Google Touts Promise of Targeted Political Ads (PBS MediaShift)

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While Google suggests that political campaigns should shift more of their funds to online advertising, Assistant Professor of Government Brendan Nyhan expects that online ads will have the same effectiveness as television ads, reports PBS MediaShift. “Online ad effects are similarly short-lived, particularly in the cluttered media environment of a general election campaign in a presidential year,” Nyhan says.

A potential benefit of online advertising, explains Nyhan, is its lower cost. “Online advertising is going to be more appealing in places where airtime is expensive. It may also be more useful for more sophisticated and well-funded campaigns that can take advantage of its targeting and customization features (not possible in TV) and can afford to buy enough online ad space to saturate targeted voters with advertising (something that is often prohibitively expensive on TV),“ he says.

Read the full story, published 7/31/12 by PBS MediaShift.

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