How AI Transforms Ad Buying in Political Advocacy

Last week, we began laying out the various ways that AI is transforming political advocacy. You can read last week's summary of AI's numerous impacts in campaigns and public affairs here. 

Below we dig a bit deeper into one of the most critical areas where AI is driving outcomes—how it changes the very nature of where and how we place ads. 

🔱  AI-Powered Ad Trading

Using a process known as Real-Time Bidding (RTB), AI-powered algorithms enable real-time bidding on ad placements across thousands of digital publishers.

These algorithms analyze bid requests (essentially offers of inventory from publishers or platforms that compile inventory from numerous publishers), evaluate audience data, and make split-second decisions on whether to bid on an ad placement based on numerous criteria such as:

🔱  Market prices to reach targets

🔱  Campaign budgets

🔱  Most cost-efficient media outlets to reach targets
🔱  Ideal time-of-day to deliver ads
🔱  Video completion rates
🔱  Activist and voter engagement 

🔱  Conversions

... and numerous other custom optimizations based on machine learning.

Why is this important? Because the modern digital eco-system consists of thousands of platforms to reach audiences. It is simply impossible for a human to analyze this much data and make instantaneous decisions on how to optimize ad bidding.

For example, here's a visualization of the current options just for reaching people through connected TV (CTV). 

 ...and to reach all of this ad inventory, we bid simultaneously across the following ad exchanges...

... no human can do this alone.   

AI EXPANDS REACH, INCREASES QUALITY, AND REDUCES COST

As dizzying as you might find the above example, this is just what goes into buying connected TV. When it comes to online video and display ads, the inventory options explode to literally number in the thousands. There is simply no way to effectively manage this amount of data without the help of AI.

So with AI, we dramatically expand the number of places where we can place ads, we buy the most optimal ads for the particular campaign objectives, and we ensure that we're only paying the amount necessary to win those placements. 

🔱  If you'd like to learn more about how AI can impact your campaign, contact us today to chat. 

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