FOUR SCREENS TO V ICTOR Y
to Winning Local, State & National Elections
A
CCESS TO POLITICAL INFORMATION NO LONGER COMES FROM ONE PLACE – OR ONE SCREEN. Voters use an average of 14.7 sources of information to help make their candidate selection and are connected to multiple devices throughout the day (Google/Shopper Sciences, 2011). Whether your goal is a seat on the town
council, building up support for your chosen issue, or the White House, Google’s advertising solutions can engage voters across four screens: television, computers, tablets and mobile phones.
Build your organization
R
each your supporters when they’re looking for you—across computers, tablets, and mobile phones.
Turn their interest into email signups, donations, and volunteer hours.
1
Search first. When your supporters are looking for information, they turn to search first. Search ads help your message stand out by appearing above or next to search results on Google. Then, expand the value of search ads by providing sitelinks to specific relevant content deeper within your website (e.g. to your donations page).
2
“Mobilize” supporters. Harness the power of mobile and activate campaign supporters with Click-to-call phone extensions. Click-to-call phone extensions allow supporters to call a campaign office and volunteer time or donate money with one click, directly from a text ad on Google.
3
Run the right display ad at the right time. Reach your supporters when they’re already thinking about you via contextual targeting. You select keywords and topics, and our technology will automatically place your message on web content that’s directly related.
Persuade the electorate
V
oters seek more information than is provided in a thirty second TV spot.
Research shows that marketing across all four screens is the most effective way to drive awareness, engagement and voter preference.
1
YouTube: Redefining primetime. In a recent study, close to one–third of likely voters nationwide said they had not watched live TV in the past week. YouTube reaches lighter TV viewers and allows voters engage with your content and follow through to a YouTube Brand Channel or a campaign website to learn more, sign up and take action.
2
Reach with accuracy across devices. The Google Display Network’s targeting technology can help you reach soccer moms, young voters or Hispanics with tailored messaging. You can target content using keywords and themes to find the right placements, audiences to reach voters based interests and demographics, and sites to show your ads where your key audiences spend time.
3
Geo-Target with ease. Every dollar counts for your campaign, and every impression outside your district is a wasted opportunity. With AdWords and YouTube you can target by postal code, city, DMA, or state, to make your media dollars work harder. You can also use our local geographies to deliver hyper–targeted messages, an especially important strategy in close, highly contested races.
Define the issues
W
get out the vote
hen big news hits, people don’t wait until the six o’clock news to learn more; they read articles on their mobile
devices, search on Google and watch videos on YouTube. Get your message out in minutes, exactly when and where voters’ opinions are being shaped.
1
Own your name, own the issues. Whether someone is at a coffee shop, on the bus or boarding a flight, tablets and mobile devices give voters access to political information in real time. The Keyword Tool, Google Insights for Search and Google Trends can help you find new keyword ideas and lead the conversation wherever voters may search.
2
Respond in minutes with YouTube. When you need to respond to breaking news, television isn’t fast enough. With YouTube, campaigns can respond to a breaking story by posting a new video, available across any device, in a matter of minutes. YouTube’s suite of ad solutions provide exposure on the world’s most–watched video site in minutes.
3
Reach the right audiences with contextual targeting. When a big story surfaces, it hits across multiple media outlets and websites. Get your messaging right next to relevant articles and web content by harnessing the Google Display Network’s powerful contextual targeting technology and launch a response immediately.
H
F
rom microtargeting key constituencies to raising mass awareness in the closing hours,
online ads are an essential component of any GOTV strategy. Google’s scale and accuracy help you reach your target audience effectively and efficiently.
1
Display blast across devices. A Google Display Network Blast can provide millions of display ad impressions across the websites in our network, reaching 92% of Internet users. When you need to seal the deal with voters in the closing days of the campaign, a GDN Blast helps amplify your voice. You’ll reach people on computers and tablets as they’re doing final research, and on mobile phones before they enter the voting booth.
2
GOTV search strategies. Mounting a strong presence on desktop, mobile, and tablet search is critical as voters do their final research. Capitalize on the increase in interest and turn last minute research into votes on election day by broadening your keyword list to include general terms, using Location Extensions to highlight local polling places, or driving traffic to a splash page to solicit volunteers in the final 72 hours.
3
Mount a final push on YouTube. The explosion of video consumption on mobile and tablet devices means that voters can watch YouTube videos right up until the minute they cast their vote. YouTube’s mobile ad solutions can amplify TV spots and make a final push. The YouTube Trends Dashboard can help campaigns run a GOTV blast across YouTube’s most popular videos in the days leading up to an election.
opefully you’re ready and eager to activate a 4 Screens Strategy to win your race. Additional information around each objective and tactic, as well as case studies, can be found at:
google.com/ads/elections
