By: Charlie Puyear

When you start a campaign these days, it is intuitive to start a Facebook page and run ads to your community. However, you may be wondering how to break into the larger world of digital advertising and what it all looks like. Here is a quick and easy primer on other forms of digital advertising that may be a good fit for your campaign or business.

Display Advertising

The ads you may see on websites, such as the news or a recipe blog, are considered display advertising. These have two forms: Banner ads or Pre-Roll ads.

Banner ads are usually still images with text that link back to the website of the candidate. These can take on a variety of sizes. Pre-Roll ads are videos, usually between 15-30 seconds long, playing in a loop. These can be displayed on a web page or run in front of videos, and are best at driving traffic to your website and expanding your name ID among regular voters.

Display advertising is purchased through the browser, like Google Analytics. In order to advertise to the right group of people, you’ll need to identify and purchase data. Just like Facebook advertising, your money is best spent when these ads are targeted to the right individuals.

Search Engine Results

Let’s say you’ve built a website and you want it to be the first thing people see when people search your name. Search advertising enables us to pay for that top slot. Most large companies have purchased the “ad” slot as well, in order to maintain their spot at the top of the search results.

Email Campaigns

Connecting with people in their inbox is the digital equivalent of a mail campaign. An email campaign is an effective way to fundraise, share your message, and recruit volunteers. You can collect emails through your website or Facebook page to build your newsletter list. A professional email campaign utilizes another service, such as MailChimp, to format your email, incorporate branding, and track response rates.

Victory’s Digital team has built numerous campaigns that incorporate display, search engine, and email outreach into their strategy. It’s our job to handle the complicated so that you can focus on your mission of connecting with voters and sharing your message. If you’re ready to incorporate even more digital marketing into your campaign, send me an email to get started!