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10 political personas to use in political digital marketing campaigns

Published: April 23, 2024 by Experian Marketing Services

Political audiences to include in your political campaign strategy

In this article…

In this article…

In the American political landscape, understanding the intricacies of voters’ attitudes and behaviors has never been more crucial. With the 2024 election season on the horizon, the challenge lies in moving beyond broad categorizations like “Democrat,” “Republican,” or “Independent.” Voters seek candidates who resonate with their beliefs and values.

To meet this challenge, Experian has created political personas that offer a nuanced understanding of American voters. In this blog post, we’ll explore how these Experian audiences can help you tailor your engagement strategies for the upcoming election cycle.

Before we dive into our political personas, let’s break down what political campaign marketing is and six benefits of using digital marketing in political campaigns.

What is political campaign marketing?

Political campaign marketing is the strategic engine that drives candidates toward electoral success. It involves crafting and sending out tailored messages to effectively reach constituents to inform them about candidates’ stances on key issues. Think of it as the art of narrative construction, using various communication channels—from traditional media to digital platforms—to engage and mobilize supporters. In an era marked by information saturation, effective campaign marketing serves to cut through the noise to deliver compelling messages that inform, inspire, and spur action.

Benefits of digital marketing in political campaigns

As the 2024 election approaches, using digital marketing in political campaigns becomes paramount to effectively reach and influence voters where they spend a significant portion of their time—online.

Kamala Harris’s entry into the race has shifted spending priorities, particularly in critical states such as Ohio, where the Senate race has already attracted $300 million in ad spending. Political ad spend on connected TV (CTV) is expected to rise significantly, from 2.7% in 2020 to 12.8% this year. The Harris campaign is spearheading this trend, dedicating $200 million to digital ads, with a substantial portion directed toward streaming platforms.

Embracing digital marketing can help campaigns effectively shape opinions and mobilize support. Here are five key benefits of integrating digital marketing strategies into political campaigns:

  1. Unparalleled reach with targeted advertising: A well-connected digital platform partner can help you reach your target audiences across the ecosystem – from social to the open web.
  2. Optimization flexibility: Digital marketing allows for quick adjustments in response to real-time data and evolving circumstances.
  3. Interactive engagement: The interactive nature of digital channels creates meaningful engagement and dialogue between candidates and voters, building connections and community.
  4. Insights: Robust analytics provide valuable insights into audience behavior and preferences, facilitating continuous optimization and refinement of outreach efforts.
  5. Amplified messaging: Through digital marketing, political campaigns can amplify their message, mobilize support, and forge deeper connections with voters.

Data serves as the foundation for these benefits. Interactivity hinges on data to deliver the right message and creative for engagement. Insights are gained through pre-campaign research, analyzing audience attributes to grasp their interests and behaviors. Flexibility relies on real-time campaign data, a unique advantage in digital marketing.

In an era where audiences are available readily on most major activation platforms, advertisers need to understand how audiences are built to be privacy conscious and consistent in a cookieless environment.

Experian’s political personas

Digital marketing in political campaigns is crucial to reach and influence voters online. Integrating Experian’s political personas into your political campaign strategy can help you grasp the complexities of today’s American voter landscape and craft tailored engagement strategies. These personas offer invaluable insights into voter viewpoints on key political issues, enriching digital marketing efforts and empowering campaigns to connect with constituents more effectively.

Experian has created 10 political personas to help you better understand today’s American voter so you can reach consumers based on their viewpoints into key political issues.

Our political personas group voters along the political spectrum from most “committed” on the ends of the spectrum.

The spectrum of Experian's 10 political personas

Let’s walk through how we define each persona starting from the most “committed” personas on the ends of the spectrum.

Committed Democrats

This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “very liberal” outlook on political issues. They have strong liberal opinions on various topics including key issues and the economy and are very involved in their communities.

Committed Republicans

This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “very conservative” outlook on political issues. They are well-informed, community-minded individuals with strong opinions that reflect their conservatism. They have very conservative attitudes regarding key social issues.

Moderate Democrats

This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “somewhat liberal” outlook on political issues.

Moderate Republicans

This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “somewhat conservative” outlook on political issues.

Political Leaning Liberals

This audience contains consumers who are likely to have strong opinions on key issues that may not align with the traditional Democrat point of view.

Political Leaning Conservatives

This audience contains consumers who are likely on-the-fence on traditional Republican points of view on key issues.

Liberal Leaning Independents

This audience contains consumers who are registered independents and who are likely to have a “middle of the road” outlook on political issues while tending to lean more liberal.

Conservative Leaning Independents

This audience contains consumers who are likely registered independents and likely have a “middle-of-the-road” outlook on political issues while tending to lean more conservative.

Political Unregistered Liberal Leaning

This audience contains consumers who are not likely to have aligned with a specific party, but have a more liberal attitude. They are well-informed and are aware of important political issues. They frequently align with but are not necessarily completely aligned with liberal points of view.

Political Unregistered Conservative Leaning

This audience contains consumers who are not likely to have aligned with a specific party, but have a more conservative attitude. They are well-informed and are aware of important political issues. They frequently align with but are not necessarily completely aligned with conservative points of view.

These 10 personas can help you better understand who the American voter is, but when combined with our 200 politically relevant audiences, such as watches political TV, donations to charitable causes, engagement channel preferences, hobbies, and more, the ability to study and improve engagement for each persona is considerably magnified.

How to combine our political personas with other audiences

If you’re a political candidate looking to reach an important population, Experian audiences are available on-the-shelf of major platforms. For example, if you want to reach unregistered voters and independent voters to influence green initiatives within your community, you can focus on unregistered and moderate personas in the area and combine that with audiences interested in green initiatives, like our GreenAware segments – which predict a consumer’s attitude and point of view on environmental issues.

You can use our “Political Unregistered Liberal Leaning”, “Liberal Leaning Independents,” and GreenAware “Think Greens” audience segments to reach constituents who are likely to be most interested in your message.

To reach voters based on their regional voting patterns, you can use our new battleground counties and district audiences:

  • Affiliation Switcher Counties
  • Battleground Counties
  • House Battleground Districts
  • Democrat Counties
  • Republican Counties
  • Independent Counties

Add Experian’s audiences to your 2024 election strategy

Political advertising spend is projected to surpass $12 billlion in the 2024 election cycle, generating the largest amount of voter outreach in the history of American elections. Experian’s audiences are available on major activation platforms allowing you to strategically reach constituents who would be most impacted and interested in your initiatives.

As we approach a cookieless future, Experian’s political personas are cookie resilient. Our data is rooted in both offline and online data that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies. The personas do not rely on an individual’s browsing behavior. Experian can help our partners understand and engage with these political audiences.

Over 200 politically relevant Experian audiences are available for activation on-the-shelf of the leading TV, demand, and supply platforms. Here are the platforms where you can find our political audiences:

  • ArcSpan
  • Audigent
  • Cadent
  • Eyeota
  • Magnite
  • Microsoft
  • Nexxen
  • Pandora
  • Permutive
  • Samsung Ads
  • The Trade Desk
  • Verizon Media
  • Viant
  • Videoamp
  • Yieldmo

Can’t find the audience you’re looking for or need a custom audience? Connect with our audience team for more information.


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A deep dive with an Experian partner, Madhive

Identity-led local advertising that works Local advertisers run on tight budgets, short timelines, and constant pressure to prove what works. Every dollar must count. In this Ask the Expert session, Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist at Madhive, joins Ali Mack, VP of AdTech Sales at Experian, to discuss how the Maverick AI platform helps local advertisers make confident decisions, act on clear recommendations, and see outcomes they can stand behind. Why local campaigns demand accuracy, and how to deliver it Local teams juggle multiple channels, changing budgets, and heavy performance expectations. To stay competitive, local teams need quick answers to three critical questions: Which households are most valuable to reach? Which channels work best in their market? Are campaigns on on track, day by day? Delivering that level of accuracy means working from a single, trusted view of households, channels, and performance, powered by clean, connected, and continuously updated data. “When you think about local, these aren’t enormous budgets. These businesses depend on success from day one and are still finding their footing. There’s a wealth of nuanced information we need to hear from advertisers to ensure their campaigns succeed, and a wealth of insights we need to deliver back. It’s a real-time matching problem at scale to make sure everything runs profitably for our customers.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist Why Experian data is the foundation of local planning Data is the foundation of effective local advertising, but not all data is created equal. For local advertisers, the real advantage comes from high-quality, actionable data that pinpoints likely customers and reduces wasted spend. Experian Marketing Data provides the identity and insights spine that helps local advertisers: Identify the right households in each market Build consistent, people-based audiences across partners Activate with confidence and measure outcomes on the same foundation Madhive’s data marketplace builds on this identity layer, curating trusted data sets that advertisers can integrate directly into planning and activation. “We’re focused on creating perfect matches between businesses and consumers. The right data is critical, which is why we started the data marketplace. It’s a curated, opinionated take on the best data to drive outcomes for the companies that depend on us.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist Madhive's Maverick AI at the core of local advertising Madhive’s Maverick AI is the AI-powered operating system for local media. Built as a foundational layer behind Madhive’s entire workflow, Maverick AI connects the dots across planning, targeting, reporting, and storytelling. Its purpose is simple yet transformative: turn fragmented data and advertiser inputs into actionable insights at scale. What makes Maverick AI different? AI-driven intelligence It doesn’t just automate tasks; it analyzes signals, connects context across markets, and refines strategies as campaigns progress. Data connectivity Maverick AI integrates diverse data sources, including Experian’s trusted identity data, so local advertisers can target households with accuracy and measure outcomes confidently. Interactive transparency Beyond dashboards, Maverick AI works alongside sellers and advertisers, surfacing insights, flagging missing inputs, and turning transparency into clear next steps. Adaptability From structured KPIs to unstructured signals like lists of recent in-store buyers or priority ZIP codes, Maverick AI uses every clue to inform smarter, faster decisions. "Maverick AI exists to connect local advertisers with data like Experian’s. Its ability to collaborate and tell stories back to advertisers is one of its greatest strengths.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist How Maverick AI and Experian Marketing Data turn transparency into results Maverick AI turns performance transparency into aligned plans and faster optimizations for local advertisers and agencies. Paired with Experian’s identity data, advertisers get an accurate, household-level view of real people in real locations. That lets them build consistent local audiences, reach those audiences across connected television (CTV), social, and the open web, and confidently tie ad exposure back to outcomes that matter in each market. “Maverick AI is the foundational layer behind all our operations – targeting, reporting, and storytelling. It connects data across organizations and advertisers, including trusted data sources like Experian. AI works tirelessly to pick up context, connect the dots, and deliver great results end-to-end for our customers.”Aaron Brown, Chief Scientist Your next local campaign starts with Madhive and Experian Local advertising performance starts with a trusted identity foundation. With Experian data and Madhive’s Maverick AI platform, local advertisers can define the right households once, activate their campaigns across CTV and digital channels, and measure outcomes with confidence. Many brands are increasing investment in AI-powered planning to cut waste and grow on-target reach. Let’s work together to make your next campaign a success. Let's solve your local advertising challenges today About our experts Aaron Brown Chief Scientist, Madhive Aaron Brown is Chief Scientist at Madhive, where he leads Mad Labs, the company’s advanced innovation division. With a background spanning mathematics, computer science, and law, Aaron specializes in applying complex technical and theoretical breakthroughs to real-world business challenges. Before joining Madhive, he worked at the machine learning startup Intelligent Life. A graduate of Boston University with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, he also holds a J.D. from the University of Southern Queensland and lives in New York City. Ali Mack VP of AdTech Sales, Experian Ali Mack leads Experian’s AdTech business, overseeing global revenue across the company’s expansive tech and media portfolio. With over a decade of experience in digital and TV advertising, Ali drives strategic growth by aligning sales, customer success, and solutions teams to deliver impactful outcomes for clients and partners.   She has successfully guided teams through two major acquisitions, integrating sales organizations and product portfolios into unified go-to-market strategies. Under her leadership, Experian has consistently exceeded revenue targets while fostering collaborative, results-driven teams and mentoring emerging leaders. Working closely with finance, product, and marketing, Ali develops strategies that support a diverse ecosystem of publishers, brands, and technology partners, positioning Experian at the forefront of data-driven advertising and identity resolution.  FAQs What makes local advertising so challenging? Local advertisers face tight budgets, short timelines, and high pressure for results. They must reach the right households, tailor messaging, and optimize campaigns across zip codes. Experian’s data solutions and Madhive’s Maverick AI platform help overcome challenges like location targeting and data activation without losing signal. How does Madhive’s Maverick AI platform help advertisers achieve better results? Madhive’s Maverick AI platform centralizes operations, targeting, and reporting while enabling granular local planning at scale. It integrates Experian’s data to target households accurately, optimize campaigns across markets, and deliver measurable results, even for advertisers with limited budgets. How do Experian and Madhive foster collaboration in local advertising? Madhive’s Maverick AI platform provides transparency and clear recommendations, aligning advertisers on goals. Experian’s data solutions further enhance this process by providing a unified view of audience behavior, ensuring campaigns remain cohesive and effective across all channels. Latest posts

Dec 05,2025 by Experian Marketing Services

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