Around the Net

Search Marketing: The Best-Kept Presidential Campaign Secret

  • ClickZ, Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1 PM
Barack Obama's advantage over Hillary Clinton may have stemmed from their (very different) track records as Senators. But according to Peter Greenberger, manager of elections and advocacy at Google, the Obama camp (and John McCain's camp, for that matter) also used search marketing more wisely than the Clinton team.

"Through sponsored links in search results, the McCain and Obama camps have driven users seeking information on the candidates to their official Web sites to register for newsletters, volunteer or to donate money," says Kate Kaye. And in her Q&A with Greenberger, he sheds light on some of the tactics in their winning search strategies.

Both the McCain and Obama camps, for example, used geotargeted AdWords ads in the days leading up to crucial state primaries, and they both also kept pumping a steady stream of dollars into their PPC campaigns. Clinton's camp on the other hand, started and stopped the AdWords campaigns, then started again once the primaries were well under way. "All along, the Obama campaign had been building this huge list and Clinton wasn't even in the game," Greenberger said. "They had already dug themselves into a huge hole in terms of how many small donors they could count on."

Read the whole story at ClickZ »

Next story loading loading..