Pew Study Reports Meager Spending On Web Ads By Political Campaigns

Despite prodding by Internet evangelists and the well-publicized success of Howard Dean's online efforts, presidential campaigns, national political parties, and advocacy groups spent a total of just $2.66 million on Web ads between January and August, according to a report released today by Pew Internet and American Life Project. That's less than one percent of the $330 million spent on political television ads in the top 100 markets, as tracked by political ad monitor Campaign Media Analysis Group.

"A lot of people are very disappointed" in the low spending on Internet advertising during this election season, affirms John Durham, president of Pericles Consulting, a political agency that has worked with the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign.

According to the study--which tracked political ads placed on more than 2,000 commercial Web sites--the Kerry campaign spent $1.3 million on ads in the period measured, surpassing Bush campaign spending totaling $419,000 by a 3:1 ratio. The Republican National Committee spent $487,000, and the Democratic National Committee spent $257,000. Advocacy groups, although fueled by viral Internet promotion and Web log chatter, spent a mere $184,000 combined on Internet ads. The MoveOn.org Voter Fund's expenditures accounted for the bulk of that total, while well-known 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth purchased no Web ads.

"I thought there'd be a lot more," says study author and senior research consultant to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Dr. Michael Cornfield. "We may start to see ads in states that have early voting," he predicts. Cornfield was also surprised by the lack of negative Internet ad content, something many expected to see more of due to the lack of online political ad regulations such as broadcast's Candidate I.D. requirement.

Some insiders believe that slightly more money has been spent online by campaigns than indicated in the study, data for which was compiled by online ad tracking firm Evaliant Media Resources. However, the report quantifies what many online political ad proponents have been experiencing: this is not the breakthrough year for online political advertising that they had hoped for.

Still, the unprecedented Web presence of major political campaigns this election season does represent a shift in the traditional media mindset. Case in point: last Thursday night, as the first presidential debate got underway, the DNC launched Web ads on washingtonpost.com, USAToday.com, NYTimes.com, Salon.com, and other sites declaring: "Debate shows Kerry's strength, Bush fails to deliver plan for Iraq." The ads linked to a Web page prompting people to vote for Kerry in online polls--and of course, donate money to the campaign.

"Our debate strategy was to be really aggressive after the debates to get in on that online spin that would come afterwards," explains Morra Aarons, director of online marketing for the DNC. Unlike most Web ads placed previously by John Kerry for President and the DNC, which were primarily intended to garner contributions, the debate campaign was focused on persuasion. Regardless, boasts Aarons, "we were raising $10,000 a minute at one point" Thursday night.

According to the Pew study, the Kerry campaign used its online ads to target progressive metro areas for fund-raising purposes. The campaign bought the majority of space on The San Francisco Chronicle's SF Gate, MSNBC's Newsweek site, and The Village Voice site. Aarons, who also worked for the Kerry campaign, says those media buying decisions were based "not as much on geography as the behavior of our likely donors; they're news-savvy."

Cornfield suggests: "It looks to me like the Kerry campaign was targeting for money."

The Bush campaign also targeted ads to specific regions as well as contextually. The study shows that the campaign spent most of its Web ad dollars--$403,000 of the $419,000 total--in May targeting middle-class women on sites such as Parents.com and voters in battleground states through sites including Fox TV's Portland, Oregon-based site KPTV.com, and The Miami Herald's Spanish-language site, El Nuevo Herald.

As found in the study, and affirmed by Pericles's Durham, the Bush campaign took the persuasive route for its major Web ad effort. "The Bush campaign was looking for points of differentiation" on education, Durham notes. He says the campaign also ran fund-raising ads before the convention reminding Bush's core supporters about the importance of the election.

"You're going to see Congressional races, Senate races, the DNC, the RNC taking action online in the last weeks," before the election, forecasts Durham, cautioning: "Do I think this will lead to millions and millions more being spent on the Web? No."

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