Why We Built the Media Buying Platform
In today’s digital advertising landscape, political campaigns face a paradox. While digital advertising is more powerful and targetable than ever, the infrastructure behind it is increasingly opaque, fragmented, and wasteful. Campaigns routinely lose nearly half of every ad dollar to middlemen fees, inefficiencies, and hidden costs. At The TARA Group, we saw an opportunity to be part of the solution.
That’s why we built the Media Buying Platform (MBP).
We’ve spent close to two decades working on the cutting edge of persuasive solutions. We know the challenges campaigns face firsthand. In a high-stakes environment where every dollar matters, the status quo simply wasn’t good enough.
The Problem: A Labyrinth of Fees and Delays
The traditional digital advertising stack, built on third-party data firms, onboarding tools, and corporate DSPs, can cost campaigns an extra 15–25% in fees and take 5–7 days to activate. That’s before a single ad runs. It’s common for corporate DSPs to woo customers with lower platform fees while they make their money in a wide range of additional fees hidden in their client’s ad budget. On top of that, many DSPs charge monthly minimums of $10,000 or more and report back only the most basic metrics, like impressions and clicks. With the limited campaign budgets, the news cycle turning over in hours, not days, and the demand for attribution data to improve digital efficacy, campaigns simply can’t tolerate these inefficiencies.
In a head-to-head comparison of our Media Buying Platform to a typical DSP, campaigns using typical DSPs lose out of every $100:
- $17 to platform, data, and add-on costs
- $26 to media productivity loss
- $5 to supply arbitrage and kickbacks
Leaving just $52 out of every $100 for actual targeted media.
Estimates are based on a good faith survey of recent studies, media reports and first-hand experience
The Solution: A Purpose-Built Platform for Political Campaigns
We built the MBP to flip this equation. With the MBP there are:
- No add-on fees
- No media arbitrage
- No hidden margins
- No minimums
- No onboarding delays
- No change to standard agency creative and buy fees
We talk about hidden fees a lot. But what does this actually mean?
Have you ever set out to book a flight, and your search returned one option that was substantially lower than all of the others? Perhaps you booked that flight, only to find that you had to pay to select any seat. Even more if that seat is an aisle or window. And then more to check or even carry on a bag? Suddenly your bargain flight cost you more than the other options you passed up.
In the world of digital media, as a client, you will presumably be aware of the percentage of your ad budget your digital firm is charging for their services. But will you also be aware of what percent of your ad spend goes to the ad buying platform (DSP)? And will you be aware of what percent of the remaining ad spend is taken out by the DSP for data, onboarding, brand safety, and ad logs?
Everything a campaign needs: audience selection, media planning, buying, and reporting, is integrated into a single, transparent, easy-to-use platform. And instead of waiting nearly a week to launch, MBP activates campaigns in close to real time, because the platform is built on top of our best-in-class national voter file. Which provides the additional benefit of not having to deal with the risk inherent in shipping your voter data to an outside platform.
Data Matters
Whether it is for mail, phones, addresses, consumer information, demographics or voting history, data is a key piece of creating a successful campaign. And it's what we’re best known for. The Media Buying Platform is built using the best voter file data available in the market, with over 500 updates in 2024, enhanced by multi-sourced consumer data points giving you better insight into the voting age population than on any other DSP.
During the final weeks of any campaign, knowing if voters have registered, requested a ballot, voted early or by absentee is critical to ensuring resources are spent efficiently. The Media Buying Platform is updated daily with the newest voter registration and EV/AV data feeds, other DSPs are typically several days behind. This means, with the MBP you aren’t spending your precious ad budget on communicating with targets who have already voted.
Quality
While our MBP will cost you less (or allow you to reach more of your targets for the same amount of money), don’t mistake the lower price tag for lower quality. Our team is constantly curating supply and cultivating the inventory to ensure that MBP users have access to everything they would on corporate DSPs, and often more.
Does This Replace My Digital Firm?
No – it’s another tool for digital firms. We built the Media Buying Platform to be used by digital firms and media buyers to ensure they have the tools they need to help their clients win. To be clear, the discussion of fees doesn’t refer to the agency fees that digital firms charge for strategic guidance and creative services. Those are essential to winning campaigns and separate from the downstream fees discussed here.
There are dozens of established and emerging firms that campaigns rely on for creative, managing buys and strategy , and the MBP delivers that tactical advantage to all of them.
Why Us?
Since our founding in 2006, our mission has been clear - give our clients the tools and data they need to reach their targets. Back in our early days, that was often as simple as having the most accurate mailing addresses and landline phones. But soon, cell phones and email addresses rose in importance. So we built a file with the best cell phone and email coverage on the market. Now, reaching your targets often means finding them on whichever screen they're watching. That's why building the MBP was a natural evolution consistent with our core mission - empowering our clients to deliver their winning message in the most targeted way possible.
Why It Matters
We believe in empowering our clients. That means giving them control, clarity, and confidence in how their digital dollars are spent. In the past, a handful of corporate vendors often dictated the terms with black box, “just trust me” technology. With the MBP, strategists on campaigns and at firms are in the driver’s seat, and the technology gets out of the way.
This isn’t just a product. It’s a philosophy.
Make no mistake, with the Media Buying Platform we are bringing transparency to the forefront. We know this is bound to ruffle some feathers with the few folks who benefit from the current system. We think competition is a good thing for everyone as we help our partners win elections with the best tools and data available, as we have done for 20 years.
By putting our clients first, we’re helping them reach more of their targets for less money and doing it faster and more effectively, without waste. The stakes are too high to stick to the status quo.