Why P2P Texting is the Secret Weapon You Can’t Afford to Overlook

Discover how P2P texting can complement or replace key campaign tactics to maximize voter reach per dollar spent in the final weeks before Election Day.

As we move into the final weeks before Election Day, campaigns everywhere are sharpening their focus. With resources finite and the pressure mounting, every dollar must count. Countless articles are circulating right now, advising campaigns on how to best allocate those funds, but there's a glaring omission in many of these discussions: Peer-to-peer (P2P) texting.

Take, for example, Campaigns & Elections’ recent article on allocating digital ad dollars. It does an excellent job of outlining key channels for political outreach. However, many of these channels, like linear TV, CTV, and programmatic networks are either maxed out in inventory or the inventory that is left is too expensive for many campaigns. 

Fortunately, P2P texting isn’t subject to these same constraints. In fact, it can work alongside these digital ad channels to help you reach voters in immediate, cost-effective, and highly personalized ways.

We’ll walk you through how texting can complement or supplement each of the major campaign tactics suggested by C&E, helping you maximize your voter engagement down the stretch.

Linear TV and CTV Ads: High-Cost, Low Availability

It’s no secret that television ads (whether traditional linear TV or CTV) are a staple of many campaigns. The visual and emotional impact of TV ads can be powerful, but they come with two big limitations: price and availability. Ad inventory gets tighter in the final weeks before Election Day, which spikes costs and leaves many campaigns priced out of the game.

Where P2P Texting Fits In:

If you have the resources for TV AND texting, you can extend the life and impact of your TV ads cost-effectively by sending follow-up messages or reinforcing the messages they've seen on TV. Imagine your campaign runs a powerful TV ad on healthcare or local issues. Shortly afterward, a well-timed text could remind voters of that message, adding a personal touch by asking for their thoughts or directing them to more information.

If TV is out of the budget, no worries. You can send made-for-TV quality videos embedded directly in text messages with Enhanced Video Texting. While TV captures broad awareness, video texting allows you to target voters on a more personal level, especially if your data can facilitate hyper-targeting (if it can’t, let us know and we can help). It’s also instant, putting you in direct contact with voters without fighting for inventory or paying inflated ad rates.

Digital Display Ads: Competitive and Broad-Reach

Like TV, digital display ads hosted on popular websites are great for broad visibility. However, they are also increasingly competitive and costly as Election Day and Black Friday nears (yes, Black Friday advertising has already started). An additional problem faced by display ads is that they often can't create meaningful engagement by themselves, and they have to fight for attention as voters get bombarded with ads from every other site attempting to follow them around the internet to capture their attention.  

Where P2P Texting Fits In:

Unlike digital display ad campaigns, where it can take weeks to test the effectiveness of creative, texting campaigns receive almost instantaneous results. This makes texting the perfect testing ground for digital ad creative and call-to-action combos. You can A/B test different ad creatives via MMS messages, paired with different CTAs and click through link tracking to small contact lists to see what resonates with your audience. Then, you can launch the creative and CTA combo that performs the best to ensure your digital display campaign converts at a high level.

Suppose you are a smaller campaign without the time or resources to launch an effective digital display campaign. In that case, texting is a much lower barrier to entry and a cost-effective alternative. Digital ads struggle to capture attention, but texting commands attention and converts that attention into action with a 95%+ open rate.

Search Ads: Targeted but Limited in Scale

Search ads (like Google Ads) are a targeted way to reach engaged voters who are actively searching for information and answers. However, search ads tend to be limited in scale and reach, especially considering that many keywords that convert leads into supporters, volunteers, or donors tend to have low search volume or are highly competitive with other organizations that may have extensive SEO resources.

Where P2P Texting Fits In:

Texting can facilitate highly personalized follow-up for those who engage with your search ads. You can text voters who have expressed interest in your campaign via engagement with a search ad to reinforce their decision to support your candidate.  For instance, after someone clicks on a search ad about a critical issue like taxes or jobs and converts on your website, sending a timely text message can provide them with deeper information or direct them to a more targeted call-to-action to encourage another successful conversion.

In addition, the direct connection achievable by texting allows you to reach into areas where search ads may not have penetrated effectively, such as rural or older demographics who might be harder to reach online but still have access to cell service.

Social Media Ads: Effective but Saturated 

There's no denying that social media ads can be effective, but are they worth the rising costs? For some campaigns, the answer might be no. Andrew Mullins, VP of advertising and data operations at IMGE, pointed out in the C&E article mentioned in the intro that Meta in particular is seeing a sharp rise, commenting:

“CPMs for Facebook display ads have skyrocketed to $60 in some areas, making it an increasingly inefficient platform for late-cycle advertising.”

The additional challenge is that the landscape has become saturated, and the algorithms are constantly shifting, making it difficult to cut through the noise without spending heavily. Not to mention, social media has proven to be unreliable around elections in recent years, with extensive ad bans enacted by most major players to curb "disinformation."

Where P2P Texting Fits In:

We have found that social media ad campaigns translate remarkably well to texting in our own marketing to our clients, offering multiple channels to reiterate an essential message. 

Imagine a voter watching your campaign's video on Instagram about local education initiatives. A few hours later, they receive a personalized text message inquiring about their interest and inviting them to learn more or to a local meetup centered around the initiative. This one-two punch keeps your campaign top-of-mind, ensuring voters don't just scroll past your ads - they engage and act on them.

Want to skip social media altogether? We don't blame you. Texting can break through the clutter of social media by providing a direct line to voters.

Email Campaigns: Personalized but Low Open & Conversion Rates

Email has proven to be a valuable tool for fundraising and long-form communication, but it has two well-known limitations: open rates and click through rates. Even the best email campaigns can go unread or unopened, especially as inboxes overflow during election season. 

An added challenge stems from email providers adding new required authentications to crack down on spam, which is great for rebuilding the trust of the end recipient, but an added hurdle for anyone who is new to mass-emailing. Eric Wilson does a great job outlining how to get started with authentication in this Campaign Trend article (spoiler - it's a very technical and confusing process).

Where P2P Texting Fits In:

After sending an important email, following up with a text message can dramatically improve your results. You can remind voters about your email, summarize the key points, and even ask them to take action directly via text (such as donating or attending an event). This combination ensures that your longer-form email content is seen and acted upon, improving your campaign’s overall effectiveness.

This style of follow-up works because texting has higher open and response rates than email, hands down. If you want that long-form content to ditch email altogether, our MMS texting supports up to 2000 characters in a single message.

Ground Game: Door-to-Door + P2P Texting = A Winning Strategy

There’s nothing like face-to-face engagement when it comes to energizing your base. However, door-knocking teams can only cover so much ground, especially in larger or more spread-out districts.

Where P2P Texting Fits In:

Texting can complement your door-to-door efforts by providing an area notice that your campaign will be there AND instant follow-ups after, thanking voters for their time and sending a summary of your message. By combining both strategies, you create a personal, persistent presence with voters in a way that builds trust and rapport. A client recently used texting to mobilize volunteers for their Super Saturday canvassing event, allowing them to knock 3000 doors in one day!

If a lack of volunteers is an issue, texting allows your campaign to scale up its personal outreach. Your team can only knock on so many doors daily, but a single volunteer can send hundreds of texts in a few hours. 

The Bottom Line: You Can’t Afford to Leave P2P Texting Out of Your Strategy

While TV, digital ads, and ground efforts remain critical, peer-to-peer texting should no longer be seen as just a "nice-to-have" tactic - it’s an essential component of any winning strategy. The flexibility, cost-efficiency, and immediate impact of P2P texting make it the perfect complement or supplement to your campaign’s digital outreach.

As you finalize your campaign's plan for the final stretch, don't let P2P texting be the channel you overlook. It is the missing link you need to turn undecided voters into vocal supporters, and supporters into voters on Election Day.

If you have any questions about how to implement texting into your current strategy,  get in touch with our team at (833) 530-4400 or sales@rumbleup.com.