Cutting Waste, Gaining Reach: A Clearer Path to Voters in 2026

The 2026 election cycle is shaping up to see record digital spend, rising CTV adoption, and mounting pressure for accountability. Identifying and reaching the voters who decide elections should be the goal of every political agency. And to make that happen, every advertising dollar must go further. Too often, digital ad budgets get chipped away by layers of middlemen before an ad ever reaches a screen. As we navigate a fragmented media landscape, there is an increasing need for transparency and spend efficiency.

We’ve worked hard to adapt to this problem. By carefully selecting our buying partners, such as Yahoo DSP, we remove unnecessary players in the process, cut down on fees, and focus spend on high-quality, premium inventory. The result is greater reach and more controlled frequency to the voters who matter most.

With this approach and the right tools to measure and adjust campaigns in real-time, we’re helping political advertisers spend smarter and drive more impact. And while we’re viewing this from the lens of political marketing campaigns, these learnings are applicable for advertisers of all types.

Why Efficiency Matters More Than Ever

Campaigns today face growing complexity, including fragmented media buying, evolving media consumption, voter segments with varying issue sentiments, and intense pressure to deliver results quickly.

• Fragmented media buying – Ad inventory is spread across channels and sites/apps, creating extra steps and making it harder to manage spend effectively.
• Evolving media consumption – Viewership habits are changing quickly. Running the same media playbook from last cycle won’t cut it. 
• Voter segments with varying issue sentiment – Different groups respond to different messages, and advertisers need to capitalize on that knowledge.
• Intense pressure to show results fast – Campaigns need to understand performance quickly so they can adjust strategy and improve impact in real time.

With the complexities campaigns face, inefficiency compounds. And when elections can be decided by a fraction of a percent, even small waste can cost the votes that tip the outcome.

Direct Access to Premium Inventory

Direct-to-publisher supply paths, like through Yahoo Backstage, are key to efficient digital buying for political campaigns. By sending ad dollars straight to trusted media partners, we increase transparency, reduce brand safety risk, and boost efficiency.

Why this matters:

• Greater reach to voters – Fewer intermediaries mean more budget to media, more impressions, higher reach, and controlled frequency to the voters who will decide the election.
• Greater control and transparency – A tighter network of premium inventory cuts down on fraud, increases impact, without sacrificing coverage. 

This approach eliminates unnecessary costs and uncertainty, ensuring campaigns achieve maximum performance from every advertising dollar.

Combining Jounce Targeting and Cross Screen Media’s Measurement

Jounce Media’s classifications within the Yahoo DSP provide us with a clearer way to buy ads with precision. It breaks down every possible buying path, distinguishing premium, direct publisher supply from less direct or low-value alternatives. With this insight, we can block wasteful or duplicative supply to ensure our budget is going where it will have the most impact. On the reporting side, Jounce’s data provides accurate, trustworthy app and site-level details for CTV ads, something traditional reporting often lacks, enabling us to give advertisers a clear view of exactly where their ads are delivered.

Cross Screen Media’s measurement platform complements this precision by giving agencies a unified view of how their advertising performs across both streaming and traditional TV. Our reporting shows whether campaigns are truly reaching their intended audience and how effectively they are extending reach beyond those already exposed. With this level of insight, political advertisers can make informed budget adjustments, eliminate waste, and refine their media mix to reach more of the right voters and win the closest races.

Positioning Campaigns to Win in 2026

AdImpact has predicted that the 2026 election cycle will see $10.8B in total advertising spend, with $3.9B coming from CTV and Digital.¹ And as we get closer to election day, the pressure on campaigns to spend smarter and move faster will only grow. By simplifying how ads are bought and ensuring every dollar goes further, political advertisers can maximize reach to the voters who will decide the most competitive races. The ability to eliminate unnecessary costs, buy directly from premium publishers, and clearly measure reach across streaming and television is essential.

But this also isn’t unique to just political advertisers; any advertiser can implement the same learnings and opportunities into their own campaigns. Leveraging Yahoo Backstage via Yahoo DSP for direct access to high-quality inventory, combined with the ability to measure deduplicated reach across linear and streaming, creates a more efficient, accountable approach to media buying and gives campaigns a clear advantage when every impression matters.

At Cross Screen Media, we remain committed to helping agencies cut through complexity, focus on premium inventory, and deliver the efficient, results-driven campaigns needed to win in 2026.

‍

^{1 “AdImpact’s Political Projections Report 2025-2026.” AdImpact, 2 Sept. 2025, adimpact.com/blogs/adimpacts-political-projections-report-2026.}