Creating a Political Campaign Swipe File
In marketing, a swipe file is a collection of excellent sales letters and materials that provide an easy reference for ideas for creative projects. Maintaining a swipe file is a common practice for advertising copywriters and creative directors.
You can use the same technique for your own political campaign.
You need all the help you can get if you are the person who writes brochure copy, campaign website material, and advertising material for a political campaign. With a swipe file, you can study persuasive techniques and provide a template for your own writing. Using reference material that you’ve previously saved can save production time, help you overcome writer’s block, and jump-start your creative process.
Whenever you find a great campaign mailing, brochure, or copy, add it to your swipe file. You will have no shortage of material during election season. Sign up for larger campaign and non-profit email lists. (You may want to use a dedicated email address for this purpose.) This can help you collect ideas from professional copywriters and marketers.
Emails, graphics, and screen shots are easy to save. For non-electronic material, take a picture and save it digitally. Set up a folder on your computer to store your files. Online tools like Evernote are great for storing and organizing material. You can capture, organize, and share notes from anywhere and keep them in sync.
Organize your content into categories, such as interesting quotes, effective emails, and advertising ideas. Before long, you’ll have a repository of inspirational content to reference when you create your own campaign material.
Picasso is credited with the saying, ‘Good artists copy; great artists steal.’
Is swiping stealing? Not if you do it right.
But don’t be a thief. Plagiarism is defined as taking the original work or works of another and presenting them as your own. Directly lifting text, images, or campaign slogans from other sources will very likely come back to bite you.
There is a long history of politics and plagiarism, ranging from speeches to slogans to political campaign brochures. Everything is searchable on the internet.
Instead, use your swipe file to understand how materials can be effective and engaging. Always rework and rewrite material for your own use. Give it your own personality.
Political campaigning is just another way of marketing. Studying successful marketing material is a great way to develop your own effective campaign content.
Start collecting for your swipe folder today!
From setting up a political online presence to social media setup to IP Voter Targeting, Online Candidate can help your election campaign.
How Much Should Your Political Campaign Budget For Digital?
Online campaigning has evolved over the past decade. So has the spend on political digital marketing.
Digital media spend totaled $1.9 billion in 2018. That was a 20% share of total political ad spending, according to a Borrell Associates study. Much of this spend was on the local level for elections and ballot initiatives. In the post-pandemic era, you can figure that at least 20-30% of a campaign’s advertising budget should be dedicated to digital.
With these numbers in mind, how much should your campaign budget for digital advertising?
To determine how much a political campaign will cost, we need to pull together a few numbers. First, you need to know how many votes you need to win your race. This can be an estimate, but it provides a base number in determining the amount you will need to spend. Your local board of elections can help provide information.
In addition to the number of votes cast, look at what money was spent by winning candidates in past elections. Dividing the amount spent by the candidate by the number of votes cast will give you the cost per single vote. For federal elections, you can check opensecrets.com. This number can vary depending on the elected position and whether it was a general or primary election.
Of course, money doesn’t always translate into political victory. (But most of the time, it does.)
Political campaign budgets are determined by several factors. They include staffing, voter operations, fundraising costs, and mailings. These line items tend to be more fixed costs. Digital expenses can be harder to budget for as costs can be more fluid, depending on real-time events.
Let’s look at the math to determine a rough digital budget estimate for a political campaign.
Suppose you need 5000 votes to win your local election. Based on past races for the position, you’ve estimated that your cost per single vote is $5.
So if you need 5000 votes to win, and will spend an average of $5 per won vote, and you plan to spend 20% of your budget on digital, then your budget for digital media would be $5000. (5000 votes x $5 per won vote == $25000.) 20% of that for digital equals $5000.)
Some local candidates will do the minimum and just build a political website. Others will also create social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
Unfortunately, you won’t get far or attract much of a following without spending money. In the online realm, there is no free lunch anymore.
Even low-budget local candidates must campaign online to reach voters. How a political marketing budget is spent will depend on your resources and how you want to reach voters.
Facebook advertising is a cheap and simple way to promote your campaign. You can promote posts and target Facebook ads to voters in your area. You can target your even ads by interests and demographics. However, new restrictions and disclosure requirements are changing the ad landscape. If you plan to run ads on Facebook, prepare early and get yourself verified. Depending on the number of people you want to reach, pushing individual posts can cost as little as $5-20 each to promote to your followers and their friends or as much as hundreds of dollars if you target a much larger audience.
Pay per click on Google is another method of promoting your campaign. Ads are displayed when people search for phrases that you bid on. Most campaigns will target their name, location and keywords related to various issues. Display advertising allows you to broadly market to geographic areas.
- For Google display advertising, political advertisers are limited and can only target by zip code, age and gender.
Retargeting displays recurring ads to people who visit your campaign website. The goal is to get them to return to your site by showing your ads on ad networks that display on other websites. While affordable, this advertising method limits your audience only to those who have already seen your site.
IP Targeting allows you to reach voters directly, even if they have never visited your website. Physical addresses can be translated to IP addresses, allowing ads to be targeted one-on-one to potential voters. You can reach members of your party, households matching a certain demographic or even specific geographic locations. IP-backed banner ad campaigns have been shown to be 50 to 100 times more targeted then television, and 6 to 60 times more effective than other online ad methods. IP Targeting starts at $750 per ad campaign. This is a service offered by Online Candidate. Learn more about political IP Targeting.
Text messaging services have grown in popularity and ease of use. Text messaging has a very high delivery rate. However, recipients must opt-in to receive texts. You can send a mass text message to supporters during important points of the campaign. For example, you could send one after a debate or rally, and ask for a donation. Text messages are a good follow-up for volunteers who are working phone banks.
Most online services provide pricing, so you can get a rough idea of how much you might spend on particular services over the course of a campaign. PPC and social media might be more difficult budget for. You may want to start a trial campaign just to see what your costs may entail. Even with a rough number, budget extra money for unexpected expenses and for a major push just before Election Day.
The key to advertising online is to reach voters and constituents wherever they are. Not everyone uses social media or has a data-enabled cell phone. You wouldn’t just rely solely on television or radio ads; use as many advertising mediums as you can – or can afford to use.
Ideally, you want to advertise several weeks to over a month before the general election. Why so long? The election season starts earlier than you may think. There are mail-in voters to consider, and the early voting that some states initiated in 2020 have since become a trend.
Tracking your marketing efforts is important. Your campaign site should have analytics to track your visitors and where they come from. If you can, split test your outbound messaging. Testing and monitoring your results helps you discover what resonates with voters and provides the most interaction. This includes running multiple PPC ads at one time, A/B testing your email subject lines, using different splash pages for your fundraising efforts and carefully monitoring your social media interaction.
Digital advertising isn’t about clicks, web visits, donations raised or submitted volunteer forms. It’s about delivering your message to voters so they remember you when they cast their ballot.
The more touches and exposure you make, the better. It improves your visibility and improves your personal brand.
How much should you put aside for your digital efforts? Our advice for smaller campaigns is to allocate a decent percentage of your campaign’s ad budget to online and digital. Budget some early money toward building exposure and online fundraising. Later, spend to increase awareness and later budget for your get out the vote efforts.
Ultimately, your advertising success is measured in votes on Election Day. Digital advertising is a big part of that. Even if you are in a local race, be prepared to devote a section of your budget to online spending.
Online Candidate provides an affordable, powerful way to build your online campaign. Find out why we are the choice for hundreds of campaigns every election cycle.
Choosing a Political Campaign CMS
Most websites these days use some sort of Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is a tool that facilitates the process of creating, posting, organizing, and managing site content.
For any CMS there exists a balance between functionality and ease of use. Price is also a factor, but you can pay thousands of dollars for a CMS and not get the features you need – or you could get stuck with a bunch of features you don’t want. Building a campaign website is more than simply adding a political website template to a website or a content management system (CMS) like Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal.
Online Candidate is a custom CMS designed specifically for the needs of a local political campaign with limited resources. It’s designed to be simple for a political candidate or campaign member to update and maintain, and to present a professional look to voters.
Will it work for you?
That depends. What are you looking to accomplish with your website? How many people will be updating the site? How large will your site need to be? Make a list of your basic requirements.
Now consider the time and cost of setting up your own CMS (even a ‘free’ one) and designing the site’s look and feel. Compare Online Candidate to other content management systems. Go ahead, we’ll wait.
Back already? Great! Now see if Online Candidate’s feature set meets your needs. Try our website demo to see how it works.
We’ve worked with hundreds of political campaigns, and we like to think our service as more of a resource than simply a ‘CMS site’ provider.
For more tips on getting ready to launch your site, visit our free download section and subscribe to our email list below!
9 Tips For More Effective Political Banner Ads
Political campaigns try to reach voters wherever they are. Candidates still use traditional methods, such as door-to-door canvassing, yard signs and mailing. Today, political campaigners increasingly leverage online opportunities to promote their message to voters.
Even local campaigns use digital means for outreach. This includes social media, advertising on search engines, retargeting website visitors, email and text messaging – and even online polling. The modern political campaign lives and dies online.
But competition for users’ attention is greater than ever. Your digital ad campaign needs to stand out to be effective.
Tips to improve banner ad visibility and effectiveness
Faces add interest. Logos are nice, but an image of a face on an online display ad draws immediate attention. Add a picture of the candidate (or opponent) to create visual interest. A strong image combined with a strong message is your best bet.
Match your color schemes. One of your online advertising goals is to brand your campaign to voters. Maintain a consistent color scheme between you website, signs and print materials. A consistent look helps improve the visibility of your political ads.
Use a call to action. Include clear messaging and a direct call to action (CTA). A CTA statement can include “Vote on…” , “Learn More” or “Support Us Now”. Make a proposition or ask a question that encourages people to click your ad and find out more. Tell the user what you want them to do. Stick to one message or CTA per ad. If you have more than one message or request, then create a separate ad for it. You don’t have much room on a banner ad, so make the most of your space.
You can be a little odd. Ads that are nice and clean tend to blend in with a web page. Something should make your political ad stick out. It might be to include bold colors and large lettering. Another trick is to make your ad asymmetrical or use lines that are somewhat tilted. Anything that makes your ad stand out from the rest of the web page content will help it perform better.
Add disclaimers. Your online political advertising (including your campaign website) should include the proper disclaimers. Those disclaimers should follow your local election laws and regulations.
Create multiple sizes. Remarketing or IP marketing campaign ads appear across many websites and types of devices. Having multiple ads sizes will accommodate both the desktop and mobile audience.
Four types of digital political advertising
People who study political advertising understand that there are four major types: persuasion, information, identification and mobilization.
- About the Candidate Ads: These informational ads are used to introduce a candidate or organization to the general public. They often highlight the logo and visual aspect of the campagn.
- Political Issue Ads: These are an effective way to highlight a specific issue and persuade voters. Issue ads that are not targeted can be ineffective and can actually benefit your opponent. Targeting the ads to those who will be most responsive to the message will increase their effectiveness and reduce wasted spending.
- Endorsement Ads: One way for candidates to build trust with voters is through the use of endorsements from trusted organizations and individuals. These ads are targeted at voters that identify with or have similar interests to help establish credibility.
- Get Out The Vote Ads: Voter mobilization and turnout is a primary goal for all campaigns. Get Out The Vote ads are a great way to get your message in front of potential voters and drive them to the polls.
The most common display ad sizes (in pixels) are:
- 300×250
- 336×280
- 728×90
- 320×50
- 160×600
- 300×50
Size also applies to creative files themselves. Optimize your images for the smallest file size possible. Ad networks will not serve ad creative files that are too large or improperly formatted.
Split test your ad creatives. If your digital ad campaign is running long enough, consider A/B split testing your ad creatives. Make several versions of your initial ads and see which performs better. A different background color or adding a button can change the conversion rate of an ad.
Target your audience. Most local political campaigns don’t have a huge budget. Advertising must be targeted to voters who are most likely to respond. Retargeting ad campaigns reach out to those who have already visited your website. Other forms of display advertising, like Pay Per Click and IP Marketing can be targeted to specific geographic locations or even individual households. The more defined you target your audience, the less waste you will have in your advertising spend.
Have the right landing page. Send your visitor to the proper landing page after they click your ad. If you are seeking donations, don’t send visitors to your site’s home page. Send them to your campaign’s donation page. If you can match your landing page to the ad campaign, visitors won’t feel lost after they click. Landing pages that are relevant to the ad also tend to convert better.
Keep the look consistent across channels. The look and feel of your ads should be similar while you are simultaneously running display ads, video and offline marketing. This helps keep your messaging and branding consistent.
Great visuals improve interaction with your digital ads and increase the number of clicks.
Why are you running your ads?
The purpose of your ad campaign will help determine what your ads say and how they are designed. Online political ads tend to fall into several categories:
- General ads to increase visibility and name recognition
- Issue ads, and if you are for it or against it
- Attack ads against an opponent
- Endorsement ads to show what organization or person backs you
- Get out the vote reminders for early voting or general Election Day
Other restrictions in digital display advertising
At some point, you may need banner ads to promote your Facebook Page, for Google Display Ads, IP Targeting or for advertising on other websites. Political banner ads fall under various restrictions an the largest advertising networks.
For example, in the United States, Google has limits election ad audience targeting to the following:
- Age
- Gender
- General location (postal code level)
in the United States. Third party audience information is also banned. This applies to both Google search and display ads.
Both Google and Facebook now require more disclosure on political ads and who purchases them. Users who want to buy political ads be authorized. All political ads have a “paid for by” disclaimer. On Facebook, ads that run are stored in a political ad archive for outside access.
Though they are not clicked on nearly so much, the banner ad is still alive and an active part of digital advertising. To make things easier for our clients, we offer free banner ad templates that are easy to use for those without graphic design skills.
From political campaign websites to social media setup to online advertising services, Online Candidate can help start your digital campaign quickly and easily.
Ads shown as examples, not endorsements.
Online Advertising Ideas For Political Campaigns
Political campaigns today have many options for online advertising to reach and influence voters. Candidates can now reach out based on demographics and tailor their advertisements to particular audiences. With a low cost to entry, even local candidates can put together an effective online political marketing strategy.
- Online ad spending is way, way up over the last few election cycles. How much should you budget for digital advertising? This varies on the size of your campaign and the amount of money you have to work with.
- Online campaigning isn’t just for the big guys anymore. Local campaigns can follow almost any marketing strategy that a state and federal race can do.
- The question is, do you have the budget and resources to do it all? Odds are, you probably don’t. Sure, it would be great to put out daily videos on TikTok and maintain an extensive Pinterest board. But is it really practical for someone running for a school board or town council position to be spending time promoting themselves on those platforms?
You have to pick your online targets carefully to create publicity to the right voter audience.
A smart strategy is to start early with a few platforms and commit a small budget to see what works best. Build a reserve for your online Get Out The Vote advertising. Every campaign has a different set of challenges. Fortunately, it is easy to shift online advertising in response to new events and situations. They key is to have that money available when you need it.
There are a number of political digital marketing strategies for the web. Some are very affordable, others are more expensive. Here are some of the most popular online advertising options available today:
- Facebook Advertising
- Pay Per Click Advertising
- Local Campaign Website Advertising
- Retargeting Site Visitors
- IP Target Marketing
- Text Messaging and SMS
- Positive or Negative Advertising?
- Transparency in Online Advertising
- Your Campaign Website
Political Facebook Advertising
Political advertising on Facebook can be very effective. Facebook allows advertisers to target people based on their demographics. This means you can drive your message directly to voting-age users that match specific locations and have expressed a interest preferences.
You can promote direct advertisements or your individual Facebook posts. The minimum required budget is only a few dollars per ad, so the barrier to entry is low. Instagram is owned by Facebook, so that site is covered as well.
Following the 2016 US presidential election, there has been some controversy about Facebook promotional policies. As of 2018, advertisers pushing viewpoints on political and social issues were required to provide more disclosure about who they are. Political ads were also be labeled so users can discover more about the ads that they see.
By 2020, advertisers were required to be authorized to advertise of Facebook.
Facebook political ad library.
To buy political advertising on Facebook, you must provide personal information and verify your mailing address with Facebook. This process can take a few weeks, so start early. Generally, any ads that mention a political candidate, issue or cause must adhere to these disclosure rules.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Another digital political advertising option includes Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. Your best bet for Pay Per Click advertising is Google Ads. For branding, larger political campaigns often advertise on more than just the search engines. They will also allow their ads to appear on the Google Display Network which encompasses thousands of websites.
It’s easy to spend money on irrelevant searches, so you will want to primarily target phrases and exact terms. As you discover unrelated searches that attract clicks, you should add them to your list of negative terms.
A well-designed PPC ad campaign requires planning and testing. Ads will need to be broken into groups, and then broken down further as new niches are discovered. Some ads will have low click-through rates and others will perform well. Tracking how well each ad performed in clicks, e-mail sign-ups and donations raised will help you make the most of your advertising dollars.
Display Advertising
Google also provides display ad marketing services. Unlike PPC ads, display ads are not based on user searches. Rather, these ads are graphic (image) ads that appear within the web content where a user is browsing. Your ads can appear where a user is reading news articles, checking email or watching online videos.
Example of political display ad banner
Display ads show on the Google Display Network which is a network of websites, videos, and apps. You can target by location, keyword, age and gender.
Related: What Political Campaigns Need To Know About Google Display Ads
Local Campaign Website Marketing
Banner ads are still relevant, especially when run on local media sites, such as local newspaper websites. Banners can help with branding and messaging efforts. While traditional banner ads often have low click-through rates, they can help build name recognition to a local audience. The cost for banner ads varies with the market and the outlet.
If you plan to run online ads directly through a newpaper, you may want to reserve your ad inventory early.
Retargeting Site Visitors
Retargeting allows you to serve display (banner) ads to people who have visited your campaign website. Once an established tool reserved for national politics, is it now used in local and regional campaigns. Visitor retargeting can help serve ads to voters who are actively researching candidates.
Retargeting can help keep interested voters engaged throughout the campaign, helping to increase awareness and voter turnout.
These are the step for how political retargeting works.
You can even set up retargeting down the page level. One example is if a voter goes to a particular issue page, you can retarget them with an ad specific to that issue. One of the primary benefits of retargeting is that ability to show different messages to different types of visitors. This improves your digital ad relevancy and effectiveness.
You can set up retargeting through Facebook Remarketing and Google Remarketing. However, these programs can be complicated to set up. You may find it easier to set up remarketing campaigns through a third-party platform.
Related: How Does Retargeting Grow Your Political Campaign?
IP Targeting Voters By Location and Demographics
IP Targeting uses individual IP addresses to reach specific voter households. It works by matching IP addresses to a list of names and street addresses. Your ads reach the target households and display your ads on websites they visit across the internet, like news sites. IP targeting is superior to geo-targeting because it allows you to target your advertising to specific households and businesses.
You can tailor your advertising messaging to individual audiences for greater impact and response. Because of this, IP-targeted ads have higher click-through rate than PPC or retargeting campaigns.
Using demographic data, you can tailor and target messaging for a specific audience for greater impact and response.
The price for IP targeting is higher than other promotional methods, but its branding ability is powerful. For example, we’ve had clients who used IP targeting in conjunction with neighborhood canvassing. Some of the homeowners would recognize the candidate because they had seen their ads already while online.
Talk about reinforcing a message!
Learn how IP Targeting can enhance your voter outreach.
Text Messaging and SMS
Text messaging and SMS is not just for candidates with deep pockets. Mobile texting services can be started with a small budget as little as $20/month. Some SMS services offer widgets that can allow supporters to sign up for text updates directly through your campaign website or Facebook page. Start early and build up a supporters who can be instantly alerted to new campaign announcements and messages.
Related: Drive Traffic to Your Website with Text Messages
Positive or Negative Online Advertising?
Negative political advertising is not just limited to TV and direct mail. As far as effectiveness, the jury is still out on whether “going negative” pays off. Unfortunately, most voters have come to expect mud-slinging as part of the usual discourse.
And many times, going negative just works…
Transparency in Online Political Advertising
As noted above, social media platforms and search engines are demanding more transparency from their advertisers. If you plan to advertise on a certain platform, make sure you know what information is required before you run any ads. Give yourself enough time to become properly verified.
If you plan to run display ads on Facebook, Google or through IP Targeting services, they are required to disclaimer information about the campaign. This is usually something along the lines of, “Paid for by”. You will need use a disclaimer if you are a candidate, a political party or even election committee. At some point, the FEC might make disclosures mandatory.
Your Campaign Website
All online advertising must point somewhere. Your campaign website is where you will drive the bulk of your online traffic. Create specific landing pages for your different ad campaigns. For example, if you are advertising about a specific issue, send visitors to a page about that issue. Unless it’s a generic awareness ad, make the landing pages match your ads.
For landing pages, try to make them focused on exactly what you want your visitor to do. If it’s a donation page, there should be little else to distract from that single goal. Every element of the page should focus on getting the visitor to do what you want them to do.
Sample Political Donation Form
It’s important that the content a visitor sees on your site relates to the ad they clicked on. If not, visitors tend to leave quickly. Tracking your advertising channels to learn what advertising is performing best and providing the most engaged visitors, donations and volunteer signups.
Old-timers may remember when online ads were a lot less expensive. At one time, Google search results did not list four ads on top of natural search results – and those ads could have cost as little as fifteen cents. And most followers on Facebook would actually see your posts without you having to ‘boost’ them.
It’s a different world today. If you want online exposure, you will need to pay for it.
Not every organization will want to use (or can afford) to use all types of digital marketing campaigns.
Once you begin promoting yourself or your organization online, you should keep track of how well each political digital marketing channel performs. Run multiple ads at one time to determine which is more effective. This can help improve your messaging and effectiveness as you approach Election Day.
With some planning and a budget, you can increase voter exposure and run circles around your opponents. It’s a two-front battle – online and offline.
RELATED:
Political Social Media Strategies [PDF]
Political Campaign Services
For campaign websites and digital political advertising services, get started today with Online Candidate.
When To Use IP Targeting for Your Political Campaign
IP Targeting has become a secret weapon for political campaigns. While Geo-targeting uses groups of IP addresses to target an area, IP Targeting uses individual IP addresses to reach specific voter households.
That means registered Democrats, Republicans, and independents can all receive tailored messaging that is verified and based on empirical data, not through online cookies or “predictive models”.
When marketing with IP Targeting, an advertiser can take addresses in a voter database and match them to physical address. This allows you to display your digital ads to those targeted locations. Your ads appear on websites that they visit. IP targeting is superior to geo-targeting because it allows you to target your advertising to specific households and locations. It is more efficient than retargeting because it does not require anyone to first visit your site.
The best times to reach voters
As a growing tool for both state and local candidates, IP targeting can help you reach supporters and voters many times throughout the election season. Here are some of the best times to run IP advertising:
Before a primary
Primary elections often have lower turnout. Winners are those who can turn out the vote. Use your banners to remind voters a few weeks before the primary date.
At the start of early voting
Remind supporters when early voting begins, and again before it ends. Reach out to specific voter groups by various demographics, such as income, language or interest. Tailor your advertising messaging to each individual audience for greater impact and response.
Combine with a mail drop
Take your voter mailing database and target those addresses with online ads, so at the time the mailer drops, your message also appears online. This combined exposure will help you stand out and improve the effectiveness of both.
Get Out The Vote
Online get out the vote (GOTV) efforts are a great way to engage with your voters before Election Day. Political IP targeting can help ensure that you are reaching specific households that you know will support you.
Sample 300×200 banner ad. One of ad several sizes to reach desktop and mobile devices.
Ip-backed ads are 50 to 100 times more targeted then television, 6 to 60 times more effective than other online ads, and have an average click-through rate (CTR) 3.2 times higher than industry averages.
Online Candidate offers IP advertising services for political candidates and organizations.
- We’ll help you determine the best target audience and when to reach out to them
- We onboard your voter list and set up your ad campaign
- No setup fees
- Creative ad design included!
Want to learn more? Download our free guide and check out our political IP pricing calculator.
Related: IP Targeting Strategies for Your Political Campaign
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