Ad Overload: How to Adjust Advertising During Election Season
November 3, 2022
The United States will hold its midterm elections on Tuesday November 8. With election season just around the corner, here are several media and marketing strategies to navigate competition with political ads and polarizing news coverage.
Eliminate Perception of Preference by Proximity
DMOs should tighten up where ads are running. Politics and news websites, especially ones with partisan preferences, can publish increasingly provocative content as election day nears. It is best to avoid these topics in general, but especially so during election campaign season.
We always recommend political sites be added to DMOs’ exclusion lists.We also recommend not running ads on articles with political tags. We believe it is a best practice to do these things year-round, but it’s especially important to do so when the country approaches election season.
Double Check Negative Keywords
Working in the DMO space, having affiliations with public departments, and being linked with municipality, county, or state governments, makes it likely your organization or brand will appear in election-related internet searches. We recommend neutralizing this possibility so your brand is not associated with these searches.
A DMO should set the negative keyword match on Google to include any iterations of its destination with election-related words, such as candidates’ names, slogans, or election campaign messaging.
Eliminate the Chance to Tie You to a Campaign or Candidate
Consumers are starting to associate brands with causes, candidates, and political parties as companies become more open with their support and attention is paid to corporate campaign donations. This correlation can negatively impact brands trying to stay out of the political fray. This is especially true of DMOs that are publicly-funded.
Taking the above steps can help DMOs stay away from political topics this time of year, and remove any chance consumers will associate their brand with a candidate or political party. Our media team is standing up to help your team navigate the intricate election season advertising landscape.
