Continuing our series on learnings from the 2024 election, today we’ll look at how TV ad frequency is distributed over the entire electorate. To do so, we measured the combined TV performance of all Presidential advertisers in the state of GA between September 1st and Election Day (where $125M+ was spent).
4 big questions re: TV performance:
- How is TV ad frequency distributed by expected turnout?
- How is TV ad frequency distributed by partisanship?
- How is TV ad frequency distributed by turnout and partisanship?
- How can CTV and Linear TV complement each other?
Question #1: How is TV ad frequency distributed by expected turnout?
Good news for TV – those most likely to vote see more TV ads than those less likely. In GA specifically, definite voters saw 85% more presidential TV ads on average than the unlikely voters.
Question #2: How is TV ad frequency distributed by partisanship?
Bad news for TV – Voters on the far ends of the partisan spectrum see a higher frequency of TV ads than those in the middle. In GA, the swing voters who were most critical in deciding the election, saw 43% and 32% fewer ads than Hard GOP and Hard Dem voters, respectively.
Question #3: How is TV ad frequency distributed by turnout and partisanship?
Worse news for TV – when looking at turnout and partisanship together, TV is missing the most critical group for campaigns: high turnout swing voters. Instead, the TV frequency is heavily focused amongst the hardline-definite voters on either side.
Question #4: How can CTV and Linear TV complement each other?
- Utilize CTV targeting to reach the pivotal audience groups left undersaturated from linear TV.
- Persuasion: High turnout swing voters
- Mobilization: Mid-propensity turnout partisan voters on either side
- Leverage Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) audiences available with CTV to exclude those in your audience who have already seen your ads on linear TV.
