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Political Buyers’ Guide to Ensuring Programmatic and Streaming Advertising Campaigns Are Successful

Woman watching the news on TV

The projection for political spending in the 2023-2024 election cycle has risen to a record $10.7 billion – the most in any cycle to date. With audiences shifting their viewing to streaming, advertisers are following suit; it’s predicted 45% of digital ad spend will go to streaming alone this year.

While the bulk of political advertising will remain dedicated to traditional TV, the amount of money shifting to streaming and programmatic is continuing to grow. In fact, overall programmatic impressions for political advertising have increased 59% in 2024 versus 2022, demonstrating that political advertisers are embracing programmatic for more targeted reach, transparency, and real-time measurement and optimization.

Unlike traditional TV, the majority of political programmatic streaming buying takes place in a short window; some estimates are that around 70%-80% of streaming demand happens between Labor Day and Election Day. Political buyers have a condensed period to deliver their campaigns to reach valuable voters and need to make every dollar and impression count.

The following guide lays out tips on how to build a winning programmatic streaming strategy for political.

Advertiser Concern Tips for Ensuring Success

Running on Premium, High-Quality Content

For political advertisers, it’s imperative that their messaging runs within
high-quality, brand-safe, premium inventory in a TV environment to have the biggest impact on voters. Viewers’ unaided ad recall was 58% higher for ads in premium video environments.

Work with Partners that Have Access to Premium Streaming Inventory from TV Quality Broadcasters

  • Work with a partner that has tools built for premium transactions and that has tech in place to help ensure a better viewer experience (e.g. ad quantity is in line with content length and ads are delivered without latency or slate.)
  • Hold partners accountable for helping to ensure your messaging is not placed alongside content that doesn’t align with your candidate’s values.

Ability to Target at Scale

The most important aspect of political advertising via streaming is ensuring candidates can secure the right inventory to reach the right voters at scale. Working with a partner that has authenticated audience data, with precise match rates, ensures advertisers are reaching their intended audience. In fact, political advertisers are embracing this audience first strategy by gravitating to group deals at 2x the rate than 2022.

Find Partners that Have the Largest Footprint

  • Utilize partners with direct connections to supply across the premium video and streaming landscape can provide better access to inventory across local and national markets.
  • Use a vendor that can help with reserving inventory in battle ground states to guarantee delivery when there is limited impression availability.
  • Consider a partner that has the tech to allow for true Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) deals. This allows for guaranteeing streaming inventory across specific markets and audiences with a specific publisher.

Speed to Activation

In political advertising, there is increased urgency for the timing of a campaign needing to go live, or quickly updating messaging due to changes in candidates or legislation. Political advertisers must have speed to market in hours, not days.

Ensure that Your Vendor can Help Enable You to Activate Deals Quickly

  • Use a vendor that has the tech in place to help expedite programmatic activation via creative pre-approvals and transcoding to minimize time to air.

Transparency and Control

When buying streaming programmatically, advertisers must have control and sight into what they’re buying and should request access to transparent reporting to better inform their strategies.

Work with a Partner that Provides a Transparent View into Where Your Ads Ran

  • Work with a partner that offers you more control over the inventory you buy. You want to know who you are working with, where your ads are running, and that your ad ran where it was planned to run – in the right context.
  • Use a partner that provides transparent reporting and that non-viewable ads are removed from reporting. This will enable advertisers to better understand campaign performance and optimize for the future.

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With Election Day approaching quickly, buyers need to make sure every impression from now until November is helping to move the needle. To learn more about buying programmatic streaming for political advertising, contact us.