Case study / Congressional campaign
Dale Holness for Congress: the paid media picture
U.S. House, Florida District 20. Democratic primary, August 18, 2026.
Every number on this page comes from the campaign’s Meta Ads Manager, ad by ad, from May 1, 2026 to August 18, 2026. We ran 29 ads in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole.
Outcome
Finished second in the primary
The creative. Six video ads, and the Spanish carousel.
Nothing plays until you press it, and one ad plays at a time.
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Think Big
Vertical, 25 s
Dale Holness · Congressional campaign
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Rapid Fire
Vertical, 15 s
Dale Holness · Congressional campaign
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Money Bump
Vertical, 20 s
Dale Holness · Congressional campaign
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Washington
Vertical, 35 s
Dale Holness · Congressional campaign
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Song ad, reggae
Vertical, 42 s
Dale Holness · Congressional campaign
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Song ad, salsa
Vertical, 51 s
Dale Holness · Congressional campaign
Spanish carousel
The account, in six numbers.
These are the results of the Meta program we ran, from May 1, 2026 to August 18, 2026.
About $21,000 of Meta ad spend, managed by Advocacy Aces.
- Ad spend
- About $21,000
- Impressions
- 1,871,107
- Link clicks
- 5,951
- All clicks
- 14,006
- CPM
- $11.21
- Cost per link click
- $3.53
Source: Meta Ads Manager, May 1 to Aug 18, 2026, per-ad rows. Reach is per ad and is not summed.
Impressions per ad. The 12 ads with the most impressions, out of 29.
All 12 of the ads with the most impressions ran in English. The language split below covers all 29 ads.
Source: Meta Ads Manager, May 1 to Aug 18, 2026, per-ad rows. Reach is per ad and is not summed.
What performed best. Computed from the per-ad rows, not typed.
Among the 24 ads optimised for reach, carousel ads held 3 of the 4 highest link-click counts and 3 of the 4 lowest costs per link click.
The cheapest link clicks in the account came from Haitian interest, a Haitian Creole ad optimised for landing page views, at $0.19 per link click.
The single ad with the largest reach was Early V all, which reached 69,170 accounts.
Spend and clicks by language. What each language cost, and what it returned.
| Language | Spend | Share of spend | Link clicks | Cost per link click |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English 19 ads | $18,470.68 | 88.1% | 4,811 | $3.84 |
| Spanish 7 ads | $2,188.26 | 10.4% | 381 | $5.74 |
| Haitian Creole 3 ads | $318.36 | 1.5% | 759 | $0.42 |
Spanish ads were 10.4% of the spend and cost more per link click than the English ads.
Haitian Creole ads were the smallest share of the spend, 1.5%, and produced the cheapest link clicks of the three languages, at $0.42 each.
What we did right. The work behind the numbers.
Real photos, never an AI face.
Every piece ran a real photo of the candidate. The creative used AI for layout and production, and said so on the artwork where it applied.
Three languages, not one.
Video ads, carousels and campaign songs shipped in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole, so the district heard the message in the language spoken at home.
A calendar through election day.
Two planned posts a day in the final sprint, plus same-day pieces for early voting, rides to the polls and the morning the polls opened.
Carousels carried the argument.
The Kitchen Table Ledger series put one idea per slide and re-cut the same story for X. Among the reach ads, the carousels drew the most link clicks.
Video built for the feed.
Scripted, edited and voiced vertical ads with motion graphics, and widescreen cuts of the same spots for the big screen.
The songs gave the campaign a sound.
Custom songs in R&B, reggae, salsa and soca, in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole, then get-out-the-vote videos set to them.
What we learned.
Reach and clicks are different jobs.
Video ads optimised for reach put the message in front of the district at a low cost per thousand. Ads optimised for landing page views drove the clicks. A campaign needs both, and it needs to know which one each ad is for.
The message has to give people a choice.
We ran the record and the vision. The winning campaign ran the contrast. Voters need to know what they are choosing between, not only who has the better resume.
Budget decided in week one wins more than budget found in week eight.
Ad platforms take about two weeks to learn an audience, and rates climb toward election day. The earlier the spend is committed in writing, the further every dollar goes.
Carousels earned the click.
Among the ads optimised for reach, carousels held 3 of the 4 highest link-click counts and 3 of the 4 lowest costs per link click. Several slides in one ad give a voter more than one reason to tap.
Per FEC filings through July 29, 2026, the opposing campaign reported 8.4 times the Holness campaign total receipts.
Advocacy Aces managed about $21,000 of Meta ad spend for this campaign. Those receipts are the campaign’s own money, which we did not raise and did not spend.
Related reading
Guides from the Advocacy Aces blog.
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Political AdvertisingFacebook and Instagram Ads for Political Campaigns
How campaigns run Facebook and Instagram ads: who you can target, Meta authorization and Paid for by disclaimers, Florida disclaimer wording, the final-week block on new ads and the Ad Library.
15 min read -
Campaign StrategyVoter Targeting: Base, Persuadable and Low-Turnout Voters
Base voters need reminders, persuadable voters need a reason, and supporters who vote unreliably need help turning out. Here is how to plan for all three.
12 min read -
Campaign StrategyPolitical Campaign Messaging: How to Write Your Message
A slogan sounds good. A campaign message tells voters why you, for this district, at this moment. Here is how to build one from research, in your voters' languages, within Florida's ad rules.
12 min read
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