If you were to ask ten campaign managers today if the advertising they are doing includes mobile ads, they’d all say, “Yes.”
Now take Facebook out of the equation.
Less than half of those campaign managers would be right.
The reason is, most digital advertisers consider Facebook and Twitter to be “enough” for political campaigns.
They’re all wrong.
To succeed with digital advertising today, you have to target voters wherever they go and specifically target their mobile devices.
Did you know that most mobile users spend 90% of their time in apps?
Not email. Not Google search. Apps.
We’re talking fantasy football apps. Exercise apps. Your daily horoscope and the weather. Words With Friends and games. The list goes on and on.
We’re not saying you shouldn’t use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SnapChat to reach your voters. You should. We include those platforms in the digital advertising plans we propose, but we know you also need to reach your targeted audience on the other 30-some apps they use every month.
The best way to reach people is where they’re looking, and that means including targeted mobile advertising in your digital advertising budget.
“We live a mobile-first environment. More than 50% of all activity on devices takes place on our phones. If you aren’t thinking mobile first, you need to re-evaluate your strategy.”
– Reid Vineis, Director of Mobile Operations
Now, how do you make sure your mobile advertising is working? How do you make sure you’re really doing mobile advertising?
First, you focus on targeting. Like any medium, your message means nothing if the wrong people see it.
Our platform combines trillions of data points on over 230 million Americans such as location behaviors, demographics, psychographics, personas, intent, and much more. This immense data allows us to build very specific audiences, advertise with precise targeting, and measure campaigns online and offline.
We target by mobile device IDs, not IP address or cookies, and use that ID to deliver ads to that device over its lifetime.
“How a vendor matches devices is incredibly important. Be sure to ask pointed questions like who is going to see your ads, what makes up your universes, and have them walk you through how they match devices. Don’t just assume that they are hitting the people you think you are.”
– Reid
Have an event or large location you want to blanket with ads? We can geofence a location with a digital net and deliver ads in real time.
Want to capture those voters who attended an event in the past? We can do that, too, and go back in time, collect a list of device IDs, and send ads to those devices at a future time.
Next, you focus on delivery. Think of delivery as reach and how far your message carries.
If you were advertising on television, you would probably not put an ad on just one station, right? You would want ads to air on whatever channels your audience was watching.
Your mobile advertising strategy should be the same. You want to ensure ads are delivered to the apps the user is in, not just one or two apps. We don’t deliver ads to just the FoxNews app. Nor just the ESPN app. Nor just the Weather Channel app.
We have access to dozens of ad networks and can deliver ads to over 200,000 apps and mobile websites. In contrast, other vendors will only focus on less than 20% of available apps. That’s a lot of inventory you’re missing – and a lot of opportunities to ensure your targeted audience sees your message.
“A good mobile strategy focuses on audience first, not just buying certain publishers. Once we match a device, we can deliver ads to it on thousands of publishers. Don’t just buy on certain sites because you think your audience will be there.”
– Reid
Majority Strategies holds private marketplace agreements with many of the largest networks and exchanges ensuring we have priority access to premium inventory.
Last but definitely not least, you focus on the creative. Now that you have your message in front of your targeted audience where they are looking, you need to make sure you grab their attention and deliver a powerful, persuasive, and motivating message.
Videos are a great way to do that. Video is predicted to grow to 84% of internet traffic in the U.S. in 2018.
GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format) are another attention-grabbing format, similar in style to a video but without the audio.
We love GIFs! Read more about them here.
Static images can be powerful, too, with the right words and imagery. We are fortunate at Majority Strategies to have a large, full-time professional creative team of experienced copywriters and graphic designers who have perfected the way to catch people’s eyes – and hearts.
Know who you are working with and what you are getting with your digital advertising plan. That’s the only way to know if you are really doing mobile advertising – and if it is really truly targeted mobile advertising.
“Digital advertising can be intimidating. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Your vendor should walk you through every part of the strategy so you understand it and feel comfortable. And always trust, but verify.”
– Reid
Before You Go …
Read more about Majority Strategies’ unique experience. We have over two decades of experience delivering persuasive and motivating messages to targeted audiences of people, including over 1,000 digital projects. Our unique mobile advertising solution is tailor made for political campaign and the only mobile technology tested and proven to drive a message with significant recall on mobile.
No one does mobile advertising like Majority Strategies. We can find more people, with more data, deliver more impressions, provide more analysis, and be more cost-efficient and effective for your clients. Contact us today to learn more.