LiveIntent, the people-based marketing platform that reaches 250 million logged-in people each month via its 2,500 brands and publisher partners, announced new data around political ad campaign performance for the 2020 season. The study found that political ads are performing with a 10x higher conversion rate and a 3x higher click-through-rate (CTR) compared to typical ads. Additionally, these campaigns are finding success on phones with a 2x CTR and 50% higher conversion rate as compared to PCs and tablets. LiveIntent conducted the study by examining political ad campaigns running on their platform, which reaches 250 million verified people monthly in email and beyond.
With election season well underway, LiveIntent’s data found that morning and afternoons were best for political ads with the most conversions occurring between 9 – 11 a.m. and 2 – 4 p.m. In turn, it’s no surprise that 11 p.m. – 4 a.m. is the worst time for conversions. Looking at the days of the week, Monday, Wednesday and Sunday are the best days for conversions while Tuesday and Friday are the worst days.
More money than ever is flowing into the political advertising space this year. In June, GroupM predicted that political ad spending will total $9.9 billion in 2020, up from $8.7 billion in 2018, when midterm congressional elections were held, and from $6.3 billion in 2016.
For content, political ad campaigns were most successful in newsletters devoted to “Law, Gov’t & Politics” and “Business,” with a 33% higher CTR and 50% higher conversion rate compared to the average. In contrast, these ad campaigns saw 50% lower CTR and 70% lower conversion rate compared to the average in “Travel” and “Food & Drink” newsletters.