By Natalie Andrews
As Republican presidential candidates take the stage Thursday
for the first presidential debate, campaign staffers will have
their hands on the keyboard ready to use social media ads to
amplify their boss's message--or someone else's gaffe.
"You will see our ads throughout the entire debate," said
Vincent Harris, digital director for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's
campaign. The campaign likely will place ads on Twitter, Facebook
and Google.
With new tools that weren't available on social media in 2012,
campaigns will have the ability to target ads at very specific
audiences. If a candidate takes a controversial stance on illegal
immigration, a rival campaign could be sharing it within minutes
with Latino voters on Facebook and Twitter using targeted ads.
Social media advertising is just one part of the campaigns'
robust digital operations, which include video, text, tweets, blogs
and other online posts.
President Barack Obama broke ground on using social media during
his 2008 run and candidates have been trying to build on that in
every campaign cycle since. It is now considered a campaign
essential, as important as television commercials and voter turnout
strategies.
Facebook is a co-host of the debate with Fox News, and its
employees are assisting campaigns in Cleveland in creating videos
of behind-the-scenes moments.
New to Facebook since 2012 are improved question-and-answer
tools and instant-play video that allow candidates to interact with
their supporters while the event is unfolding and in a more
personal way. Both Facebook and Twitter identify a target audience
based on demographic information and how a user interacts on a
social network.
"The ads can go up five seconds later after you launch them,"
Mr. Harris said. "During a short time frame during a debate, they
will be effective to craft a message and help generate positive
buzz for what the campaign wants people to be talking about."
Jenna Golden, head of political ad sales at Twitter, recommends
that the campaigns plan to spend $25,000 to $50,000 during the
Thursday debate on ads. Mr. Harris said the Paul campaign's ad buy
should fall in that range.
For the candidates who didn't make the cut for the prime-time
stage, social media will offer an opportunity to put both volume
behind their messages and extend their life so they won't be
completely drowned out by the evening's main event. Fox News
limited participation to the top 10 of the 17 candidates based on
an average of national polls.
That meant Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and six other contenders
will appear in a separate pre-debate forum. Mr. Jindal's campaign
aides said they would be advertising on social media throughout the
night to try to raise his profile. They've curated lists of Twitter
handles in early primary states that will be the target of ads
sharing his message, said Bradley Engle, digital director for the
Jindal campaign.
"We view it not as trying to get headlines. We view success as
getting our message in front of the right people who then amplify
it for us," Mr. Engle said.
Digital ads provide a way for campaigns to bypass the
traditional post-debate spin room and create buzz for their
candidates directly with voters.
"With applications like Meerkat and Periscope, campaigns will be
transmitting the post-debate spin room into living rooms across the
country," said James Richardson, a Republican strategist who isn't
affiliated with a campaign.
Digital ads are priced in an auction-style format. Advertisers
target the demographic they want to reach--anything from age to
gender to location. The more advertisers who want to reach that
group at the same time, the more expensive the ad becomes. One of
the biggest bids of the night may be for the top of the Google
search after the event: "Who won the debate?"
Lee Dunn, head of Google's ad team for the 2016 election, said
the search engine is planning for spikes in queries on Friday about
which candidates excelled and who stumbled. Because the candidates
only get a short time on stage, Google has advised campaigns to
create videos with longer answers to be posted on YouTube.
Facebook and Twitter both allow campaigns to target users with
ads. A campaign easily could place an ad targeting all of the
followers of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. In the 2012
presidential campaign, Twitter only allowed users to buy ads
targeting their current followers, so Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
couldn't target their rivals' backers.
The advertising platforms go deeper than just demographic-based
advertising. A campaign can upload an email list of loyal fans, and
use it to find their Twitter accounts. Alternatively, a campaign
could upload a list of Twitter handles that it wants to target.
Facebook allows campaigns to gather a list of voter files, and
then the company will provide the Facebook accounts matching those
records.
Also new to the 2016 campaign is pixel tracking, which allows
the campaigns to embed code into their websites and match it to
their social media accounts.
For example, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's campaign could embed
a pixel onto its donation page and then Twitter would show the
campaign a list of users who visited that website. The campaign
could then advertise to those users.
"The opportunity here is that success can look like however the
campaign wants it to," said Annie Lewis, Facebook's ad manager for
Republican and right-leaning clients.