First-term Teton County Commissioner Luther Propst with his partner Liz Storer and their dog.
In January of 2018, Chadwick Content was approached by Luther Propst, a Democrat and award-winning conservationist, to help with targeting voters online in his bid for county commissioner in Teton County, Wyoming.
While Propst’s conservationist message was well suited for Jackson Hole — home to Grand Teton National Park and a main gateway to Yellowstone National Park — he faced significant challenges.
First, he was a relatively new resident in a crowded race that featured a popular six-term Republican mayor and an incumbent Democratic county commissioner who was born and raised there.
Second, as man in his late 50s, he needed to win over younger voters, who had helped elect five younger Democrats to the county commission, Jackson Town Council and mayorship two years earlier.
Finally, while Teton County is purple (and trending blue) compared to the deep-red counties that make up the majority of Wyoming, Republicans still held a slight registration advantage at the time of the campaign. Propst would need to make in-roads among moderate and conservative voters.
Using search engine optimization (SEO), Google Ads, social media and email to push campaign content, we developed nuanced voter targeting that met the unique demographic landscape of the popular mountain destination.
Voter Targeting on Social Media
Younger Service Workers
The economy of Jackson Hole churns around service industry workers who feed and entertain more than 2.6 million visitors each year. These workers are largely in their 20s and 30s, and they can struggle to pay the rising rents in the county, which has among the largest income inequality in the U.S.
Affordable housing and better transportation from surrounding counties were made top priorities of the campaign. Various pieces of content targeted this group by matching an NGP VAN voter list of younger service-industry workers and complementing it with a separate audience using Facebook’s internal targeting options.
We also secured the endorsement of the local affordable housing nonprofit ShelterJH, and promoted it on social media and the campaign email list.
Older CONSERVATIONISTS
There is a large bloc of older, conservation-minded Jackson Hole residents who either had the means to retire there or established themselves in the community long before home prices become unattainable for most. While they can lean more moderate or conservative than younger voters, they were an ideal fit to be persuaded by Propst’s decades of experience protecting water quality and wildlife as a land-use planner.
A variety of content pieces targeted this group by matching a “true green” NGP VAN list of older voters in the county and a separate audience using Facebook Ad Manager’s internal targeting options.
New Parents and Educators
By analyzing the primary election results, we noted that our campaign had ground to make up in neighborhoods with younger families. For those who can afford to start a family in Jackson Hole, social services loom large, especially with a long waiting list for affordable daycare in the county.
Local teachers and other educators also fell within a similar demographic given their dependence on public funding for their salaries and benefits.
We targeted this group by matching an NGP VAN voter list of young parents and school workers, along with a separate audience using Facebook Ad Manager’s own targeting capabilities. The content focused on a proposal for a new school and daycare location, as well as general appeals for better funding for social services in the county.
Hunters and Anglers
The bipartisan support for protection of public lands in Teton County — and even in Wyoming generally — presented an opportunity for our campaign to connect with swing voters and Republicans. In particular, these crossover voters tended to be hunters and fly-fishermen in Jackson Hole’s outdoor playground.
By matching a NGP VAN voter list of hunting and fishing license holders, a separate list of moderate and Republican voters, and using Facebook’s internal targeting, we reached these voters with casual social media posts of Propst fishing, an extensive blog post on protecting the water quality of rivers and fisheries, and an endorsement of Luther by the local fire department.
First-Time and New County Voters
Jackson Hole has a lot of transients, with many people only staying for a few years or months to work seasonal jobs or pursue a recreational getaway.
Working in tandem with the Teton County Democrats (with whom I was also working), we created a campaign to educate them on Wyoming’s simple voter registration process, directing users to a landing page on the campaign website with all the details.
We targeted this group through a NGP VAN voter list of new registrants and a Facebook audience of people likely to engage with liberal or moderate content who had recently changed their living location to within Teton County.
Google Ads Campaigns
Our campaign was the only one to use Google Ads to reach voters, and our tactics were unique, even by national standards.
Using a content marketing approach to the search ads, we developed a “how to vote” page on the campaign’s site, and targeted local searches surrounding voter registration, early voting, where to vote on election day, and the polling locations and hours. Click-through rate (CTR) was extremely high for the ads at 15.10%, compared to an average of around 2%, while cost-per-click (CPC) was low at just $1.13.
With name recognition being extremely important in local races, the how to vote campaign familiarized new county voters with Propst’s name, and encouraged them to learn more about his experience.
Meanwhile, a second campaign targeted searches around the county commissioner race and the Teton County election in general, producing a still-high 3.75% CTR and a low $0.99 CPC.
Campaign ad that showed in local Teton County Google searches like “wyoming voter registration,” “teton county voter registration” and “vote teton county wy.”
Campaign ad that showed for Google searches like “teton county commissioner candidates,” “2018 election for teton county commissioner” and “teton county wyoming election 2018.”
Focused more broadly on name recognition, we also ran Google display ads for Teton County in the primary and general elections, sending voters to a landing page outlining Luther’s vision. These ads targeted avid political news readers and people who had researched voting and recent races, while excluding placements on far-right websites such as Brietbart.com, DailyCaller.com and the DrudgeReport.com.
Overarching Message
Throughout the campaign, we used the overarching messaging of “Keep Community in Jackson Hole,” which we determined would resonate across our voter types. We used the voices of community members from various age and demographic groups in testimonials and a video series called “Locals for Luther” to back our message.
Winning Results
With less than 13,000 active registered voters in Teton County at the start of the campaign, our estimated win target was fairly low, at a little more than 5,000 votes. We reached most of those voters online multiple times throughout the campaign.
Total reach on social media: 12,794 unique users*
Average number of times those users saw campaign messaging: 4.44*
Total unique video views on Facebook: 18,540
Total engaged users on social media: 781 unique users*
Total unique website visitors during the campaign: 3,130
Total impressions in Google search and display ads: 42,839
*In the final 28 days of the campaign.
Propst was vying for one of three spots on the board of county commissioners among eight candidates, including two other Democrats, three Republicans and two Independents.
With 5,094 votes, Propst was voted in as a county commissioner by a margin of more than 1,300 votes. He finished with the second-most votes overall and the most of any non-incumbent, even surpassing Jackson’s popular former mayor in votes. Our community-focused campaign, centered around nuanced voter targeting, had succeeded.