You can run, but you can’t hide: Election season is upon us. From your social feed to your streaming service to your neighbor’s yard, political ads are everywhere. The result is a cacophony of messaging that makes advertising in an election year more challenging as businesses face increased competition for ad space and audience attention.
Team Hot Dish plays a critical role for our clients during this time, and one of the key players is our Director of Media, Roman Sandler. We asked Roman to talk about the unique challenges of running a digital marketing campaign during election season, and how we’re helping our clients navigate through it.
What is Team Hot Dish keeping an eye on during this season?
There are many digital marketing challenges and ad campaign roadblocks to watch out for during an election, including:
- Increased cost and competition for ad space: Candidates buy as much ad inventory as they can to reach the highest number of potential voters. As a result, the cost of placing an ad goes up and space is at a premium, especially on popular platforms like Meta, Google and YouTube. Rising costs, in turn, affect marketing budgets and strategies, potentially driving up the cost per lead (CPL). Swing state markets such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are expected to be especially competitive during this time.
- Inventory shortages: A surge in political spending makes it harder to secure prime ad slots. This is especially noticeable in the 30 days leading up to Election Day, when political budgets get a heavy push.
- Shifts in audience attention: Audiences are expected to shift away from linear (broadcast) TV during this time, favoring streaming/CTV instead. Users may be more focused on finding and reacting to political news and engage less with commercial content. Businesses may also see higher levels of ad fatigue due to the sheer volume of ads being served during this time.
- Changes to in-platform algorithms and policies: Platforms may tweak algorithms or change ad policies to reduce the spread of misinformation or prioritize political content. Unfortunately, these changes can also affect the reach of franchise ads. One notable exception is Meta, which has improved their process over the years to keep the cost per thousand impressions (CPM) relatively steady during competitive periods. However, it’s still possible that CPM may see a spike on Meta. Like election results, it can be hard to predict what’s going to happen.
How is Hot Dish helping clients with the increased cost of and competition for ad space?
“At Hot Dish, audience targeting, performance tracking and campaign optimization are always central to our efforts,” says Roman. “In times of heightened competition, these strategies must evolve. Drawing on insights from previous election cycles will be crucial as we navigate this period. Our creative solutions and messaging will need to stand out, cutting through the noise of electoral advertisements.”
Hot Dish’s award-winning strategies always aim to ignite success for our clients, even in an election year. According to the 2023 Franchise Update Media Annual Franchise Development Report, the industry average Cost Per Lead (CPL) is $253. In contrast, Hot Dish has an overall average CPL of $81. Roman says, “With our media expertise and analytical precision, we are well-positioned to guide our clients through the coming months.”
How does Hot Dish recommend adapting marketing strategy to combat consumer ad fatigue during this time?
“The election cycle demands a refined approach to break through the clutter,” Roman says. “Success starts with a well-planned creative messaging calendar and a thoroughly considered testing process. It’s crucial to keep creative fresh and experiment with messaging tactics and media placements to prevent creative fatigue.” The Hot Dish Media Team tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rates and conversion rates and makes any adjustments needed to keep our clients’ campaigns performing well.
Keeping a campaign fresh goes beyond simply tracking data. “Authentic, attention-grabbing content is paramount in a landscape filled with formulaic political ads,” says Roman. When needed, Hot Dish recommends our clients update their creative to fight ad fatigue and/or comply with constantly changing platform policies.
What other adaptation strategies are important?
Other recommendations for managing advertising in an election year include:
- Being flexible with your budget and planning, recognizing that budget may need to shift between channels based on performance during this time.
- Diversifying your channel mix to include less saturated digital channels and alternative marketing tactics (i.e., organic social posts or email marketing).
- Allocating a portion of your ad spend to programmatic (display, CTV/OTT, video or streaming audio) to reach your target audience where they are most active.
- Optimizing organic social content for organic reach.
How can Hot Dish help? “Our Creative and Strategy teams collaborate with clients to develop tailored organic plans and produce engaging content,” says Roman. “Clients can then deploy this content across platforms of their choosing, including and beyond social media, ensuring maximum impact and reach.”
Wouldn’t it be better for clients to just pause media during election season?
“From a media and strategic standpoint, I recommend maintaining your media presence during this period,” says Roman. “Although conversion rates may decrease due to increase competition, for clients with longer sales cycles, it’s crucial to keep the sales funnel active. Consumer needs remain constant, regardless of the season.”
According to Roman, the priority should be long-term benefits rather than short-term savings for your campaign. “For those exploring franchising opportunities or expanding their portfolios, there’s never a wrong time to engage in those conversations. Pausing media now would set our clients back by months in terms of lead generation and conversions through digital channels.”
When it comes to navigating advertising in an election year, flexibility is key. Be open to adjusting your brand’s marketing and media plan quickly if needed to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. And best of all, Hot Dish is here to help. Contact us to find out how we can ignite success for your brand.
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Hot Dish Advertising is a full-service franchise marketing agency headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We’ve been ranked a top franchise supplier for seven years in a row by Entrepreneur magazine. Founded in 1999, Hot Dish has provided impactful results for over 500 clients across B2B, B2C and B2E through our award-winning FranFocused™ + BrandFocused strategy.
