On online advertising component is a "must have" in all media campaigns.

It is important to allocate media dollars proportionate to where the viewers are. Voters are spending as much time online as they are watching television. Combining an online schedule with television will not only result in higher reach but will also produce higher retention levels, higher recall levels and a significantly higher brand lift. Online is an interactive tool and can get viewers to take immediate action such as "donate" or "forward to a friend".

An online schedule can also be used to test your creative messaging. By running different ads with different messages in different geographic areas targeted to different demographics you can cost-effectively test to see what messages are resonating with particular voter blocks. You can then tailor your more expensive TV and Radio production and airtime to keep the message on target.

Online video is extremely useful for zone cable buys in areas with low cable penetration. Simply run your TV spot online and reach viewers you can't reach with cable.

At CPM we spend a great deal of time with vendors staying up on all the new targeting capabilities. Here are a few of the basic targeting techniques -

Demographic – Your message can be targeted to specific demographic groups – gender, ethnicity, income, education level. You can run one creative message targeting W25-54 and another creative message targeting A55+.

Geographic – Your message can be delivered to specific geographic areas such as national, state, DMA or in some cases by county or zip codes.

Behavioral – Certain portals, platforms and networks allow behavioral targeting. These companies make assumptions based on viewers surfing habits and then anonymously profile them. For example, you can target users who frequently visit conservative or liberal sites. The same can be done to deliver issue-based constituents such as viewers who frequently visit environmental/ conservation sites or healthcare sites.

Contextual – These ads are placed on websites based on the site's content. Some example categories are Parenting & Family, Religion, Career & Education, Politics, Business & Industry, Information Technology, Finance etc. Placement can also be "keyword- driven".

Retargeting – This technique tags viewers enabling you to send them different messages on other sites after they have left your site. This can be useful for instance, if a viewer responded to an invitation ad to visit a candidate's website you don't want them to see the same ad again as they have already visited the site. Instead of seeing the invitation ad again they may see an ad to "donate now" or "volunteer". Retargeting can often lead to higher conversion rates.