The political arena is heating up as the U.S. prepares for the 2020 Presidential Election. Democratic debates are already underway, electoral maps have already made their way onto front pages and consumers are hungry for the next piece of breaking news. We’re seeing that hunger in our own platform. By examining the data in the LiveIntent platform, we’ve seen that political ads in emails have a 3x higher clickthrough rate (CTR) and 10x higher conversion rate than the average email ad.
That means there’s a massive opportunity for advertisers with political messaging to get attention in a crowded marketplace via the email inbox, all without sending more email. Here’s how.
Buy ads in email inventory with law and business content.
It’s not surprising that political ads in email newsletters that we categorize as government and politics perform well. But law and business perform similarly well. Ads in emails across these four verticals drive a 33% higher CTR and 50% higher conversion rate compared to the average.
Conversely, emails about travel or food and drink aren’t good vehicles for political ads, seeing a 50% lower CTR and 70% lower conversion rate compared to the average.
Launch ads on Monday, Wednesday, Sunday.
The beginning, middle, and end of the week are the best times to reach audiences with political ads in email newsletters. This is when conversions are highest. So focusing campaigns on these days may be the best spend.
Avoid overnight distribution.
For political messaging, 9–11 am and 2–4 pm are peak times for conversions. People are gearing up for work, opening business-related emails, procrastinating from doing their daily tasks, and ready to engage with political ads.
The worst time of day for conversions is 11 pm to 4 am. Email users are likely sleeping or unwinding during these hours and avoiding hot-button political content.
Don’t Discount the Boomers
While there is a lot of focus on reaching and mobilizing younger audiences, don’t discount the engagement of people 65 and older. They drive a 30% higher CTR and 40% higher conversion rate than the average. Meanwhile, young readers aged 18–20 perform the worst, with a 70% lower CTR and 80% lower conversion rate than the average.
Reach engaged audiences with programmatic email ads.
As politics overtake the US news cycle and audiences become saturated with political content, the fight for attention is only going to get tougher. Brands and publishers will need tools to stay ahead of the competition and target readers with the most relevant ads. They can do that by running programmatic advertising in email – where people are already engaged with content that meets their interests. And they can drive even more success from those ads with these data-backed tactics.
If you’d like to learn how LiveIntent can help get attention in a crowded marketplace via the email inbox, visit our Advertising Solutions page.
