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If anyone would benefit from a data set tracking the use of paid search advertising in the 2008 US Presidential cycle, we have one to share.

Background: Many of us at RKG closely follow politics. Curious about how campaigns were using paid search, we did one study of the US Senate races in 2006 (finding: very little political paid search advertising). We did a second study one year prior to 2008 US presidential elections (finding: less political paid search than expected). We continued to collect data up through the election, but we found ourselves too busy serving clients to prepare a solid analysis. (Initial finding: substantial use of PPC, which will likely hold true in all future elections.) Thinking a political scientist somewhere might find value in these data, we’re happy to share. Our contact info

Method: We recorded all first-page paid results we observed on Google and Yahoo for searches on candidate names and political topics from March 2007 through November, 2008.

Dataset: 205,825 rows. The ads contain 5,940 unique display urls pointing to 14,506 unique destination urls.

Term list: Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin, abortion, alternative energy, Al Gore, al qaeda, Barack Obama, Biden, Bill Richardson, Christopher Dodd, Chuck Hagel, Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, gay marriage, global warming, health care, Hillary Clinton, illegal immigration, iraq war, Jim Gilmore, Joe Biden, John Cox, John Edwards, John McCain, McCain, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Charles Smith, Mike Gravel, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, national debt, national security, Newt Gingrich, no child left behind, Obama, Palin, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Sam Brownback, Sarah Palin, school choice, taxes, Tommy Thompson, Tom Tancredo, Tom Vilsack, war on terror

4 random rows:

engine keyword rank adcopy display url dest url timestamp
google Obama 1 BarackObama.com Join Team Obama Obama for America barackobama.com http://barackobama.com 9/5/2008 18:00
google McCain 1 John McCain 2008 Get Involved and Support Senator John McCain. JohnMcCain.com http://www.johnmccain.com/?sid=google&t=mccain 9/6/2008 15:00
google Hillary Clinton 4 Election ‘08 Hillary: Elect Me. I want to be the president, so bad! bnpnews.net http://bnpnews.net 2008-05-29 07:00:00
google

Joe Biden

1

Sick of picking less-bad? Do you want a President you can be proud of? Join the movement. www.UniteForMike.com http://www.uniteformike.com 2008-01-05 13:00:00

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  • Nancy Kast: J.C. Penney –I am writing about your billing and online services. I have been receiving calls saying my bill is not paid. My...
  • Marc Adelman: George, Thanks for sharing this data. From an online buzz perspective, Bing is making a big splash. Everyone is talking about it....
  • George Michie: Hi Dennis, I’m not a lawyer, so take anything I say on this with a grain of salt (and please don’t sue us if we’re...
  • survey online: unfortunatelly i have to say that Google tools are the easiest survey web
  • Dennis Yu: Alan, We’ve had several C&D’s sent to us for seemingly innocuous issues. One of our casual dining clients bid on a...
  • George Michie: Hi Vivek, Haven’t had time to put together a full update, but I did take a look at the numbers. No material gains in market...
  • Karridy: You should checkout ClickPath’s call to KW tracking.
  • Vivek: George, really enjoying reading about the analysis you guys do. Was wondering if you have an update on this given a couple more weeks have...
  • Vicki Swaim: Dear Mr.Ullman, I hope you can help me with my problem. I ordered a TV stand the end of April that was advertised as a close out item....
  • Luke: It’s a shame we live in such a litigious society. Why should we have to set up an association? Surely we can prevent senseless...
  • George Michie: Josh, we have had shots fired over our bow and our client’s in the past. Usually responsible companies are reasonable about...
  • Ryan: Ok, George, I’m sufficiently scared… Thanks… :-) Incidentally, are there any trademark resources (other than Google...
  • Josh: We have run into trademark issues for several clients, although it has so far been a matter of trying to make “fair use” of a...
  • Mike: THANK YOU! I love you man!! :)
  • Matthew: Francis, We’ve likewise seen the “A-List” phenomenon in the past. Perhaps with Bing.com, there won’t be anymore of...

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