Politics In Paid Search

With a multitude of debates worldwide, an increasing amount of politicians are taking advantage of PPC advertising. With such low CPC’s and minimal competition, PPC has previously been a great way of promotion for the likes of Barack Obama, David Cameron and John Prescott.

Being a prospective parliamentary candidate, you are tasked with the job of promoting, leading and motivating a group of followers. With only a shoe-string budget, it could be a difficult job to get your party noticed online. Perhaps that is why Labour and the Liberal Democrats are not currently taking advantage of paid search.

With an increasing number of people turning to the web for information and advice relating to the 2010 election, we are witnessing the first digital election in the UK. Hitwise revealed that internet visits to political websites increased by 31% in the first week of April.

With this year’s election shaping up to be the closest in memory, would it not be wise for each candidate to push their message digitally? Yes, a few parties have made the effort to devote budgets to online marketing in order to promote their views on the world and desired changes but overall we are seeing a disappointing digital performance from the candidates. Although social media presence on YouTube, twitter and Facebook has been used reasonably tactfully, there seems to be no understanding of how they could benefit from paid search. Are they oblivious that they have the opportunity to drive a core message to the entire world via paid search?

Making the most of the online surge.

Strangely enough, retailers are currently benefiting the most from the election search traffic. Companies that would be considered irrelevant to the topic of the election are seizing the chance to increase traffic to their sites and brand awareness through clever marketing tactics during the online surge.

Advertising on ‘Presidential Election’

Google, BBC and Channel 4 are all making the most from PPC on the term ‘presidential election’. With Google linking to the UK election search trends for Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg while Channel 4 are promoting access to their alternative election with a ‘dash of comedy’. It seems that BBC are advertising on such terms as a way of brand awareness and traffic increase through promoting their election features, views and analysis page.

Advertising on ‘Election 2010’

While the advertising on ‘presidential election’ seems sensible and relevant to the topic, Ann Summers on the other hand have presented us with a very dynamic yet clever marketing campaign. Ann Summers are advertising on the term ‘election 2010’ with rather diverse copy referencing a ‘well hung parliament’. Although the Ann Summers website has absolutely no reference to the Political Elections, they have utilised this smart marketing for comedy purposes by aiming to capture potential customers with amusing puns. This is a fine display of how Google paid search can be used to increase brand awareness and customer relationships through humour.

Jobs go Public are using a very clever marketing tactic to promote their brand through advertising ‘One Prime Minister Wanted’ to be employed by ‘Run The Country Ltd’. It goes to show that the most unlikely brands are benefitting from the online election search traffic, increasing their website traffic and engaging customers.

William Hill have also created a smart paid search campaign, focusing on getting people to bet on the election winner with the incentive to win £25 for free.

Advertising on ‘David Cameron’

There is massive potential for Labour and Liberal Democrats to push their leaders forwards on the search term ‘David Cameron’. There is currently no alternative message for searchers who could potentially be making a decision on who they will vote for. There is not incentive from the other parties to encourage them to reconsider their vote.

The conservatives however have managed to produce a vague PPC campaign, sending people to their YouTube channel ‘Webcameron’ where viewers can watch the big idea behind their campaign. This is a rather clever way of promoting the Conservatives party through a popular media channel, giving them the opportunity to show the followers that they are internet savvy and have a little understanding of online advertising. Despite this, Labour are still failing to advertise on the term ‘Gordon Brown’ or their competitors.

Labour are most definitely not utilising online promotion, with the only words from John Prescott urging people to click on the Conservatives PPC ads as it will cost them money.

Lost Opportunities!

In my opinion, the parties should be using paid search to its full advantage, bidding on as many terms as possible to make sure as many people get to see their campaign before they make their final decision. The use of candidate advertising on the term ‘Barack Obama’ is also not present. Could relating themselves to a current leader who was in a similar position when he put himself forwards for the presidential nomination work for the parties?

With the ever growing prominence of the internet, it would be wise for each party to ensure that people can see that they are controlling their own digital footprint. This could be used as a display to show the public that the party they are voting for is internet savvy and aware of the online world.

Paid search has the potential to make an enormous difference in an election and for this year, the majority of parties have missed out on the chance to reinforce their message over and over again on the search results. Acting with such ambivalence could be fundamentally tragic as Google is as much a political game as it is a business game.