Internet Weirdos on the Right
Doomscroll 2.4.2024
Happy Sunday and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll! Welcome to February. Think about this: If you got pregnant right now you could grow and birth a baby and it STILL wouldn’t be Election Day yet. Yesssssssss. To get more witty takes like that one delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday, subscribe now. 1-800-SUBSCRIBE.
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about how to grow a social media following. In response to whether or not it’s necessary for campaigns to spend money to get a healthy following, ⅔ of you said “it depends.” VERY HELPFUL, PEOPLE.
As far as the best methods to grow organically, here’s what a few of you said:
You have to be willing to be controversial & edgy. The sad truth is unless your candidate is a bomb throwing maniac, you’re not going to build a huge organic following. Even Presidentals. There’s a reason Ronnie Jackson & MTG would get more engagement on their posts than just about every Pence, Scott, and DeSantis post.
Hard hitting graphics & sharing in groups.
Post Instagram reels daily. That's where the majority of organic follows come from now.
Post a mixture of content. I spent a lot of time growing an account that hadn't been used since 2016 in the 2022 cycle. It was important for our team to remind folks our candidate was a normal human as well as remind them we had a competitive race and what was at stake. So post the photo or video of them eating a snack at the fair!
Thoughts instead of a direct answer:
-Paying for followers is a waste of time and finite resources during announcement week. You paid for 10k followers. Yay! But your FB posts are still averaging 1-3 likes. Average voters notice that more than follower counts. ^The better route: set aside $100-250 per month to boost posts for engagements instead of spending big on ads begging people to follow you.
-I’ve had clients quadruple their IG following off one Reel that happened to get a ton of views. Quality reels — using the right dimensions! — matter.
-We can’t control this, but it’s great having a candidate who’s either already engaged politically (not necessarily in office), active in their community, or has friends willing to share the content from day one. ^That’s an obvious comment, but the number of times I’ve had to explain it to first-time candidates who have none of the above is still maddening.
In response to the best way to get followers with paid advertising, many of you suggested page follower campaigns. I’ve written before about my views on paying for followers, but I get it: sometimes the candidate just wants to see a high number. Sometimes you just gotta give it him/her. Here are some of your responses:
FB page likes ads are great. Spend $500 a month and you can get a pretty solid return on new page likes. I always want to look at these things are a slow burn. I worked for someone who really cared about the numbers of followers so investing a little bit of cash on the front end of the campaign to grow their FB presence was a worthwhile investment.
Facebook now has an ad unit to invite people to join your group. Instead of focusing on growing your page's following, create a group since the algorithm will give group posts better reach than page posts.
Simpler the better. Want to stop illegal immigration? Click on my page & follow me to see how, etc.
The center of right political liaisons at X are fantastic. Can’t speak more highly of them
This week’s One Question is about fundraising. More or less. The whole world found out this week that the RNC had a shit-tastic 2023 in terms of online fundraising. See it for yourself here. So here’s my one question: What do you attribute this to? Are you worried? Pissed off? Frustrated about what this means for 2024? Feel free to vent away! Ronna will never know.
Who’s Doing What
—Rightwing internet whacko stuff
I absolutely loathe the fact that I'm writing about this. Please understand that. HOWEVER, I think the whacko Taylor-Travis conspiracy theory stuff is worth dissecting within the context of digital campaigning. Why? Because those of us who actually work to elect Republicans for a living must do it against the backdrop of a conservative activist “movement” that is getting crazier, nuttier, and more annoying by the day. (Yes, I said it). And that’s only Part 1 of my hot take. Part 2 is this: They’re actually making our job harder.
The GOP consultant/operative class - or whatever you want to call it - gets a lot of flack from the activist types for being too “establishment.” Too anti-Trump. Too whatever. [insert eye roll] In reality, those of us who do politics for a living just want to win, for the most part, regardless of the candidate. It’s a numbers game for us: number of Dem ballots cast vs. number of Republican ballots cast. Yes, we care about conservative principles (you have to if you’re going to devote your life to this stuff), but there’s an extra layer of understanding that you can’t enact conservative principles if you’re not actually governing. Losing at the ballot box neither “owns the Libs” nor advances conservative governance. Kari Lake fans can claim election interference all they want and maybe they have some valid points. It still doesn’t change the fact that Katie Hobbs is governor of Arizona. And here’s why I think this is relevant to us digital folks: our job is to utilize the internet to sell the GOP message and win voters. Part of that equation is online fundraising. My fear is that the weirdos on the right who are obsessed with a Taylor-Travis psyop theory are turning off the very people we’re trying to recruit into our donor pool. The people who aren’t turned off by it are already small-dollar donors and they’re only giving to one person: Trump. They’re not giving to the NRSC or the RGA or Tim Sheehy or Sam Brown or Bernie Moreno or Mazi Pilip or any of the other entities who actually have elections to win.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The GOP struggles with a branding problem, and as digital strategists, we can only work with what we’re given. And while I certainly don’t blame the party itself for the Benny Johnsons, Jack Posobiecs, and Laura Loomers of the world, it just underscores the need for us to get our messaging house in order. If the broader electorate associates Republicans with being anti-Taylor Swift and pro-jailing women who get abortions, there’s not much even the best fundraising email can do about that. We want to raise money because we want to win. It’s that simple. And it sucks when we’re being sabotaged by our own “side.”
What’s the solution? Don’t know. Sorry! Perhaps this rant was a little too self-indulgent, but I’m putting it out there as food for thought nonetheless. If you disagree, or have a different POV, let me know. We’ll keep this convo going.
P.S. I also recommend Erick Erickson’s rant about this as well. He’s recently popped onto my radar as a thoughtful conservative type worth listening to.
—Speaking of fundraising…
I found this interesting:
Some will extrapolate from this that big news leads to big fundraising. I say: true, but take it a step further. PLANNING leads to big fundraising. Team Trump had to have known these events were on the calendar and they planned accordingly. In the world of online fundraising, magic only happens if you’re ready for it, and my guess? They 100% were.
—Nancy, Nancy, Nancy
I have thoughts about Nancy Mace, none of which are suitable Doomscroll material. Except for this: A few days ago, home girl started posting a bunch of fundraising videos on Twitter (and perhaps other places), to capitalize off news that she was gaining yet another primary challenger.
Now, I thought these were interesting for a couple reasons, the main one being that the challenger she’s referencing (Catherine Templeton) hasn’t even announced or filed to run yet. At the time these videos were posted, it was mainly just a bunch of speculation. And, I don’t remember seeing any videos when news broke that her former chief of staff was planning to run against her. Also, as someone who pays pretty close attention to South Carolina politics, I didn’t even know Templeton was eyeing a run for this seat until I saw these videos, which I find a little comical. Why elevate your opponent before she’s even in the race??
That said, they’re good videos just from a creative/digital perspective. This is going to be a hotly-contested primary fight - one that I will enjoy watching. If Push is still doing Mace’s digital (I assume they are), then I think we can expect to see a lot more surprises from Camp Mace over the next several months.
P.S. One of the donation links used in her posts directs to a WinRed page that says “together, we will take back the House!” Am I missing something or do Republicans not already have the majority in the House? #Askingforafriend #ThatfriendisNancyMace
Merch Shout-Out
The other day I wandered into Robert Kennedy Jr.’s merch store (Don’t ask). WOWOWOW I don’t think I’ve ever seen more candidate merch in one place. The sheer volume of merch available requires me to give Mr. Kennedy a shout-out this week. Can’t help it.
HOWEVER, there is also a “no shirt, no shoes, no secret service” shirt one can purchase that seems to depict RFK sitting in an airport shoeless. Like, an airport. Without shoes on. His bare feet touching the airport floor. In my book, that immediately disqualifies someone from the presidency. Just saying. See for yourself.
2024 Roundup
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
Trump spent $50 million on legal expenses in 2023. Read more about it here.
Team Haley raised roughly $10.6 million from donors giving less than $200 last year. Read more about that here, as well.
Adam Schiff released an ad attacking **checks notes** Republican Steve Garvey. P.S. Adam - we know what you’re doing! See it here.
The Haley campaign also trolled Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to South Carolina. See what they did here.
Who’s Spending Where
From January 25-31, the top conservative spender on Facebook ads was Liberty Defend Group, which spent about $126,000 on a bunch of random MAGA content. Americans for Prosperity spent $95,000 on lead-gen ads mostly centered around health care costs. AIPAC came in third place with $82,000 in ad spend, while Proud Patriots is in fourth place with around $79,000. Rounding out the top five is Newsmax, which spent about $71,000 to drive traffic and new subscriptions. Noticeably absent from this week’s top 5: AFP Action. Wonder what it means!
On Google during that same time period, American Action Network was the top conservative spender, spending about $62,000 on ads high-fiving a handful of GOP members of Congress for “fighting for America” and working to secure the border. Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee came in second place with $47,000 in ad spend, while SFA Inc. is in third place with $38,000. Congressional Leadership Fund spent about $36,000 on a bunch of banner ads with Speaker Johnson and some video ads hitting Tom Suozzi in New York. Coming in fifth place is Prager University Foundation with about $28,000 in ad spend.
P2P
Industry Watch
Two things that caught my eye this week. First, this Campaigns and Elections piece about what’s overrated for 2024 is a must-read.
Second, could horizontal video be making a comeback?? See Social Media Today for all you skeptics:
The platform that popularized full-screen vertical videos is now seemingly pushing some creators towards horizontally shot content instead, according to screenshots posted by some users.
As you can see in this example, posted by Jules Terpak (and shared by Matt Navarra), TikTok is offering some creators “increased views” on content shot in landscape format.
As per TikTok:
“Landscape videos, where the width is greater than the height and are over 1 minute in length, are the only ones eligible to receive increased views.”
Any videos that meet the stated requirements will be boosted in the app for 72 hours, which could be a significant posting incentive for TikTok creators seeking more exposure in the app.
The Grapevine
Here’s something you don’t see everyday: Apparently The Trade Desk went into a meeting with the NRSC recently and pretty much tried to sell the committee on ditching their digital vendors and using TTD’s fully-managed service to do all their digital ad-buying this year at a 10% discount. What the WHAT?!? I know - that’s what I thought, too. If The Trade Desk is pitching this to the NRSC, who else are they offering the deal to? And why are they trying to pick fights with the digital vendors? Seems a little short-sighted to me… (thanks to a loyal reader for the tip)
I highly recommend everyone listen to the latest episode of Wesley Donehue’s podcast, Campaign War Stories, in which he sits down with TAG’s Jon Adams. They spend a lot of time talking about Jon’s experience starting TAG, but the real meat, in my opinion, comes around 19 minutes in when the boys start their struggle session about the current state of the political digital industry. Everything they say about competing for OTT buys and the problems with Republican online fundraising are spot-on, IMO. Jon Adams and Wesley Donehue: It’s the mind-meld we never knew we needed.
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Fav way to use old bananas? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
This week we found out that pro-Biden Super PAC, Future Forward, has reserved a “historic” $250 million in TV and digital advertising in key battleground states, to run from the DNC convention to Election Day. The news got a lot of traction this week, partly because anytime Democrats do anything *innovative* it makes national news. But in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, it IS apparently the “largest single purchase of political advertising by an outside group in campaign history.” Ok then. In fairness, the left will likely need a ton of ad time if they’re going to convince voters to elect a very, very old person with a very visible declining mental capacity.
One thing I will call out is the breakdown in spending: of the $250 million reservation, $110 million is going to digital and streaming platforms. Of that, $35 million will be on YouTube, “with more on other streaming platforms including Hulu, Roku and Vevo, plus the streaming services of the Spanish-language giants Telemundo and Univision.” Smart. Very smart.
I look forward to reading similar news regarding RNC reservations.
From the other side of the tracks:
Per Marketing Brew, Oreo is returning to the Super Bowl commercial dance after an 11-year hiatus. And, they’re bringing a new “Twist on It” ad that features a bunch of characters twisting an oreo to make important life decisions. See it here.
I like it. I also can’t wait to see who spoofs this first in the political world. Just think about it. Biden or Trump? Twist on it!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!