Obama outdoing Romney in online ads
So far, President Obama is far outpacing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the online ad wars.
President Obama speaks at an election campaign event in Baltimore on June 12, 2012.
(Jewel Samad - AFP/Getty Images)
Obama’s reelection campaign has consistently bought more search terms than Romney’s campaign, according to ComScore. In April, Obama spent three times as much on search.
Paid search ads are what appear on the top of a search engine , such as Google or Bing, when you search for a term. For example, if you search “Barack Obama,” you are likely to see an ad for the president’s campaign on the top.
That doesn’t mean Obama is spending three times as much on search ads as his rival. Ad costs vary depending on the popularity of the term — for example, a term like “student loans” will be more expensive than “Obama student loan policy.” Campaigns (and other advertisers) bid on terms, offering what they think they need to in order to get top billing. They are then charged by the number of clicks they get from the term.
Both candidates invested most of their money in terms related to their own names. But during the Republican primary, Romney was bidding on Rick Perry and Rick Santorum, says ComScore’s Eli Goodman. And Obama has bid on the DREAM Act, Obamacare and Solyndra. Both candidates have bid on terms related to health care.
ComScore also looked at online display ads — the ones that appear on Facebook and other Web pages. ComScore found that in April, Obama’s campaign delivered 865 million ad impressions online — while Romney’s delivered only 26 million.
ComScore makes projections based on people who allow the company to track their online behavior — a million in the United States — along with data from Web sites that display ads.
A recent CNN analysis found that Obama is spending twice as much as Romney on online advertising. Zac Moffat, Romney’s digital director, told the network that spending would ramp up as they got closer to the general election.
- Spam
- Obscene
- Duplicate
Blog Contributors
Chris Cillizza
Chris Cillizza is founder and editor of The Fix, a leading blog on state and national politics. He is the author of The Gospel According to the Fix: An Insider’s Guide to a Less than Holy World of Politics and an MSNBC contributor and political analyst. He also regularly appears on NBC and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show. He joined The Post in 2005 and was named one of the top 50 journalists by Washingtonian in 2009.
Juliet Eilperin
Juliet Eilperin covers the White House for the Washington Post. She served as the Post's House of Representatives reporter from 1998-2004, covering the impeachment of Bill Clinton, lobbying, legislation, and five national congressional campaigns. Since 2004 she has been one of the country’s leading reporters covering the environment, reporting on science, policy and politics in areas including climate change, oceans, and air quality. She is the author of two books, "Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives," and "Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks." Follow her on Twitter.
Ed O’Keefe
Ed O’Keefe covers Congress and politics for the Washington Post. He previously covered the 2008 and 2012 campaigns and reported on federal agencies and federal employees as author of The Federal Eye blog. Follow Ed on Twitter.
Aaron Blake
Aaron Blake covers national politics at the Washington Post, where he writes regularly for “The Fix,” the Post’s top political blog. A Minnesota native and summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota, Aaron has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and The Hill newspaper. Aaron and his wife, Danielle, live in Annandale, Va. Follow him on Twitter.
Sean Sullivan
Sean Sullivan covers national politics for “The Fix.” Prior to joining the Washington Post in the summer of 2012, Sean was the editor of Hotline On Call, National Journal Hotline’s politics blog. He has also worked for NHK Japan Public Broadcasting and ABC News. Sean is a graduate of Hamilton College, where he received a degree in Philosophy. He lives in Washington, D.C. Follow Sean on Twitter.
Scott Clement
Scott Clement is a survey research analyst for Capital Insight, the independent polling group of Washington Post Media. Scott specializes in public opinion about politics, election campaigns and public policy. He helps design and analyze all Washington Post polls, including the Washington Post-ABC News poll. Follow Scott on Twitter.
Rachel Weiner
Rachel Weiner covers national politics for Post Politics and The Fix. She came to the Washington Post in 2010 as a political web editor and anchored the Post's 2012 election blog. She was previously a web editor at The Huffington Post. Follow her on Twitter.
Latest Tweets
Haven't proposed a #fix30for30 yet? Do it! http://t.co/tuqNrxOIdC
MT @ZekeJMiller: Obama: I have to confess, sometimes I wrote off my own failings as ... the world trying to keep a black man down
RT @JessicaTaylor: .@McConnellPress says biggest issue in 2014 will be Obamacare #MTP
Loading...
Comments