I think it's really interesting that the Republicans seem to be latching on to search terms, whereas the Democrats seem to really be focusing on social networking approaches (as indicated by the differential in the number of friends). I wonder if this is indicative of their differing political philosophies?

Stephanie Vance
Advocacy Guru at Advocacy Associates
Advocacy Associates Blog

interesting observation on search terms vs. friends. by targeting networking sites, i have to imagine that the democrats are targeting americas youth. focusing on search terms, on the other hand, is probably an attempt at targeting an older more mature audience. what i wonder (and the bloggers here should be able to answer) is which demographic is more likely to actually vote....

end of the day though, i dont understand why either party wouldnt focus on both search AND friends. i think this election might be the first election where politicians actually "get it" and see the internet as the powerful medium that it is. based on what has been written about though, i dont think either party is quite there yet.

We found similar results looking at the Senate races in November:

http://www.rimmkaufman.com/rkgblog/2006/11/06/paid-search-advertising-in-close-2006-us-senate-races/

Curious that the campaigns are so slow to adopt search -- it so cheap and so powerful.

Looks like Googlection was too good a term to pass up. According to GoDaddy, Meagan Montisci of Hoboken, New Jersey bought the domain name today.

Megan, we hope you use it to show the world how candidates can use Google to communicate with voters. My bet is that you'll try to sell it back to us for $5,000, though. LOL.

Everyone should check out the RKG report cited above. It's a really in-depth look at the 2006 Senate candidates and the search terms they purchased.

Google AdWords Paid Search Advertising In Close 2006 US Senate Races

Unfortunately, this isn't exactly true. There definitely are other campaigns (particularly Democrats) that have purchased Google AdWords...including Barack Obama, for search terms on Clinton, and others. You probably didn't see the ads, though, because of the way Google Adwords work: The business (or campaign, in this case) sets a concrete 'budget' for their adwords, per month. Google then allots a certain number of 'impressions' (times the ad is made visible after a search is made). Each time a person clicks-through on that ad, the campaign gets dinged for a given amount (usually $.05-$.10, as you noted). As soon as the budget max is reached, though, your ad will stop appearing.

Also, unlike domain names, keywords can be used by multiple organizations at the same time and are rotated based on the amount budgeted. Basically, the ultimate form of capitalism and democracy!

Great bit of info, though. Google Adwords are so easy to use, it's likely that even smaller campaigns will pick up on this as a necessary trend for the upcoming cycle.

Thought you might be interested in this: Prompted by this posting and interest in experimenting with Google adwords, I attempted to post a Google ad for one presidential candidate with a keyword of an opponent. Simple and innocuous enough, one would think, considering that similar tactics already existed. However, a few days later I got a notification that my ad had been rejected because of content.

The claim that Google does not permit ads for sites that solicit funds seems absurd, considering almost every site out there using Google adwords is selling something. So much for that sacred 1st amendment.

Excerpt:

Hello,

Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. In reviewing your
AdWords Starter Edition account, we've found that your ad or keywords
do not meet our guidelines. Please log in to your account to see your
disapproved ad, the reason for disapproval, and editorial suggestions.
We've also included the reasons for disapproval here:

AD TEXT:

Obama: The Next President
Get on board with Obama!
Build your own Obama website now.
my.barackobama.com

Ad Status: Suspended - Pending Revision
Ad Issue(s): Unacceptable Content
~~~~~~~~~

SUGGESTIONS:
-> Content: At this time, Google policy does not permit the
advertisement of websites that contain the solicitation of funds and do
not display tax-exempt status. As noted in our advertising terms and
conditions, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when
it comes to the advertising we accept on our site.

---------------------
POLICY DEFINITIONS:

Unacceptable Content: Google believes strongly in freedom of expression
and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without
censoring search results. Please note that the decisions we make
concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver.
Please note that both your ad and keywords have been suspended at this
time.