DIGITAL ADS

Digital advertising is the most targeted and cost-effective way to reach the right voters. SpeakEasy Political is the only online advertising solution for Democratic political candidates, causes, and ballot initiatives that integrates digital media, voter data, creative, and direct mail.
While we recommend buys of $1000 or more to ensure optimal ad delivery, our minimum buy for a set of banner ads or a video ad is $500.
Yes! Many campaigns choose to upload their own creative and then leverage our data and/or media buying tools. If you have your own banners, you can upload them to the SpeakEasy website under the ‘Digital Ad’ page by selecting the red button at the bottom of the page that says ‘Upload Ad.’
Banner ads should be formatted as PNG, JPEG, or GIF files. If you have HTML5 ads, please reach out to [email protected], and we can help you place those as well. For maximum deliverability, please create as many as possible of the below ad sizes. We recommend a minimum of four of the frequently used sizes:
  • Inline rectangle: 300 x 250
  • Leaderboard: 728 x 90
  • Half-page: 300 x 600
  • Mobile: 300 x 50 or 320 x 50
  • File format for delivery: GIF, JPG, PNG
Remember: Please be sure to include a 1-pixel border around any banner ads with a white background/white background element so that they do not blend into the background of the website. Please make sure that all files are exactly the sizes above (even a 1-pixel difference will cause errors in the ad server) and labeled with the creative concept and size, for example: Education_300x250 or GOTV_728x90.
When building a digital ad on SpeakEasy, you can add in a photo or logo, and you can edit any of the text boxes to include your own text. You can also edit font, size, and text color. It is also possible to move the text boxes using the arrow buttons. Any of the graphics included in the template, including colors and buttons cannot be changed at this time. You also cannot add additional text boxes. If you would like a graphic designer to customize any of the templates, reach out to [email protected] to open a ticket. Our graphic design team can support, with additional charges of at-cost graphic design time.

Disclaimer rules and regulations vary by state. Each digital banner ad template includes a space to add a disclaimer. By default, this section will have “Your Disclaimer Here,” so don’t forget to edit it! SpeakEasy is not responsible for reviewing your banner ad for compliance with federal, state, or local laws. Please ensure that you have confirmed that your ad is in compliance before placing your order.

SpeakEasy is designed to be fully self-service. That being said, if you have any questions about how to customize the templates, please feel free to grab some time to chat with our team here.

Yes. Due to digital regulations, all banner or pre-roll ads must include a click-through URL. Due to industry-wide digital regulations, each banner ad can only click through to one URL.

Many campaigns link their digital ad either directly to the homepage of their website or to a subpage that matches the call to action in the ad. For example, if the ad says, “sign up to get involved,” you could link to your volunteer sign up page. If you don’t have a website, we have seen great success with campaigns linking to a Facebook page.

We highly recommend including at least three, and preferably all four banner sizes in your order. Running ads in all sizes will help your campaign get seen on more websites. However, if you want to exclude a banner size, you can do so on the ‘Preview’ page. Simply click on the checkmark to unselect the ads you would like to remove from your order. They will gray out.

Yes! Many SpeakEasy users choose to upload a custom voter list to our platform. Please click the “Have your own data” button on the’ Target Ads’ page to upload your list. The more data points the better, but please be sure to include: first name, last name, email and full address at minimum.

As a general rule of thumb, we ask that lists contain 5,000 or more people. This minimum helps us make sure that we’re able to deliver a meaningful campaign to your target audience. However, we know that some districts may be smaller, so we are happy to work with clients on a case-by-case basis to figure out the best targeting plan based on your goals, budgets, and flight dates. If you’d like to set up time to discuss your list with our team, feel free to book some time through this link.

Due to industry-wide privacy restrictions, we do not have visibility into how many or which individuals on your list matched. However, we are able to share how many devices and cookies we were able to match to your lists. We closely monitor metrics such as device or household reach to ensure your buy is as effective as possible.
Generally, digital match rates fall within 40-60%. Because we use cookie targeting, our matching process is to an individual, rather than to a household. This way, you can rest assured that your ad is matched to the voter on your list, rather than another member of their household. Digital match rates vary based on several factors, including the number of data points uploaded, the recency of the data, and the demographics of the district. For example, a very rural district with limited internet access may have a lower match rate than a list where residents are using the internet more frequently.
Yes! If you’d like to include a retargeting pixel on your campaign website, please reach out to [email protected]. Our team would be happy to help you with that.
Our voter data is through TargetSmart, an industry leading Democratic data firm.
No! The use of our templates or voter data is included in your purchase of a digital ad.
For the best digital performance, we typically recommend 15 or 30-second ads. As a rule of thumb, shorter videos tend to have higher video completion rates. While longer ads are great to post organically, 60-second or longer ads can be expensive to place, meaning fewer impressions and lower completion rates. For that reason, SpeakEasy is only able to accept 15 and 30-second video ads.
For a $1,000 buy, we estimate delivery of between 70,000-100,000 impressions for banner ads and 20,000-35,000 impressions for video. This estimated range scales as you increase your buy.
SpeakEasy Political can only serve 15 or 30s video ads that meet the below specifications.

Resolution: 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Constant Bitrate: 15-30 Mbps
File Formats: QuickTime movie (.mov) or MPEG-4 (.mp4) format only

If you have any questions about how to edit your video to meet these requirements, please contact your video editor or creator.
While SpeakEasy does not have a video editing component, you can target and launch your video from the site.
No, there is no limit to the number of campaigns you can run on SpeakEasy’s platform.
Each digital order on SpeakEasy can only have one set of creative. If you would like to launch multiple campaigns (for example, a Name ID banner, education-focused banner, and pre-roll campaign), please create separate orders. Once an order is in your cart, you can add more and check out all together, if you wish. This allows you to set custom budgets, flight dates, and landing pages for each of your creative sets.
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
DANIELLE WINTERHALTER
As Managing Partner of SpeakEasy, Danielle Winterhalter specializes in multi-channel advertising, creative development, and rapid response communications – providing strategic campaign guidance and tactical media implementation to a client portfolio including Democratic causes, candidates, and impact-driven brands.

Passionate about increasing civic engagement and political access, Danielle founded SpeakEasy to support Democratic initiatives with effective media strategies up and down the ballot. Since inception, SpeakEasy’s tech-enabled ad tools – and tested political experience – have been leveraged by races in over 38 states, from school board to United States Senate.

Prior to SpeakEasy, Danielle served as a Campaign Manager, Policy Director, and political consultant where she scripted speeches, developed bipartisan policy initiatives, and executed comprehensive communication campaigns for Democratic candidates and organizations.

Outside of the office, Danielle is involved with Team Fox – the grassroots fundraising arm of the Michael J. Fox Foundation – where she raises funding and awareness for Parkinson’s Disease. A graduate of the University of San Francisco, she holds dual degrees in Politics and International Studies.