In Part One of our political video ad series, we discussed the implications of the percentage of total video ad spend in the ‘swing states’ for each campaign. We all know these states are key to a White House victory and we wanted to know just how often are the parties touching people with their video ad campaigns?
Last month, online video viewers saw an average of 14 political ads and, as the season heats up, we anticipate that viewers will likely see many more. What’s revealing is not just the width of the ad buy but the depth of the buys.
Shown in the chart below is the frequency that online users in each state are likely to be exposed to each party’s political ads:
When we look at not just the size of the buy but frequency of views, Democratic and Republicans alike are trying to make smarter buys and maximize their return on investment.
For instance, Republicans are aggressively seeking an edge in a select number of states including New Hampshire, Nevada and Iowa. In those states, their ads are shown, in one case, with more than twice the frequency of Democratic ads.
Democrats, on the other hand, are trying to maintain superiority among more overall swing states like Virginia, but with a much lower gap in frequency with Republicans.
What does this say about each campaign’s strategy? Clearly, both parties are seeking a bigger bang for their buck. However, Republicans believe they can best Democratic ads with bigger buys and a significantly larger gap in frequency.
