February 20, 2024

The Biden campaign has already delivered millions of TV impressions to voters in battleground states. Why are our political experts seeing a significant disparity in on-target reach between these markets? Simply put, consumption data matters, and political advertising needs to be planned at the local level.

Check out the comparison below between Atlanta and Philadelphia, the largest markets in two crucial swing states. For simplicity, we use ‘the Biden campaign’ to refer to the combined ad performance of Biden for President and DNC/Biden.

• Atlanta and Philadelphia have similar numbers of swing voters, yet these markets have vastly different TV consumption habits among that audience.
• In fact, 69% are reachable on TV in Philadelphia compared with only 54% in Atlanta.

• From September 1st through the end of December 2023, the Biden campaign delivered similar amounts of impressions to swing voters in both markets (30.9M in PHL and 27.4M in ATL). 
• But with the disparity in reachability, the similar amount of impressions in the two markets still led to a massive gap in reach, with fewer than 40% of ATL swing voters seeing Biden’s ads during the four months.

The other key takeaway: TV and video ad plans from the primaries will need to change substantially for the general election. Using the same two example markets illustrates the massive age disparity between primary voters and swing voters, which directly links to TV consumption.

We’ll continue to break down candidate ad performance and the implications throughout election season – stay tuned!

Want to improve the on-target reach of your own video ad campaigns?
With linear TV consumption varying across markets, CTV needs to be a core channel for political advertising at every level. Cross Screen Media works with political agencies to maximize reach to any audience through local cross-screen optimization and measurement. Want to learn more from our political ad experts?