How Programmatic TV Can Help Down-Ballot Campaigns
Understanding exactly how programmatic TV can help down-ballot campaigns compete with larger opponents is the most critical leverage point for modern local political strategy. For decades, candidates running for state legislature, school board, or judicial seats were effectively locked out of television advertising. The buy-in costs for broadcast TV were too high, and the coverage areas were too broad, forcing you to pay to reach voters who could not even vote for you. That dynamic has shifted permanently. Today, advanced digital buying platforms allow local campaigns to bypass the wasteful ‘spray and pray’ tactics of traditional media in favor of surgical precision. By utilizing Connected TV (CTV) and Over-The-Top (OTT) services, you can now deliver broadcast-quality messages directly to specific households, maximizing every dollar in your war chest.
Precision Airwaves: How Programmatic TV Can Help Down-Ballot Campaigns Win
The fundamental problem with traditional television buying for local races is waste. If you are running for a State Assembly seat that encompasses three specific zip codes, buying a broadcast spot on a major network affiliate covers the entire Designated Market Area (DMA). You end up paying premium rates to show your ad to hundreds of thousands of people who live outside your district. This is why learning how programmatic TV can help down-ballot campaigns is an economic necessity, not just a technological upgrade. Programmatic advertising automates the buying process, allowing you to bid on ad inventory in real-time based on data parameters rather than broad time slots. Instead of buying ‘The 6 PM News’ for the whole city, you buy the specific voter watching the news on their Roku device within your precinct lines. This shifts the focus from buying shows to buying audiences. For a campaign with a limited budget, this eliminates the ‘waste tax’ of traditional media, ensuring that every impression served is to a potential constituent.
Strategic Approach: Why Granularity Wins Local Races
The strategic advantage here is data layering. Programmatic TV allows you to utilize first-party data—your voter file—to dictate who sees your ad. By integrating with CRM tools like NGP VAN or PDI, you can upload lists of persuadable voters or likely primary voters and serve ads specifically to their devices. This is how programmatic TV can help down-ballot campaigns punch above their weight class. – Cost Efficiency: While traditional TV spots require massive upfront commitments, programmatic campaigns often operate on a Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM) model, typically ranging from $30 to $60. This allows you to scale spend up or down daily based on fundraising numbers. – Geotargeting: You can target by congressional district, custom shapefile, or even down to the precinct level. This is vital for hyper-local races where district lines are irregular. – Omnichannel Impact: The strategy allows you to follow the voter. A user might see your ad on their living room TV via Hulu, then see a follow-up banner on their mobile device, and finally an audio ad on Spotify. This repetition builds name recognition faster than a yard sign ever could.
Tactical Execution: Integrating Tech Stacks and Platforms
Executing a programmatic strategy requires selecting the right vendors and ensuring your data pipeline is clean. Top-tier platforms like Basis Technologies, Viant, and SpeakEasy Political offer specialized tiers for political clients. Here is how you execute this tactically: 1. Vendor Selection: Choose a Demand Side Platform (DSP) that supports political targeting. Look for ‘self-service’ options if you have an internal digital director, or ‘managed service’ if you need hands-on help. Be aware of minimum spend requirements, which generally start around $5,000 to $10,000 for local campaigns. 2. Data Integration: Export your target universe from NGP VAN, L2, or PDI. Your DSP will match this data against their device graphs (matching names and addresses to IP addresses and device IDs). Expect a match rate of 50-70%; the remaining budget should be directed toward broader geo-targeting within the district. 3. Creative Compliance: Unlike digital display ads, TV spots have strict regulations. Your DSP will provide tools to ensure your ‘Paid for by…’ disclaimers meet FEC or state-level requirements. Ensure your creative is formatted for both big screens (CTV) and mobile devices. 4. Measurement: Set up conversion pixels on your donation pages and volunteer sign-up forms. While TV is primarily an awareness tool, modern platforms can track ‘view-through’ conversions, showing you if someone who saw the TV ad later visited your website.
3 Costly Mistakes to Avoid
Even with the best technology, we see campaigns burn cash by treating programmatic TV like traditional broadcast. Avoid these errors: – The ‘Set It and Forget It’ Trap: Programmatic buying is dynamic. If you launch a campaign and do not look at the dashboard for two weeks, you are losing money. You must monitor which publishers (apps/channels) are driving engagement and blacklist low-quality inventory. – Ignoring Frequency Caps: You do not want to be the candidate who annoys the voter. If a voter sees your ad 20 times a day, you generate resentment, not support. Set strict frequency caps (e.g., 3 views per household per day) to stretch your budget and maintain goodwill. – Broad Geographic Targeting: Do not get lazy with your shapefiles. If you target by ‘City’ instead of ‘Zip Code’ or ‘Precinct,’ and your district only covers the northern half of the city, you are back to wasting 50% of your budget. Precision is the only reason to use this tech—do not abandon it for convenience.
Pre-Launch Checklist for Down-Ballot Candidates
Before you authorize the media buy, run through this checklist to ensure your campaign is ready to leverage how programmatic TV can help down-ballot campaigns effectively: – Budget Validation: Do you have the minimum buy-in (typically $5k+) available in liquid cash? – Creative Assets: Do you have 15-second and 30-second video files rendered in high definition? (Phone video is rarely sufficient for CTV). – Data Hygiene: Is your voter file export less than 30 days old to ensure address accuracy? – Compliance Check: Has legal approved the visual and audio disclaimers on the video file? – Destination URL: Is your landing page mobile-optimized? Most traffic driven by CTV will result in a search on a mobile device.
The Sutton & Smart Difference
At Sutton & Smart, we refuse to let technology become a buzzword that drains your budget. We understand that knowing how programmatic TV can help down-ballot campaigns is useless if the execution is flawed. While other consultants might hand you off to a generic vendor and collect a markup, we audit the entire tech stack. We ensure your voter data is matched correctly, your frequency caps protect your reputation, and your creative is optimized for the medium. Digital advertising is a tool, not a magic wand. If you are ready to stop wasting impressions and start moving the needle, we should talk.
Stop Wasting Your Media Budget
Contact Sutton & Smart today to audit your strategy.
Ready to launch a winning campaign? Let Sutton & Smart political consulting help you maximize your budget, raise a bigger war chest, and reach more voters.
Jon Sutton
An expert in management, strategy, and field organizing, Jon has been a frequent commentator in national publications.
AutoAuthor | Partner
Have Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
Most political programmatic TV is sold on a CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis, usually ranging from $30 to $60. Premium inventory in competitive swing states may cost more.
Indirectly, yes. You upload a voter file (names/addresses), and the platform matches those individuals to digital device IDs in a privacy-compliant manner to serve ads to their households.
No. Platforms like SpeakEasy Political or self-service DSPs cater specifically to down-ballot races with lower minimum spends ($5,000–$10,000), making it accessible without a large agency of record.
This article is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. Political campaign laws, FEC regulations, voter-file handling rules, and platform policies (Meta, Google, etc.) are subject to frequent change. State-level laws governing the use, storage, and transmission of voter files or personally identifiable political data vary significantly and may impose strict limitations on third-party uploads, data matching, or cross-platform activation. Always consult your campaign’s General Counsel, Compliance Treasurer, or state party data governance office before making strategic, legal, or financial decisions related to voter data. Parts of this article may have been created, drafted, or refined using artificial intelligence tools. AI systems can produce errors or outdated information, so all content should be independently verified before use in any official campaign capacity. Sutton & Smart is an independent political consulting firm. Unless explicitly stated, we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any third-party platforms mentioned in this content, including but not limited to NGP VAN, ActBlue, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Google, Hyros, or Vibe.co. All trademarks and brand names belong to their respective owners and are used solely for descriptive and educational purposes.
https://www.emarketer.com/content/programmatic-political-ads-impact-ecosystem-ctv-social-media
https://basis.com/news/ctv-and-programmatic-advertising-essential-for-2024-us-elections
https://community-democracies.org/app/uploads/2022/09/Report-Technology-in-Elections.pdf
