Political advertisers use all sorts of data to reach specific groups of voters through Web ads. But voter file data isn't what typically comes to mind. Most political campaign insiders would like to keep it that way.

People familiar with voter file-based ad targeting say Yahoo, AOL, and MSN have all done it. However, while most online politicos have few if any qualms about privacy concerns related to using voter information for Web ad targeting (the info is all publicly available), those publisher partners seem to recognize the potential for user backlash.

Secretaries of state allow public access to voter registration data, which typically includes name, address, date of birth, political party affiliation, and indicates the elections in which a voter cast a ballot. However, the national parties both pool that information from all states, regularly update it, and append it with commercially available lifestyle data such as household income or shopping history.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties have used their massive national voter databases to target specific people through Web ads...

To finish reading "The Political Ad Practice Insiders Want to Keep Secret," hop on over to ClickZ.

(Originally posted on ClickZ)

The Democratic National Committee is looking to build out its digital staff and bolster its social media, video and e-mail capabilities. Recently-hired New Media Director Natalie Foster is just getting settled into her new role, and all eyes are on her as she navigates uncharted territory.

Foster is charged with determining how the Obama campaign's monster database will be employed to promote the party and the President's goals. Meanwhile, her predecessor is enjoying a little breathing room in his new lower-pressure gig at a tried-and-true D.C. consulting firm.

"We're building up a new media team of designers, video folks, e-mail writers, to continue to engage our Organizing for America supporters and...promote the President's agenda," Foster told ClickZ News. The DNC plans to hire a couple new staffers, she added.

It's been months since the party took control of the Obama for America e-mail list, now known as Organizing for America. Yet it took some time before Foster came on board at the end of March, about a month after the DNC's former Internet Director Josh McConaha had gone. During that interim period the remaining digital team worked on the transition from campaign to Organizing for America...

(Reposted from Click Z)

Yesterday's closely-watched special congressional election in New York's 20th District prompted the use of a rarely-employed online ad tactic some liken to carpet bombing. Call it the "Google Surge" or the "Google Network Blast," the ad tactic has piqued the interest of old-school political media consultants typically reluctant to consider using Internet ads for anything other than fundraising or building supporter lists.

(Crossposted from ClickZ.)

Barack Obama's presidential campaign spent over $16 million on online advertising in 2008. John McCain's camp spent a fraction of that: around $3.6 million. Google was far and away the winner, taking in an estimated $7.5 million of Obama ad dollars in 2008, about 45 percent of the campaign's digital ad spending, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Some of that money went toward display and text ads in Google's AdSense network, and some was used for ads appearing in search results on Google's site.

(Reposted from ClickZ)

Barack Obama and John McCain duked it out till the very end online, with ads that went after specific audiences in important swing states. Sites across the Web were drowned in hundreds of millions of Obama's voter registration and state-targeted early voting ads in the final weeks. Meanwhile, the McCain camp attacked, asked for cash, and played the Palin card in display ads more focused on persuading voters than the campaign's earlier ads had been. Joe the Plumber made an appearance, too, of course.

(Crossposted from ClickZ)

If a recent online political ad revenue prediction is correct, President-elect Barack Obama's campaign could account for at least half of all 2008 online political ad spending. The winning candidate's campaign shelled out nearly $8 million through October to Google, Yahoo, Facebook, news Web sites, ad networks, and in-game ad firm Massive.

Google remains the clear winner of Obama's Web spoils, though the search giant's payments for October have yet to appear in the campaign's Federal Election Commission filings. The company collected $3.5 million from Obama for America, according to the latest FEC reports analyzed by ClickZ News. Keeping with a trend established early this year, Yahoo remains a distant second, having garnered around $673,000 from the campaign. A total of $7.97 million was spent on Web ads in '08 through October by the campaign, according to FEC reports.

Barack Obama, The Democratic National Committee and "Car Wash Babes"? They may not seem a likely grouping, but yesterday, ads paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Illinois Senator's presidential campaign showed up on an array of local Clear Channel rock radio station Web sites featuring content some would consider inappropriate for a radio station, much less a presidential campaign.

As pundits and consultants play Monday morning quarterback to analyze what went wrong with Hillary Clinton's campaign, her online ad spending numbers may shed some light. Through the entire 2007/2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton for President spent far less on online advertising than Barack Obama's campaign has this year alone. Still, despite the disparity, they did have something in common: both spent the bulk of their online ad budgets on Google.

Google political ad man Peter Greenberger thinks Hillary Clinton's campaign was hampered by its failure to use search advertising consistently throughout the primary season. While he acknowledges the New York Senator's campaign deserves credit for experimenting with new media tools, he argues savvy search advertising contributed to the success of both Barack Obama's and John McCain's primary season wins by helping them build supporter lists. Through sponsored links in search results, the McCain and Obama camps have driven users seeking information on the candidates to their official Web sites to register for newsletters, volunteer or to donate money.

Barack Obama's campaign spent nearly $3 million on online advertising related purchases between January and April. The biggest recipient of the Democratic Presidential hopeful's online ad dollars was Google.