When Virginia passed a law that made it easier to vote absentee, no longer requiring an excuse, Honest Elections Project (HEP*) saw an opportunity. HEP sought to educate low propensity voters on this policy change and encourage them to secure their vote by requesting a mail-in ballot before the deadline in the 2021 election.
*HEP is a 501(3) nonprofit organization and all of its activities were compliant with that tax status.
How we did it
Using a universe of low-propensity voters in Virginia, we targeted them with a sequenced educational focused three-message campaign: a catchy intro to this new policy, a reminder to request their ballot, and a last-call deadline warning, all of which drove them directly to the Board of Elections website where they could request their ballot.
Our video creative saw a solid 67.15% VCR and 2.03% CTR over the lifetime of the campaign. Overall, we saw a high lifetime campaign average CTR of 15.66% on Search. In particular, the keyword "Virginia Absentee Ballot" saw an average CTR of 23.29%, as we anticipated the intent of the citizens searching that term and provided a more user-friendly result.
With our clear, direct creative and spot-on targeting, we were able to turn out a substantial portion of our digital audience to request a ballot.
WE GOT RESULTS
Over 21,000 voters who had a 0/4 and 1/4 vote history requested a ballot.
Words for the wise
You can get big results by clearly navigating users through complex processes. And you don’t need hyperbolic political language to drive engagement — target the right folks and focus on the facts to drive action.