Survey: Online Political Ads Work to Woo Voters

Online political ads are both more ubiquitous and more targeted this campaign cycle. Do they work to win donations and support? The answer is "yes" per a new survey of American voters by Toluna, a global online survey provider. Adam Lehman's report in Advertising Age on Toluna findings confirmed that an increasing number of voters are encountering political ads online, with 55% of respondents saying they'd seen political ads online this year, second only to TV as a source for such ads (at 88%). In general, consumers were negative on all political ads, but the Internet-based ads were compared with radio and newspaper-based appeals as less offensive than other venues. (Most hated were robocalls.) More important, nearly 60% said the improved data-driven targeting of online ads is a "good thing," and more than half of respondents said the online ads had prompted them to take action: donating to a campaign (11%); going to a campaign website (14%); seeking more information about a candidate (25%)' paying more attention to a candidate's campaign (24%); or voting (33%). For details, see http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/online-political-ads-turn-voters-expect/237570/