Political campaigns send two types of texts.
Fundraising texts that often sound like:
And political persuasion texts that look like:
We can measure whether a fundraising text works by how much money it raises. We tested whether political persuasion texts move opinion.
How big is the political texting market?
Earlier this year, Battleground Impact projected that political texting for persuasion and mobilization would be a $750M market in 2026, roughly the same size as the direct mail market. By 2032, it’s expected to grow to $1.3B.
Quick math: If the average cost per text is $0.03, and prices ranges wildly, that’s 25B political texts sent in 2026.
How can we test effectiveness?
Battleground Impact ran a test in a statewide down-ballot race with no other race-specific ad spend.
They selected 50,000 voters in two media markets. The audience included two types of voters: low-turnout Republicans and high-turnout Persuadable voters.
The test used two videos: one positive about a candidate and one negative about the opponent. The videos were split evenly among voters in the test market.
Voters in the control market received nothing.
What was the impact on ad recall?
In a post-test survey, we asked voters whether they remembered the ad messaging.
Ad recall in the test market increased by 22 points, a 16-point difference over the control market.
What demographics had the highest recall lift?
Young voters were the most likely to recall the messaging.
This really matters. Young voters are the least likely to see ads on traditional mediums, including broadcast and cable TV. Campaigns should use texting to reach voters who are seeing few or no ads on TV.
Among adults ages 18-54, 92% are reachable on streaming, compared with 60% on Linear.
Did frequency matter?
Maybe our biggest takeaway from the cycle so far is that frequency matters most in changing a voter’s opinion.
We have very little time to break through the noise and get our message into voters’ minds. Running quality creative at enough frequency is the best way to do that.
The more texts a voter opened and read, the more likely they were to recall the messaging.
This is also true across other media. We recently ran an issue-based campaign. In the post-campaign survey, people who had seen our ad six or more times viewed the issue positively, while the rest of the electorate viewed it very negatively.
Did texts move the ballot?
Yes. After voters received the texts, ballot preference changed clearly in the test market.
What does this mean for political advertisers?
Political texting works. Campaigns can use it to move the ballot. Very few media channels guarantee delivery to a voter.
Voter contact needs a holistic strategy. Voters who are less likely to see ads through other media should receive more texts, mail, and door knocks. Vendors need to share data.
Frequency matters. The more a voter sees your message, the more likely it is to resonate. Delivering quality messaging to movable voters beats open targeting.