Frequency Imbalance Plagues Political Advertisers Across Both CTV & Linear TV, MiQ Analysis Finds

 New data reveals CTV suffers the same frequency skew as linear, with 20% of households reviewing over 80% of ads, underscoring the need for a more strategic approach

As the 2024 presidential election heats up, leading programmatic media partner MiQ has unveiled new election TV data that exposes a significant frequency imbalance in political advertising: 20% of households received over 80% of ad impressions on both CTV and linear TV, highlighting the urgent need for political advertisers to reassess their media buying strategies.

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(Graphic: Business Wire)

Spanning 100 million CTV and 288 million linear TV impressions across 9.2 million devices between January 1, 2024 and May 29, 2024, MiQ’s analysis shows striking disparities across both channels:

• On CTV, 80% of targeted households received only 19% of tracked impressions at an average frequency of 4.5x, while the remaining 20% of households were inundated with 81% of impressions at an alarming average frequency of 77.
• On linear TV, 80% of households accounted for only 20% of tracked impressions at an average frequency of 18x, with the top 20% of households receiving 80% of impressions at an astonishing average frequency of 301

"The long-standing perception has been that shifting ad spend from linear TV to CTV would help flatten the frequency curve," said Jesse Contario, MiQ’s RVP of Political. "However, our analysis clearly demonstrates that the frequency skew on CTV is just as problematic as it is on linear TV today. Simply buying streaming does not inherently solve the challenge; how you buy streaming is what matters most.”

These insights build upon MiQ's recent report, “The Political Media Remix 2.0: Making Your Political TV Buys Smarter.” With households now accessing an average of seven streaming services and audience overlap reaching up to 64% across major CTV apps, the report further spotlights the growing fragmentation of the video landscape, the implications of the frequency skew on CTV as well as linear, and the critical need for data-driven, cross-platform strategies as well as actionable ways to effectively manage reach, optimize TV buys, and minimize ad waste.

"Whether for city council or for POTUS, in high-pressure elections, every vote matters and political advertisers can’t afford to squander opportunities,” added Contario. “Partnering with experts like MiQ who not only offer access to impactful inventory but also advanced data and optimization tools is paramount. This empowers campaigns to engage the right voters at the household level with optimal frequency across linear and CTV – a crucial capability that can tip the scales between victory and defeat, particularly in an election year where several contests are yet again projected to be won or lost by less than 1% of the vote."

MiQ's political advertising solutions harness the industry's largest and most diversified TV data spine, encompassing ACR data from over 50 million households and 70 million devices. Its agnostic tools are helping 250+ of the top political advertisers pinpoint and engage voters often missed by conventional linear and CTV buys. In fact, the company's programmatic approach recently empowered a major campaign to connect with nearly 30,000 previously unreached voters in a critical primary state, ultimately engaging 10% of the electorate while significantly reducing wasted impressions.

As the 2024 election cycle intensifies, MiQ is ready to support campaigns and causes at every level. Backed by a team of experienced political experts based in Washington, D.C., MiQ combines its extensive data and advanced technology with a deep understanding of the fast-paced political landscape to successfully launch same-day campaigns up and down the ballot. To learn more about MiQ’s comprehensive political advertising solutions, visit: https://wearemiq.com/politics.

About MiQ

We’re MiQ, a programmatic media partner for marketers and agencies. We connect data from multiple sources to do interesting, exciting, business-problem-solving things for our clients. We’re experts in data science, analytics and programmatic trading, and our team of people are always ready to react and solve challenges quickly, to make sure you’re always spending your media investments on the right things in the right places.

Headquartered in London, MiQ operates globally from 18 offices located across North America, Europe, and APAC. Our company has been recognized numerous times for our stellar contributions both internally and externally including for Ad Age’s 2023 Best Places to Work Award, 2022 Inc. Power Partners list, and AdExchanger’s Programmatic Power Players list since 2020.

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