3 reasons savvy political Advertisers are voting for CTV this campaign season

Get ready. Election season has begun. And with it, new levels of political spending. Before things kick into high gear, let’s take a quick look at how we got here. And what you should be doing now to connect with voters.

For years, political advertising involved mass reach through automated calling, direct mail and large purchases on prime time and local news programming. But as consumer behaviors evolve with new media technologies, political advertising must also evolve. That’s why “the 2022 midterms will capitalize on the surge in CTV viewership, programmatic flexibility and targeting prowess,” according to Iván Markman, Chief Business Officer of Yahoo.

Connected TV (CTV) advertising offers new advantages over traditional TV, radio, print and social media. Political advertisers can engage both voters and political influencers in customizable and controlled ways. They can target defined audiences at the hyperlocal level. Optimize budgets based on audience members’ omnichannel preferences. And understand audience behaviors via unique data signals that help them engage the most responsive audience members.

Build a winning CTV political campaign

During the 2022 midterm election cycle, roughly $1.5 billion is expected to be spent on CTV compared to $1.3 billion across mobile, desktop and tablet.* As CTV becomes more competitive, political advertisers must optimize their planning, activations and measurement to maximize campaign success. Here are three factors to consider as you prepare your own CTV political advertising campaign.

1. Identify your audience

Political advertisers must quickly identify high-value CTV inventory to connect with voters and what they care about most. But they need to do so without sacrificing quality or negatively disrupting audiences’ CTV experiences. A modern demand-side platform (DSP) can be cost-effective in identifying and precisely reaching the right CTV audiences without sacrificing ad quality.

An industry-leading DSP for CTV empowers political advertisers to plan, activate and measure their CTV campaigns to hyperlocal and hyper-targeted levels. Political advertisers can leverage unique data signals to share their messaging and content with target audience members who are known donors, politically engaged, or ideal in other ways.

2. Optimize for omnichannel

To connect with audiences and achieve success, omnichannel advertisers must understand audience screen preferences, identify cost efficiencies and eliminate excess targeting. CTV connects political advertisers with voters, donors and other relevant audiences across screens in an appropriate, seamless and on-brand way.

That said, not all DSPs are optimized for omnichannel advertising, including targeted political campaigns. Political CTV advertisers can benefit from a platform that unifies high-value inventory and provides full visibility into campaign performance across all screens, including CTV investments.

3. Act on audience behaviors

With the right tools, political advertisers can proactively respond to audience behaviors via distinctive data signals their audience members produce as part of their digital activities. In terms of CTV, these data signals can include:

• CTV watch frequency
• Preferred CTV programming
• Preferred devices for watching CTV
• How CTV fits into their daily media consumption habits

Political advertisers may even automate CTV advertising functions based on the above signals to improve their CTV ad campaigns’ overall quality and delivery.

Beyond raw impressions, the right DSP enables political advertisers to access attention metrics showing how many effective views were delivered in each campaign. An integrated measurement approach combined with robust planning and measurement tools provides custom insights critical to political campaigns.

Yahoo: A winning CTV partner for political advertisers

The Yahoo DSP gives you greater transparency and control over your CTV strategy. We provide first-party data, optimize CTV ad planning and streamline campaign measurement to help drive political CTV performance.

Get the greatest value from your CTV and other omnichannel advertising investments this campaign season. Contact one of our CTV advecrtising experts to learn more.

* Fischer, Sara, 12 Oct. 2021. “Digital TV ads will flood living rooms during 2022 midterms,” Axios.com.