Case Study: Presidential Candidate Reaches Millions of Voters During Primary Elections with Simpli.fi
As we get closer to the 2020 election, political advertisers are looking for ways to reach the right voter audiences with precision and scale. Using Simpli.fi’s Addressable Geo-Fencing and Addressable Audience Curation solutions, a super PAC was able to target more voters by shifting budget quickly from state to state to align with voting days. Check out the full case study below for the details.
Agency Overview
• Newly-funded political action committee for presidential candidate
• Super PAC created specifically for a single candidate to consolidate efforts leading up to Super Tuesday
Goals
• Maximize reach to key voters in days leading up to Super Tuesday
• Quickly shift budget state by state to align with voting days
REACHING A HIGHLY TARGETED AUDIENCE IN KEY LOCATIONS
U.S. political advertising spend in 2020 will exceed $6 billion, with approximately 20% of that allocated to digital (eMarketer). As political ad spending continues to grow, political marketers are increasingly turning to digital advertising to granularly target more voters at a lower cost than traditional advertising. In 2020, a newly-formed super PAC sought to build awareness for their candidate and encourage Democratic Party members to vote in the primaries. They focused on maximizing reach to registered Democrats using pre-roll video ads in the days leading up to Super Tuesday.
Simpli.fi and the super PAC developed a plan that allowed for budgets to be shifted quickly from state to state to align with voting days. Due to the fast-paced nature of primary campaign voting schedules, the super PAC relied on Simpli.fi’s ability to quickly ramp up and down state by state. Simpli.fi and the advertiser worked together to develop a strategy that would target Democratic voters in a timely manner and encourage voters to support the presidential candidate.
TARGETING PARTY VOTERS BEFORE PRIMARY ELECTION DAYS
The super PAC focused on seven states that were vital to the candidate’s bid. This included five that held elections on Super Tuesday, and two more that had primaries within the previous two weeks. In order to build a relevant audience for targeting, the advertiser used Simpli.fi’s Addressable Audience Curation tool. This allowed them to custom-curate an addressable audience based on location data and over 500 demographic variables in real-time within the Simpli.fi UI. The custom audience contained two groups of voters across all seven states: (1) adults 40+ who are Democrats and (2) women Democrats aged 30+.
With the curated audience of 1.59 million households, the Simpli.fi platform built target zones around each individual address with Addressable Geo-Fencing. GPS data paired with plat lines matched each address to the exact physical location, shape, and size of the property. The system then automatically built a geo-fence target zone around each property for targeting the individual households with pre-roll video ads across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
The super PAC also leveraged web-based behavioral targeting with Site Retargeting and Keyword Contextual Targeting tactics to further extend the campaign’s reach. Site Retargeting allowed the PAC to reach voters who had visited the candidate’s website, while Keyword Contextual Targeting served ads to those reading content related to Democratic party issues. Each tactic used pre-roll video creatives to build awareness of the presidential candidate’s platform.
Creating a flexible, rotating budget schedule was key to the success of the campaign. It was important to target voters in the days and hours leading up to local voting dates. Simpli.fi followed the primary election calendar to target individuals in each state at the optimal time. The strategy and timing of the campaign proved to be highly effective in reaching millions of voters.
MAXIMIZING REACH WITH PRECISE TARGETING
Over only 10 days, Simpli.fi delivered ads to 2.4 million unique users with highly specific targeting parameters. By quickly adjusting budgets to align with presidential primary elections, the super PAC successfully increased awareness among Democratic Party voters when it mattered most. Additionally, Simpli.fi’s Addressable Geo-Fencing solution allowed the super PAC to serve pre-roll video ads at the household-level to maximize performance without sacrificing reach.
Simpli.fi’s granular reporting provided a breakdown of spend, reach, and numerous other performance metrics down to the Zip+4 level. Overall, the campaign outperformed its goals with a Click Through Rate (CTR) of .11% and a Video Completion Rate (VCR) of 57.6%.
STAGE 1
Addressable Audience Curation
The advertiser curated custom audiences in seven states based on location data and 500+ demographic factors:
(1) Adults 40+ who are Democrats
(2) Women Democrats aged 30+
STAGE 2
Addressable Geo-Fencing
The Simpli.fi system automatically matched each address with publicly available plat line data, and built target fences around the exact size and shape of each property.
STAGE 3
Pre-Roll Ads
Simpli.fi delivered pre-roll video ads across all devices in each targeted household.
Interested in augmenting your political advertising with Simpli.fi’s powerful audience targeting solutions?
Get in touch at hi@simpli.fi or contact your Simpli.fi representative.
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