Targeted Online Fundraising & Advertising in Nevada Senate Race

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Jasmine Morton
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Targeted Online Fundraising & Advertising in Nevada Senate Race A Case Study by and CampaignGrid Our partnership with Campaign Grid helped the Angle campaign set US Senate fundraising records and

Kurt Luidhardt, Sharron was able to build one of the best small-donor lists in the nation, consisting of more than 265,000 contributors across the country, Angle spokesman Jarrod Agen told Roll Call

1 Targeted Online Fundraising & Advertising in Nevada Senate Race A Case Study by and CampaignGrid Our partnership with Campaign Grid helped the Angle campaign set US Senate fundraising records and build one of the largest online donor files in existence. Kurt Luidhardt, Sharron was able to build one of the best small-donor lists in the nation, consisting of more than 265,000 contributors across the country, Angle spokesman Jarrod Agen told Roll Call on Dec. 13, Small-dollar donors traditionally remain loyal even after a campaign. specializes in online strategy and telephone voter contact for Republican political candidates and Conservative organizations. In 2010, The Prosper Group raised $28 million dollars online for it clients, delivered 130 million online ad impressions, helped generate over 7 million volunteer calls, and worked to elect 16 new members to the US Congress. Recent clients include Governor Rick Scott, US Senators Scott Brown, Pat Toomey, and Dan Coats in addition to newly elected House Members Michael Grimm, Allen West, Quico Canseco, Bill Flores, Frank Guinta, Charlie Bass, Larry Bucshon and numerous other Congressional and state candidates. CampaignGrid has developed a revolutionary Internet targeting platform and ad network that makes it easy for candidates like Sharron Angle and partners like to target voters based on party registration, voting frequency, and behavior no matter where they surf online. Since its founding in 2007, CampaignGrid has worked with over 140 candidates, elected officials and causes, including NJ Gov. Chris Christie, NC Sen. Richard Burr and IL Rep. Peter Roskam. CampaignGrid raised $3 million online in the final 30 days of NV Senate race for Angle.

Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 2 HISTORY For nearly 8 years, Sharron Angle served in the Nevada State Assembly, where she fought for smaller government and lower taxes for

2 Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 2 HISTORY For nearly 8 years, Sharron Angle served in the Nevada State Assembly, where she fought for smaller government and lower taxes for Nevadans. Most recently, she was the focus of the national political spotlight during the 2010 midterm elections as the Republican Tea Party Candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Prior to challenging Harry Reid and her work in the Nevada State Assembly, Sharron worked tirelessly as an educator, first working as a substitute teacher in public schools, then teaching art courses at Western Nevada Community College, and co-founding a small Christian school. On June 8, 2010, Sharron Angle won a shocking upset against businesswoman Sue Lowden, capturing the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Despite low name-id and little fundraising strength, Sharron Angle surprised the establishment by posting the single most successful fundraising quarter of any candidate in the 2010 cycle. Between July 1 and September 30, 2010 alone, the Angle Campaign raised a staggering $14 million. In the final 30 days of the race,, utilizing CampaignGrid s technology directly raised $3 million for Angle. CHALLENGE After winning the Republican primary, Sharron Angle had to overcome both a large fundraising disadvantage and low state-wide name-id. The Angle campaign partnered with CampaignGrid and the Prosper Group to formulate an online strategy to help overcome these obstacles. Together, and CampaignGrid sought to: Find and connect with potential voters and donors online, building lists of contacts. Brand Sharron Angle and define her position on key voting issues with targeted online ads. Employ a targeted online fundraising strategy to help fund the campaign. Define incumbent Senator Harry Reid. THE SOLUTION In order to achieve these objectives, CampaignGrid worked with the Prosper Group to create a custom online advertising and fundraising program. CampaignGrid s technology enabled the Angle campaign to find and communicate with potential voters and likely donors interested in issues such as jobs, Social Security, education, the Second Amendment, unemployment, and Immigration. Through an exclusive license with the Republican National Committee (RNC), CampaignGrid was able to combine the national Republican voter file data with online advertising, providing sophisticated voter targeting. Ads were targeted to custom audiences of registered voters. Neighborhoods/Congressional Districts Likely voters Donor history Employees of specific organizations Demographic groups Geographic area Online behaviors and interests Once these audiences were identified, Grid served hyper-targeted messages (more granular than zip code) across the web, just like direct mail. Such targeting was key in reducing advertising waste, while increasing ad effectiveness and click-thru rates.

Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate SEARCH AND EMAIL The cornerstone of this customized advertising program was an aggressive Search and Email component, which included the

Through search and email advertising, the Angle campaign was able to target potential voters as they search for relevant keywords almost anywhere on the Internet. 3 LiveLikeHarryReid.

3 Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate SEARCH AND The cornerstone of this customized advertising program was an aggressive Search and component, which included the Internet s top search engines (Google/Yahoo/Bing) as well as Gmail. Through search and advertising, the Angle campaign was able to target potential voters as they search for relevant keywords almost anywhere on the Internet. 3 LiveLikeHarryReid.com This website highlighted Harry Reid s exorbitant lifestyle, painting Reid as out-of-touch with average Nevadans. Users could play a game as a means of soliciting donations and signups. Additionally, CampaignGrid s Real-Time Reporting allowed and Angle s team to gather actual data on what issues and topics constituents were both searching for and interested in over time. Top Keywords Included: - Angle Harry Reid Sharron Angle Sharon Angle - Tax Tea Parties - Jobs Early Voting Work Education - Reid Angle Debate Once a user clicked on an ad, they were immediately directed to a donation page, signup form, or a relevant issue page describing Sharron Angle s position. Search proved a powerful tool, gaining the most donor conversions of any adtype. DISPLAY To target tea party activists and conservative donors online, and CampaignGrid built a custom audience profile, site list and advertising network for Sharron Angle. In all, nearly 13 million ads were served soliciting donations, signups, and other types of activism by targeting top conservative news, social media, second amendment, military, and women s sites with banner ads. PetraeusApology.com Perhaps the most widely reported in the media, PetraeusApology.com urged voters sign a petition, demanding Reid apologize to General David Petraeus for saying our soldiers lost the war, and for looking on approvingly as MoveOn.Org called him General Betray Us. Harry Reid Soundboard This site highlighted some of Harry Reid s most outlandish statements. Users clicked a statement to hear the audio of Reid s own voice, or could even submit their own. This helped to build Sharron Angle s list. CampaignGrid also drove traffic to several minisites created by the Prosper Group, aimed at defining Harry Reid, soliciting donations for the campaign, and calling supporters to action. CampaignGrid, LLC

Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 4 NRA Petition and CampaignGrid utilized a it's proprietary audience targeting tools to find this conservative audience online.

Grid used a custom ad network of conservative sites to help define Sharron Angle as a stalwart proponent of Second Amendment rights.

This one campaign alone resulted in over 1,000 donor conversions. VIDEO GRID The campaign was able to target registered voters in it s audience segments with T.V. ads online across hundreds of websites like YouTube and Breitbart using instream video.

$and CampaignGrid advertised Angle s TV AD, Wipeout, gathering thousands of additional views and over 10 hours of airtime online at a fraction of the cost of running a TV Ad.$

4 Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 4 NRA Petition and CampaignGrid utilized a it's proprietary audience targeting tools to find this conservative audience online. Using offline data, Grid created an audience segment of 14 million people that were targeted. Grid used a custom ad network of conservative sites to help define Sharron Angle as a stalwart proponent of Second Amendment rights. By driving traffic to a petition, urging the NRA to endorse Angle over Reid, Angle was also able to raise money and grow fundraising lists by drawing attention to Reid s record on gun rights. This one campaign alone resulted in over 1,000 donor conversions. VIDEO GRID The campaign was able to target registered voters in it s audience segments with T.V. ads online across hundreds of websites like YouTube and Breitbart using instream video. In terms of clickthru rates and conversions, these ads were among the most successful of the campaign. and CampaignGrid advertised Angle s TV AD, Wipeout, gathering thousands of additional views and over 10 hours of airtime online at a fraction of the cost of running a TV Ad. CampaignGrid provided and Angle campaign with a detailed summary of all online video, including a measure of impressions, views, clicks, and interactions. Working with the Prosper Group, CampaignGrid also targeted banner ads by geographic area and relevant contextual keywords. For instance, this immigration ad prompted voters to learn more about Reid s record, and was targeted to internet content that mentioned immigration related keywords. Several in-banner video units were also created utilizing Angle s web-video and TV content. These units, which were displayed across a custom network of conservative sites, had an above average engagement rate and added days of additional TV ad exposure. In addition, and CampaignGrid advertised Angle s TV Ads and web video content through a promoted video campaign, pushing the content to thousands of websites and in YouTube search results. For instance, one ad promoted a Social Security message, yielding over 734,000 impressions and 2,700 clicks. RETARGETING AND FUNDRAISING As visitors interacted with Sharron Angle online, CampaignGrid dropped a special tracking cookie on the user s browser. These users were then served fundraising banner ads, displaying a tailored fundraising message as they traveled around the Internet. By partnering with CampaignGrid, The Prosper

Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 5 Group and Sharron Angle gained access to CampaignGrid s large pool of cookie data, allowing the campaign to target Conservative donors,

5 Targeted Fundraising and Online Advertising in NV Senate 5 Group and Sharron Angle gained access to CampaignGrid s large pool of cookie data, allowing the campaign to target Conservative donors, activists, and supporters. Once clicked, the ad automatically directed the user to an online donation form. Among the most effective retargeted ads was Fire Harry Reid. MOBILE The Angle Campaign took advantage of upward trends in mobile Internet usage, tailoring ads to owners of smartphones and other internet-ready mobile devices. Advertising across several mobile App genres, as well as and mobile search results produced some of the best click-thru rates of the advertising campaign. Almost 7% of all ad impressions were of mobile ads, or more than 2,290,000. LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION CampaignGrid worked directly with the Prosper Group to optimize each landing page, ensuring the maximum conversion of donors and signups. GOTV SMART BOMB In the lead up to November 2, and CampaignGrid targeted self-identified supporters who visited Angle's site during the campaign. Grid served 20 ads to each site visitor with a GOTV message, and blanketed the suburban women of Nevada with the same message. This was done in order to increase the likelihood of women finding and clicking on an Angle online ad, dramatically increasing traffic. analysis of each ad campaign s performance. Reports measured impressions, click-thrus, dollars spent, and other notable trends over time. CONCLUSIONS and CampaignGrid s ability to channel conservative grassroots energy in the Nevada Senate race using sophisticated targeting technology helped Sharron Angle successfully build fundraising lists online. In fact, upon partnering with CampaignGrid and beginning the custom online advertising and fundraising campaign, Sharron Angle s website consistently received more traffic than her opponent. Between July 1 and September 30, 2010, the Angle Campaign raised a staggering $14 million. In the last 30 days of the campaign alone, CampaignGrid s technology raised $3 million online, a testament to the success of list building and online fundraising activities throughout Over the course of the campaign, Sharron Angle raised over $27 million, $4 million more than Harry Reid. Impressions Clicks Click-Thru Rate 2,200,782 1, % REAL-TIME REPORTING CampaignGrid provided real-time reporting and

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