Your Legislation Deserves More Attention Than A Prius
One of the most common mistakes that public affairs campaigns make is delivering too few messages to the decision-makers and the people who move them. In today's short read, we debunk the conventional wisdom on how many times your target needs to see your message—if you care about winning.
How Other Industries Think About Ad Frequency
When you browse an SUV listing, the auto industry hits you with 50 or more ads per day until you buy. E-commerce retailers target 10-30 ads per day for low-funnel leads. Subscription companies like HelloFresh chase you with 10-25 daily impressions for a box of meal kits.
These companies spend billions collectively on research and trial and error perfecting these tactics. They're not guessing. Their data proves that this is what it takes to convert a sale.
Now ask yourself: what's more important—a Prius purchase, or your existential legislative issue?
Forget The Rule of 7
One of the most cited and most misapplied concepts in advertising is the "Rule of 7"—the idea that a prospect needs to see your message seven times before they act. Here's the problem: the Rule of 7 was designed for recall. It tells you how many times someone needs to see a message before they remember your brand exists.
Recall is not your goal in public affairs. You are not trying to build brand awareness for your company or coalition. You are trying to tip the balance of the politics on your issue—and that is an entirely different game. Public affairs is a zero-sum competition. There is an other side spending money to reach the same decision-makers with the opposite message. Seven impressions isn't a strategy in this environment. It's a rounding error.
If You're Targeting Too Many People, You Can't Reach The Frequency You Need To Win
If you're wasting money on thousands, or even tens of thousands of so-called influencers, you have no chance of reaching high frequencies with the people who actually move the decision-maker. NO ONE has thousands of influencers, as we've discussed several times in this newsletter.
Similarly, if you're not precisely targeting the decision-maker and measuring the frequency to this exact person, you're losing before you even start.
Aim For 10 Ads Daily To Your Key Targets
You probably don't have Toyota's budget or reach for your campaign. But if you precisely curate your audiences, you can still reach a strong frequency. Aim for 10 ads per day for your key targets, and in the vast majority of cases, you will be ahead of your competition.
Three Ways To Operationalize This Email
🔱 Pull the ad report from your last campaign and calculate your actual frequency per target for each of your key targets.
🔱 Audit your target list. If you're targeting thousands of so-called "influencers," do the math on how many ads you can afford per target.
🔱Aim for 10 ads per day for your key targets. If you get close to this, you're on track. If you're much below this, the Prius has the better chance of selling than your issue.