Delhi went to vote yesterday, but the election is far from over. Polling across the country runs in phases until 12 May, and counting is on 16 May. For the next five weeks, the news, the television breaks, the newspapers and a good part of everyone’s Facebook feed will be about one thing.
Several clients have asked us whether they should simply stop advertising until it is all done. Our honest answer is no, not for most businesses. But this is not a normal April and May either, and it makes sense to plan for it instead of running the same campaigns on autopilot. Here is how we are thinking about it.
What is different this time
Three things are happening at once.
First, attention is split. People are still shopping, eating out, booking doctors and enquiring about admissions, but when they pick up the phone or open the newspaper, a lot of what they see is political. Your ad is competing with debates, rallies, opinion polls and arguments in the comments.
Second, this is the first general election in which parties and candidates are advertising online in a serious way. They are buying space on Facebook, on YouTube and in Google’s ad network, alongside the usual television and print. More advertisers chasing the same audience usually means auctions become more competitive. We do not know exactly how much this will move costs for a small Delhi business, and anyone who gives you a confident number is guessing. What we do know is that we need to watch costs more closely than usual.
Third, the IPL has been split by the election. The first part of the season starts on 16 April in the UAE, and the tournament comes back to India in May. Cricket evenings were always a time when people were glued to the television and their phones. This year that overlaps with election coverage too.
How we are splitting the next few weeks
Now until the end of April
This is when the noise is at its peak. For Facebook ads during election season, we are being stricter than normal about who we show ads to. Broad targeting like “everyone in Delhi aged 25 to 45” wastes more money when feeds are crowded. We are narrowing to the localities that matter for each client, the age groups who actually buy, and people who already like the page or have interacted with it.
We are also checking cost per click and cost per result every few days, not once a week. If costs for a campaign rise sharply and results do not keep up, we pause it and move that money elsewhere. That might mean the same campaign returns in late May at a better price.
Early May to results day
Polling ends on 12 May and the counting on 16 May will dominate every channel for at least two or three days. We are advising clients not to schedule a big launch, a new outlet opening or an important offer around those dates. It will simply get lost. If you have something important, aim for the last week of May or early June.
After the results
Once a new government is in place, the news cycle will move on surprisingly quickly. Summer holidays begin, families travel, and people go back to their normal routines. This is a good time to restart anything you paused and to put a little extra behind the campaigns that worked well before April.
Search ads hold up better than feed ads
One thing we are reminding clients about is the difference between being found and interrupting someone.
When somebody searches on Google for “pest control in Dwarka” or “dentist in Rajouri Garden”, they have a need right now. The election does not change that. AdWords search campaigns for local services tend to be steadier in a period like this, because you only pay when someone is already looking. If your budget is limited, this is the time to protect your search campaigns and be more careful with display and Facebook spending, where you are trying to catch attention in the middle of everything else.
That does not mean Facebook is a bad idea for the next month. For restaurants, salons, gyms and shops that rely on regulars, Facebook is still how you stay in front of people who already know you. Just be more selective about what you boost and who you show it to.
Keep your ads out of politics
It is tempting to join the conversation. Plenty of businesses are already putting election slogans and inked-finger graphics into their posts. A little light humour around voting day itself, such as a small thank-you discount for customers who show an inked finger, can be pleasant if it is clearly non-partisan.
Anything beyond that carries risk. Using a politician’s face or a party symbol in your ad can annoy half your customers instantly, and in an election this heated, the comments under your post can turn ugly very fast. Your page is not where you want that argument happening. We are steering every client away from party colours, slogans and leaders’ images in creatives, however clever the idea seems.
A few practical checks for this month
- Look at your daily budgets on every running campaign. Lower the ones that are not clearly working.
- Check that your ads are not set to run at 2am when nobody is buying. Use ad scheduling in AdWords so spend goes to your actual business hours.
- Do not reuse creatives you ran in January without checking them. Something that looked fine then may read differently now.
- If you print flyers or run newspaper inserts, expect them to sit beside a lot of political material. Make yours simple and easy to read.
- Keep an eye on your page comments for political spam and remove it promptly.
What we are not doing
We are not cutting every client to zero. Businesses that go silent for six weeks often find it takes a while to get momentum back. Customers have not stopped needing schools, clinics, food or home services because there is an election on.
We are also not chasing every trending hashtag. It is easy to waste a month of effort on posts that get attention for an afternoon and do nothing for sales.
If you are not sure whether your current campaigns make sense for the next few weeks, ask us to look at them. Often the right move is a small one: tighter targeting, a smaller daily budget, and a clear plan for what you will push once the results are out.
