The Changing Digital Ad Landscape

There's been one consistent question across the Democratic Party in the wake of the 2024 election disaster: What are we doing differently this time?

So here's our contribution to that conversation. The way we buy digital ads for awareness and persuasion is ripe for change.

For the past several cycles, Democrats and the broader progressive movement have prized non-skippable programmatic video targeted to 1:1 voter list matches as the gold standard of paid digital advertising. We'd load the voter file onto a programmatic demand-side platform (DSP), match voters' profiles against cookies stored on devices and browsers, and serve ads to them wherever they were online. The tech was so good that match rates (the share of our target universe we could find online) often topped 95%. We could reach exactly who we wanted, wherever they were: An 18-year-old first-time voter could be reading a blog about Golden Girls, but dammit, we'd still show them our ad.

Then the internet changed.

Here's how:

• 1:1 match quality and quantity are down across the board.
  • Opt-out privacy features have spread across devices, apps, and websites, dropping voter file match rates to 50–80% in many cases. Sure, you can reload your file a few times to try to improve it, but how realistic is that extra effort on November 1?
  • Match quality is slipping too. We recently ran a campaign in California where a good chunk of the "matched" list turned out to be in different countries. (Don't worry, we screened them out.)
• Bots have taken over. Estimates vary, but recent numbers suggest 25–40% of internet sites are now MFAs (Made For Advertising—sites generated by AI bots to soak up ad dollars). If your digital partner isn't talking to you about screening these out, you could be lighting money on fire.
  • HOT TIP: Ask your digital buyer for a list of domains so you can see where your ads are actually landing.
• CTV is becoming the highest-quality (and most expensive) video ad on the market. But CTV matches at the household level, not the individual level. That's a fair trade-off, though it may not be obvious to campaigners still thinking in 1:1-list terms from a few cycles ago, when CTV was less prevalent.
• CPMs for quality inventory are climbing. Between lower match rates and MFAs, you get what you pay for.

How do we adapt paid digital ads to the new internet?

Where 1:1 matched voter files used to be the gold standard, we now need a more nuanced media mix. Yes, use a matched list, but only as one part of a plan built to insert your candidate or cause into the online conversations your voters actually care about.

In practice, this means:

1. Mix your video persuasion roughly evenly across matched-list online video, CTV (household-matched, plus premium inventory targeted broadly by zip code), and YouTube.
   • YouTube is an impactful, cheap way to buy quality impressions. It's essentially the country's largest cable provider now, so run your YouTube campaigns to serve on actual TV devices and make them look like broadcast ads.
   • Meta isn't great for persuasion, but its match rates run higher, don't leave it out of a complex media plan.
2. Think harder about premium inventory. It's a great way to land quality impressions inside real conversations and dodge MFAs, but be ready to pay more for it. Find the YouTube channels, premium streaming shows, music platforms, and niche news sites or blogs where your message actually resonates with what those audiences care about.
3. Screen for bots yourself. Don't trust a platform's built-in tool to handle it – generic DSPs are built to move your ads fast, not clean. Use a tool like DoubleVerify to screen out AI-driven MFAs.
4. Be wary of vendors always offering cheap, flat CPMs. Anyone promising dirt-cheap rates in the last two weeks of an election is probably selling garbage. Quality costs more—pay it if you really care about reaching a specific audience.

That's just the start of what we're thinking about in 2026. Want to hear more?

Join Us

On Thursday, July 30 at 3pm, Electica will host a webinar to discuss the Changing Digital Ad Landscape.

We will feature our CEO, who has led digital ad-buying at multiple firms, to discuss the changing landscape, our Heads of Performance & Inventory discussing ways to increase your impact, and our Lead Campaign Accounts team member on ways to minimize your exposure to some of the pitfalls discussed above.

To join Electica for this important webinar that will increase your impact for your client, Register Here .

Who: Electica and Digital Advertisers

What: Webinar - The Changing Digital Ads Landscape

When: July 30 at 3:00pm ET