• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 5, 2012

Recently, Red, White & Blog reported on findings of a Rubicon Project analysis detailing how the political campaigns were utilizing programmatic trading to buy highly targeted online display inventory in the so-called RTB (real-time bidding) marketplace. A new analysis from Netmining shows something that advertisers in any category – not just politics – should understand about the efficiency of real-time markets: when demand exceeds supply prices go up.

That’s exactly what the Netmining analysis reveals, showing that eCPMs grew much faster in key battleground states than they did in the solidly “red” or “blue” states, where ad impressions might be deemed, how shall we put it, more discretionary.

eCPMs, which were more than 1% higher in swing states than in non-swing states in June, spread to 3.2% higher during the run-up to the election.

“Clearly, there's a lot of competition for these display ads, likely caused by campaigns heavily geo-targeting the swing state,” noted a Netmining spokesman, adding, “Ironically, it's much cheaper to advertise in a Republican-leaning state right now, as well. Swing State eCPMs are 6.3% higher than those in red states.”