Political campaign advertising in the form of Facebook and YouTube videos began to take hold in the 2014 congressional races. But candidates are still struggling to use them effectively.
For much of the campaign, the political ads encountered online were 15- and 30-second clips that appeared before the videos that users actually wanted to watch on YouTube and other sites. Although there are other forms of digital advertising, including those that appear on search results, these so-called pre-roll videos are an attractive method for campaigns because they are similar to television advertising and because campaigns know how to produce that form.
As a result, many candidates simply end up posting made-for-TV ads on their Facebook pages or running them as ads on the platform. Here’s an example from Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who tried to unseat a Silicon Valley Democratic incumbent. Absent among the videos currently posted to the Facebook page of Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican who won an open Senate seat in November, is the one that got the most attention, her “Make ’em Squeal” ad with its reference to hog castration.
“You’re going to see political ads that look different because they were made specifically for the Web,” said Ben Coffey Clark, a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic digital consulting company.
Campaigns certainly like Facebook; for candidates challenging incumbents, in particular, it provides a less expensive fund-raising platform, albeit one that requires an investment of time and effort to develop a large following. More than 500 candidates and committees bought ads directly from Facebook during the past election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In future campaigns, the ads on social media platforms like Facebook won’t be the stuff you have to watch (for a few seconds, at least) in order to see what you really want. They’ll be in the feed, labeled ads, with a precious few seconds to grab your attention.
But in that environment, politicians will need to change their approach to cut through the clutter of other videos and postings vying for attention on those pages. “Their video content has to stand alone as interesting and provide some sort of value to the user,” said Shannon Lee, head of digital advertising at Precision Strategies, a consulting firm founded by former Obama campaign staffers. “Otherwise, voters will scroll right through; engagement will go down; and the candidate, campaign or organization will lose valuable reach in the process.”
Social platforms like Facebook provide a much greater potential network effect, but only if people actually spread the messages. Although fund-raising has been an important part of what campaigns want to do online, persuasion and voter turnout are also important parts of any campaign, and social networks are an obvious place for all to occur.
Many of the Facebook videos people are seeing now are those most often shared or liked by family, friends and co-workers. You probably know the type: the “Can you believe this?” moments, or videos of cute cats and dogs. Ads are also passed around, like the Christmas ads from the British department stores or the Super Bowl ad of a lost puppy. Political campaigns like to feature animals and children when they can, but the typical campaign ad is hardly the stuff of social media legend.
When viewed online, many campaigns ads take too long to get to the point. Instead of beginning with soft music and a rising sun, popular online videos often have titles that give the viewer a reason to keep watching or an immediate hook.
Another problem is that while some Facebook users are politically active and post political items to their feeds, they rarely cross party lines. A Pew Research Center report on politically engaged social network users found that their friends’ posts about politics were generally compatible with their own views. Another one described a “spiral of silence” in which social media users were more reluctant to discuss controversial subjects online than in person.
Although “red-meat” ads might generate likes or shares among a candidate or party’s base — a valuable outcome — it can be hard for them to gain wider traction online and take advantage of a social network, where ideas and images move from user to user.
That means campaigns will try to straddle the line between the serious, policy-oriented spots and the over-the-top videos that may backfire on their candidates. Instead of buying more airtime to run the same TV ads, they’ll be able to produce more distinct online videos, because social platforms offer the chance to have multiple videos on the same topic or event, customized to specific advertising audiences.
“Campaigns will need to produce vast quantities of customized messaging,” said Connor Walsh, a Republican digital consultant who previously worked for Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader. “And with a cap on the frequency a user is shown the same ad, campaigns cannot rely on repetition to drive home their message.”
Facebook users may not like seeing more political ads. But at least they could be seeing different ones.
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