Ad it all up

When you see the word 8220;Vietnam8221;, do you think of John McCain? If you spend time searching for words like 8220;U.S. Naval Academy8221; and 8220;World War II8221;, might you be a potential McCain supporter? Eric Frenchman8217;s job is to find out. The AT038;T employee turned Republican internet strategist spends his days acquiring 8212; and discarding 8212; the internet search terms known as Google AdWords in hopes of getting as many people as possible to visit McCain8217;s website, join the mailing list, and, most important, make a donation.

AdWords are the content-based ads that appear off to the side of many web pages. To deploy their ads across the Net, businesses buy keywords from Google and determine how much they8217;re willing to pay for each click. Words can cost anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars, depending on demand, so the more you pay, the more likely your ad is to appear. For Frenchman8217;s team8230; the AdWords programme offers the dual benefit of bringing the candidate8217;s message to people who aren8217;t necessarily looking for it, as well as to those who are. The science is in figuring out the best way to match words to potential voters. To help in this endeavour, Google allows ad buyers to 8220;geotarget8221; where their ads will appear; that is, to specify that some ads only appear8230; in a certain area of the country8230; In terms of the bottom line, the ads are wildly successful. Frenchman gushes that the McCain campaign earns an estimated three or four dollars for every one that it spends on keywords.

2008 is the first year that targeted internet advertising has played such a significant role in national elections8230; Determining which words will get the job done is a bit of a guessing game 8212; 8220;8216;Vietnam8217; is a broad word, but it is so much intertwined with McCain8217;s bio that it8217;s very easy for me to have a relevant text ad.8221; In other words, because his service in Vietnam is such a big part of McCain8217;s identity as a candidate, Frenchman can gamble that searchers will understand the connection and make the click.

Frenchman says that he does not try to psychoanalyse voters, but to an extent, he8217;s counting on our subliminal associations to promote McCain8217;s message. So, is this guessing game the way of the future for online campaigning?

Excerpted from Casey Miner8217;s 8216;Googling for McCain8217; in the latest Mother Jones