Data: Frequency imbalance plagues US political advertisers
June 24, 2024
As the 2024 US presidential election heats up, leading programmatic media partner MiQ has unveiled new election TV data that exposes a significant frequency imbalance in political advertising: 20 per cent of households received over 80 per cent of ad impressions on both CTV and linear TV, highlighting the urgent need for political advertisers to reassess their media buying strategies.
Spanning 100 million CTV and 288 million linear TV impressions across 9.2 million devices between January 1st 2024 and May 29th 2024, MiQ’s analysis shows striking disparities across both channels:
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On CTV, 80 per cent of targeted households received only 19 per cent of tracked impressions at an average frequency of 4.5x, while the remaining 20 per cent of households were inundated with 81 per cent of impressions at an alarming average frequency of 77.
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On linear TV, 80 per cent of households accounted for only 20 per cent of tracked impressions at an average frequency of 18x, with the top 20 per cent of households receiving 80 per cent of impressions at an astonishing average frequency of 301
“The long-standing perception has been that shifting ad spend from linear TV to CTV would help flatten the frequency curve,” said Jesse Contario, MiQ’s RVP of Political. “However, our analysis clearly demonstrates that the frequency skew on CTV is just as problematic as it is on linear TV today. Simply buying streaming does not inherently solve the challenge; how you buy streaming is what matters most.”
These insights build upon MiQ’s recent report, The Political Media Remix 2.0: Making Your Political TV Buys Smarter. With households now accessing an average of seven streaming services and audience overlap reaching up to 64 per cent across major CTV apps, the report further spotlights the growing fragmentation of the video landscape, the implications of the frequency skew on CTV as well as linear, and the critical need for data-driven, cross-platform strategies as well as actionable ways to effectively manage reach, optimise TV buys, and minimise ad waste.
“Whether for city council or for POTUS, in high-pressure elections, every vote matters and political advertisers can’t afford to squander opportunities,” added Contario. “Partnering with experts like MiQ who not only offer access to impactful inventory but also advanced data and optimisation tools is paramount. This empowers campaigns to engage the right voters at the household level with optimal frequency across linear and CTV – a crucial capability that can tip the scales between victory and defeat, particularly in an election year where several contests are yet again projected to be won or lost by less than 1 per cent of the vote.”
MiQ’s political advertising solutions harness a diversified TV data spine, encompassing ACR data from over 50 million households and 70 million devices. Its agnostic tools are helping 250+ of the top political advertisers pinpoint and engage voters often missed by conventional linear and CTV buys. The company’s programmatic approach recently empowered a major campaign to connect with nearly 30,000 previously unreached voters in a critical primary state, ultimately engaging 10 per cent of the electorate while significantly reducing wasted impressions.