are rejected…
Use legislative or municipal meetings to highlight a point
Here you can show the candidate or an opponent in action. Add annotations into the video to point things out. These types of videos are good for showing how a candidate really feels about an issue or how he or she reacts in session.
You don’t know a legislator until you’ve seen them in action.
Highlight campaign events and other interesting clips
Short clips of rallies, speeches and interviews can be of interest to voters. Edit the clips for length. Consider adding narration or closed captioning to explain what is going on.
As long as your sound is good, even short and informal video posts can help inform and entertain votes. Many candidates today are using live video for events or just to post quick updates. Facebook Live allows you to live-stream video directly to an audience through Facebook. Best of all, you don’t need a lot of preparation to produce these videos.
With Facebook Live, you can live-stream video directly to an audience through Facebook. Viewers can watch from their computer, mobile phone or other connected devices. For political campaigns, Facebook Live allows candidates to speak and engage directly to their audience. For supporters who cannot be physically be at an event, they can still participate (and donate).
Use video with your online fundraising
Add a video to your donation page to help explain your cause. If you have a special fundraising need, you’ll want your video to specifically address your goal. You can use the video on the donation page, post them your social media accounts and even use a screenshot of the video for your emails.
Final political campaign video tips
Try to keep your political campaign videos short and tightly edited. The average YouTube video is only about three minutes long – and voters do not generally have long attention spans. Also, do not set embedded videos to run automatically when the web page loads.
- Use a simple message that is clear and concise.
- Make your visual presentation professional, even if you are making an impersonal video. After all, your ad is going to be seen by voters.
- Use memorable words and concepts that accurately represent your campaign.
- Many users do not like music or video to start when they arrive on a web site. Many will automatically click off – and you don’t want to lose visitors that way.
- Strategically embed your videos into your content. You may want to explain what each video so the user knows what they will see.
- YouTube is a great place to have a video channel. However, if you want to embed video ad-free and without branding, consider using Kinsta or Vimeo for your video hosting needs.
Finally, don’t forget to add video to your get out the vote efforts. Use them in social media and your site. Remind voters to turn out for Election Day or to mail in those early ballots.
Related: Reach Early Voters Online
Video code can be easily embedded into any Online Candidate website. We also provide a Political Video Design services to kick off your YouTube channel and add to your campaign website.
Resources for Teaching Political Campaigning to Students
Teachers and educators have used our articles as further reading when teaching political campaigning to students. This includes high school and even college-level courses.
Our material is non-partisan and without particular bias, so it’s safe to use in lesson plans about getting started in politics. We use our articles as resources for prospective and current clients about how politics works on the web.
Here are popular articles that can help with your curriculum:
- Should You Make The Run For Local Office? – Running for elected office is one of the best ways you can give back to their community. Whether you want to run for city council, county commissioner or local school board, you must begin by making the decision to run.
- FAQs for First-Time Political Candidates – Every two years in the United States, there are over 500,000 public offices up for election. For many of these candidates, it will be their first race…
- Opening a Bank Account For Your Political Campaign – Raising money and managing expenses is an critical part of the election process. Opening a campaign bank account is an early step in establishing a viable political campaign.
- What’s Your Campaign Theme? – For political purposes, your campaign theme covers a variety of elements which are used to communicate a political message. It should be based on a clear reason why a candidate is running for office and backed up by an overall identity that shapes the overall campaign.
- Political Campaign Slogans – The best slogans in politics are both positive and suggest action. They should be easy for voters to remember, emphasize a message – and hopefully connect with voters on an emotional level.
- Designing A Great Political Logo – Tips and Ideas – A great campaign logo design is central to branding and projects a professional brand in the minds of voters.
- Announcing Your Candidacy for Political Office – Successful candidates start with a big announcement. Of course, there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes before a candidate can publicly declare a candidacy.
- How Candidates Raise Money For Local Campaigns – One of the first and largest obstacles for a campaign is raising enough money to become a viable candidate.
- 5 Things To Know About Your Domain Name – A domain name is the ultimate expression of a candidate’s online branding.
- Local Election Laws And Your Campaign Website – It’s essential to know and understand the local campaign election laws that apply online before you start your digital presence.
- Online Advertising For Political Campaigns – Political campaigns today have many options for online advertising to reach and influence voters. With a low cost to entry, even local candidates can put together an effective online marketing strategy.
- Listen Up! It’s Our Running For Office Podcast – Announcing the launch of our own podcast, Running for Office as an Online Candidate.
If you use the material in your classroom lessons or projects, we appreciate a link back to the source. Thanks!
Political Web Services
Your website is the foundation of a successful online political campaign. Many candidates turn to local web developers or ‘free site builders’ for their political campaign website design needs. Neither has the experience or expertise in digital politics. That can mean that your development project costs more money and time than it should. Those are resources best invested toward campaign activities.
Web Services for Political Campaigns
We provide a variety of political website services to help new and established candidates win elections since 2004. We’ve built and launched political campaign websites long before digital became an essential marketing component of down-ballot races. Messaging, content and technical requirements all play a critical part in success.
Our political clients include mayor and city council representatives, judges, sheriffs, school board candidates, political committees, grassroots organizations to state and congressional candidates.
We help campaigns succeed online in a variety of ways:
Campaign Design and Branding
Our Custom Site Packages include logo design to grab attention and identity you to voters. The colors, font and layout all help create a foundation for a narrative on which to build your brand. The graphics we create can be provided in high-resolution for print use in brochures and mailings.
Slogans we’ve created for clients.
An Easy to Use Content Management System
We’ve worked to make our content management systems easy to use for non-technical users. You don’t need to know how to program or edit complicated building blocks. You can add and edit page content, images and post news and updates. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use our system. Check out our Site Demo to see how the system works.
Digital Marketing Services
We offer a number of online marketing services to help launch your digital presence, including video design, social media account setup, and IP targeting. Online campaigning is constantly changing and expanding. We help our clients keep up with the best practices.
Resources and Tools for Candidates
Find just the right image for your page or post in our built-in image library. Clients also have access to additional tools, articles and resources. Use our social media and print templates to help promote online and offline.
An Investment In Your Political Campaign
The best political campaign websites are appealing, inform voters, and help visitors take action. Our system includes the pages, forms and layout (desktop and mobile-friendly, of course) to help get a jump start on content so you can launch your site quickly and without hassle. A sample of the features include:
- Domain and Hosting: A free .com domain name is included. We take care of all your hosting needs. It’s all set up automatically.
- Built in styles and Templates: Built-in page layout styles and professionally-designed color schemes are included, along with ability to easily embed YouTube videos, audio files and presentations.
- Powerful Page Editor: Make unlimited edits. Easily add, edit and update your site content. Add image popups, sliders, buttons, and even text-to-Tweet links. Plus, it’s easy to make your pages SEO-friendly so they appear in relevant searches.
- Accept Online Donations: Any outside fundraising system or service can be integrated to accept contributions and donations.
- Forms and Data Capture: Capture and download data from your contact, endorsement and event forms.
- Social Media Integration: Easily display your Facebook and Twitter feeds in your sidebar or in your pages. Visitors can share your content to their own friends and followers.
- Other Built-in Tools: Includes an event calendar, popover messaging, countdown widget and more to help win your election.
- Technical Support: Get help through our extensive knowledge base, by trouble ticket or phone.
- Up-Front Pricing: All of our services are spelled out clearly and have fixed prices to make it simple.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did you start in this niche?
Our first experience in politics goes back twenty years ago, when we employed online tactics to help a local candidate win her election. We created a campaign website for the candidate, which forced her opponent to spend thousands in developing a competing site. We also helped promote positive search results for the candidate and negative search results for her opponent. In the end, we won!
What are the benefits of using Online Candidate?
There are many benefits to Online Candidate. One of the most important, as expressed by our clients, is that you are actually dealing directly with the person who is doing the work. Our system is flexible for various needs, so you are free to work with and integrate other vendor services. We also focus exclusively on political websites, so our process is streamlined an efficient, allow us to pass along the cost savings.
We offer a variety of site packages and related marketing services. What services are best for you?
Local Election Laws And Your Campaign Website
Although the web is often considered a freewheeling environment, local election laws still apply to online political campaigning. As a candidate, it’s essential to know what local election laws apply online before you start your digital campaign.
Common legal topics facing local political campaigns:
When can a candidate start political campaigning?
Some municipalities have restrictions on when you can actively start campaigning. Some local laws are more restrictive than others – especially for judicial campaigns. Even if you have to wait, many clients prepare ahead of time. They may reserve a domain name and get their website ready to go in anticipation of the time that they can go ‘live’ with it.
Required political website disclaimers
Your campaign website may need to have various disclaimers or certain verbiage in your website footer text or elsewhere on your site. Generally, this would match the election law disclaimer requirements of your print materials. This copy is typically something along the lines of, “Paid for by …” In fact, all online ads these days require disclaimers and advertiser verification before they are even run.
Restrictions on what can appear on a campaign website
There may be restrictions on the use of state flags or state seals in the design. (We’re looking at you, Florida!) They may be additional restrictions as to whether you can appear in uniform in campaign materials. This comes up fairly often in law enforcement and sheriff campaigns.
Rules for logos
It was recently pointed out to us that according to Texas state law , in a “for” Sheriff logo the “for” text has to be at least 50% as large as the Sheriff. If it’s any smaller, you can get in trouble with the Texas Ethics Commission.
What a candidate can say on a website
We’ve had to change a few client’s site header designs after they’ve discovered that they cannot use certain phrases or words. In one case, we had to remove the word ‘Elect’ from the header because the election laws for the position did not allow for that word to be used. You may want to watch how your copy and signage reads so it does not give the impression that the new position you are running for is a position you already hold.
How local campaigns can contact voters
With the increase in texting, robocalls and phone banks, there are still rules that political campaigns must follow. In 2020, congress passed the TRACED Act to combat illegal robocalls. It increased potential fines and added additional tools for regulators to combat spam calls and texts.
For example, calls to cell phones are prohibited unless the recipient has explicitly opted-in to receive campaign updates. The message itself must identify the candidate and party for whom call is made. A contact number and address must also be included at the end of the message. Your state may have additional rules and requirements. You’ll want to check into them before you fire up the robodialer.
Campaign finance limits
Be sure not to exceed your local campaign contribution limits. Your donation page should be configured to reject donations that exceed your limit. Additional donor information may also be required. This can include, but is not limited to: donor’s occupation, spouses name, citizenship requirements and so on.
Invoicing for internet services
If you pay for an online service, you should keep records of your expenses, just as you would for anything else related to your campaign. (Online Candidate clients can log into their Client Portal and download financials.)
Become familiar with your local campaign election laws before you start actively campaigning. Getting caught breaking the rules – even seemingly innocent ones – in the middle of an election can be embarrassing and an unnecessary distraction.
A good rule of thumb is that if something is not allowed in print, you can bet it won’t be allowed on the web. You can be sure that an opponent will use any violations as an attack point. Just stick to the letter and the spirit of the law, and you should have no problems at all.
Legally, at least.
Learn more about our Political Website Packages and marketing services to create an effective, professional web presence.
What Political Campaigns Need To Know About Google Display Ads
Have you noticed more and more political campaign ads on your news and email websites? Ever wonder how they get there?
They are called display ads. Large campaigns use them. But they can also be part of your own political campaign strategy to reach voters online.
Unlike traditional pay per click (PPC) advertising, display ads are not based on user searches. Rather, the graphic (image) ads appear at the top, on the side, and in the middle of web content where a user is browsing. Display ads show on the Google Display Network. The GDN includes a network of websites, videos, and apps that reach 90% of internet users on any particular day.
Your ads can appear where a user is reading news articles, checking email or watching online videos.
They may look like this:
468×60 pixel banner ad.
or this:
Display ads give you control over your branding. This differs from traditional Google Search Ads, where the ads are text-based, with just text copy for the headlines and descriptions.
Per Google’s restricted targeting for election ads, only the following criteria may be used to target election ads:
- Geographic location (except radius around a location)
- Age, gender
- Contextual targeting options such as: ad placements, topics, keywords against sites, apps, pages and videos
Political content includes ads for political organizations, political parties, political issue advocacy or fundraising, and individual candidates and politicians.
There are two types of Google display ads: uploaded and responsive. Uploaded ads are created by the advertiser. Responsive ads are created by uploading your logo, some visual assets (images and videos) and display text. From there, Google Ads will test different combinations of visuals and copy to determine which versions of your ad perform best. Responsive display ads also automatically adjust themselves to meet the requirements of specific web pages.
Ads can link to your website home page or to a particular landing page. Try to make the landing page of any ad relevant to the ad itself. For example, if you are running display ads about a particular issue or ballot measure, have the landing page be about that issue, rather than to your website’s home page. Donation pages also make for good landing pages.
Here are graphical display ad samples
In case you were wondering what display ads look like, here are some samples. Best design practices include:
- Having a solid border around the ad
- A head shot to make the image more visually attracting
- A political disclaimer.
Sample political display ads:
These images sizes are standard for other types of online advertising, such as IP targeting, website retargeting and website advertising (such as newspaper websites.)
How display advertising works for political campaigns
There are several ways you can target voters using Google display ads. The most common method is retargeting, where you target ads to people who have visit your website – even to specific pages. This only works if you have a large amount of site traffic.
Running a Google Display Ad (GDA) campaign is a little different than an IP Targeting campaign.
- Both use the same types of creatives and ad sizes.
- Both can target people who have not visited your website.
- GDA can only target general geographic locations, possibly narrowed by age and gender. It’s more of a shotgun approach, where you reach both active and non-active voters.
- IP Targeting targets specific physical addresses that you choose, which is why it is more expensive on a cost per thousand impressions.
Again, Google has limited political ads to be fairly generic in their reach. Many of these restrictions followed the 2016 US presidential elections. The costs are generally less than IP Targeting ads and even traditional Pay Per Click advertising, which is based on keyword searches.
Display ads are great for building awareness for your political campaign or cause. They can be bought on both a cost per impression and through pay per click search models. Voters may not be actively searching for you or your campaign, but running display ads allow you to introduce your campaign to those who may not have been exposed to your campaign otherwise.
Don’t forget about verification
Before you start an election display ad campaign, you should know that any individual or organization that purchases an election ad on Google or YouTube must provide information to Google confirming that they are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Google also requires all political ads to display a ‘paid for’ disclosure.
This verification process can take time, so you’ll want to start the process as early as possible.
Also, changes in the Display Network can take 12-24 hours to apply and may not show right away. Keep this in mind while creating a new campaign or making changes to an existing campaign. You may want to set up your campaign a few days before the launch and set the start date in the future. And don’t forget to add an end date on Election Day!
Google display ads can be exceptionally powerful for both large and local political campaigns. They are a great way to expand your exposure to the electorate.
Related:
Don’t Distance Your Campaign From Voters
These are uncharted times for down-ballot campaigns. With in-person contact limited, candidates are reaching voters through digital marketing.
Online Candidate is here to help. From our articles to our campaign resource site to our marketing services, we help campaigns of all types build their digital presence.
If you are running for office this year, you need to start your online campaign!
Start With a Campaign Website
A campaign website isn’t an option this year. From our $29 Monthly Option (6 Months for $149)to our Enhanced Website Package, our design and online marketing services make creating your online presence the easiest part of your campaign.
Which Package Is Best For You?
Political Promotional Videos
Need to kick off your YouTube channel? Let us create an intro video branded with your campaign and messaging. It’s a quick and affordable way to start another online promotional channel.
Learn More About Our Video Promos
Target Your Voter List By Address
By matching physical addresses, IP Targeting is your way to reach specific voter households. Your ads can display on news sites, email portals and other popular sites across the web…
Learn More about IP Targeting
Digital Download Store
We carry a large range of digital downloadable items to help campaigns and organizations. It features a variety of campaign e-books, political print templates and political logo templates available for immediate download.
Visit the Download Store
One-on-One Consulting
With the shift to online campaigning in 2020, even local candidates must learn the ins and outs of online campaigning. To help candidates get the most from their online efforts, we now offer personalized, one-on-one consulting services.
Book a One-on-one Session
Online Candidate makes it easy to launch your political website and build your online presence.
