Presidential election years in the United States aren’t just painful to watch as viewers, they’re also taxing on travel advertisers and place marketers.
Every four years in the U.S., around a presidential election, marketers experience higher advertising costs meaning a decrease in impressions and an increased cost per conversion. This year, political ads are projected to set a new record of $16 billion in 2024.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. If you’re a tourism organization or destination, this year opens up multiple possibilities to set your brand apart. Here are five ways you can optimize your advertising during an election year.
Advertising During an Election Year: Be Prepared to Spend More
Depending on where you normally run advertising, the first step in optimizing your advertising during an election year is to recognize where you’re most likely to see the biggest impact and adjust accordingly.
Traditional Media Placements vs. Digital Placements
The goal of a presidential advertising campaign is to reach the most voters possible. This means that traditional media prices will probably be impacted the most due to limited inventory, including ConnectedTV. If these are mediums that you historically buy, consider ways to purchase spots in advance or invest in other mediums.
Digital placements like Facebook and YouTube will probably see the largest increases in advertising spend, based on their consistent use among U.S. voters. If you manage a hotel company, consider running advertising campaigns on platforms like Pinterest instead of Facebook during the heaviest political advertising period.
Choose Your Advertising Campaign Timing Wisely
Advertisers will probably see an increase in competition in key U.S. regions from January to March 5 during the caucuses and primaries period. Leading up to Election Day in the U.S., all advertisers are likely to experience heavy competition from August until Nov. 5., as political parties try to persuade voters.
Make the most of the late spring to early summer, by running strategic travel advertising campaigns. Continue reading this blog for strategies on how to effectively run campaigns during the heaviest advertising period.
Advertise Where Your Audience is Most Likely Spending Their Time
To ensure that you’re capturing visitors’ attention, ensure that you’re running the most effective campaigns possible by targeting where you’re 99% sure that your target audience is actively spending their time.
A political year is not the ideal time to test places like billboards, magazines, or other media placements that you think your audience may be consuming. Instead, adjust your 2024 advertising strategy to only advertise on platforms you know are reaching your audience.
Choose Platforms and Mediums Based on Demographics
Digital platforms are a fantastic way to ensure you’re reaching the right audience. Almost all digital platforms provide demographic information on their users. For example, if you’re a tour company targeting a younger millennial audience, consider running ads on TikTok targeting people who view videos related to travel and tours.
Choose Platforms and Mediums Based on Visitor Feedback
Another way to ensure you’re effectively reaching your audience is to implement the learnings from visitor surveys. If you’re currently tracking “How did you hear about us?” responses, this is a great year to start using that insight to optimize your advertising strategy.
Target Your Smallest Viable Audience
All political advertisers will be casting the largest possible net in an attempt to reach as many voters as possible. Because their targeting won’t go much beyond location, political party (where applicable), and 18+, this is the perfect year to lean into advanced audience targeting tactics.
Mastermind marketer Seth Godin encourages marketers to reach their minimum viable audience – the people most likely to care about your organization, actively seek out your business, or engage with your destination.
Implement Google Ads Search Campaigns
Running Google Ads during an election year ensures that you’re only reaching potential visitors who are actively searching for a specific destination or travel-related keyword. Thankfully, based on Google Ads restrictions, political advertisers aren’t able to bid on keywords that aren’t related to their advertising.
Use Google Ads Keyword Planner to get started on selecting the right keywords for your tourism organization.
Target Lookalike Audiences & Implement Retargeting
Most digital platforms enable lookalike audience targeting, which I’ve found to be one of the most effective audience targeting tactics. By uploading your customer list, platforms create an audience of people who share similar online characteristics with your audience. When using a lookalike audience, always include any relevant age and location demographic data.
Running retargeting advertising during a political year ensures that you’re reaching people who’ve indicated an interest in your content or website. It also means you’re guaranteed repeat impressions from your target audience.
Here are some retargeting targeting ideas that go beyond just website visitors:
- People who’ve engaged with your Facebook page
- People who’ve watched your Instagram Reels
- People who’ve used your brand or destination hashtag on TikTok
- Website visitors to specific pages or who took certain actions
Leverage Integrated Campaigns
An election year is the perfect time to focus on your visitor’s marketing journey. Identify content opportunities to reach and engage with your audience through owned and earned channels like an influencer campaign.
Inviting an engaging hiking influencer to visit your destination could be a more cost-effective way to reach your target audience during an election year than running a magazine ad.
Creating more engaging and interactive elements on your website could also be a more efficient way to inspire a visitor to go from the consideration stage of the marketing journey to booking instead of running Facebook campaigns optimized for engagements.
Need help brainstorming ways to create a more integrated marketing campaign for your tourism or travel destination? Let’s connect.
Be a Light in the Darkness with Positive Messaging
Political messaging will be overflowing with negativity in a tug-o-war of controversy. TV screens, devices, and social media feeds will be spewing attacks and negative contrasts. It will feel like a war of words. Let your advertising be a breath of fresh air.
Focus on positive messaging during this election year. Invite potential visitors to feel inspired and dream of a positive future. Create laugh-out-loud videos that entertain viewers or Reels and TikToks that educate and teach them something new.
Develop Ad Creatives Optimized for Social Media Platforms
If you’re planning to run the majority of your advertising on social media channels, optimize advertising creatives to meet users’ specific reasons for using the platforms.
- Connection: One of the major reasons people begin using social media platforms is to connect with people who are similar to them or who they aspire to be. Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) or influencers can help potential visitors see themselves at your destination or business.
- Entertainment: Often overlooked, this is one of the major reasons people use social media platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok. Create entertaining video ads that make potential visitors excited to share them with their travel partners.
- Inspiration: Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are a source of inspiration. When running advertising on these platforms, optimize creatives to be as inspiring as possible with imagery and calls-to-action that invite potential visitors to discover the best version of their vacation selves.
- Education/Information: Social media platforms like YouTube and Pinterest have become a go-to source for information including “how-to” and trip itineraries. If advertising on these platforms, consider ways to create easy-to-digest educational content.
Conclusion
Advertising during an election year can be challenging, but I encourage you to focus on the positives when it comes to marketing your tourism and travel organization or destination.
This year more than ever travelers need to be reminded of the joy and hope that travel brings. Encourage them to make new memories so that 2024 isn’t the year of a presidential election, but the year they visited a new destination. Invite them to see the world through a different lens, to meet strangers, and try something new.
If you need strategic advertising support, a shoulder to cry on, or a digital marketing cheerleader, let’s connect.
