Candidates Missing Issue-Based Keyword Opportunities

Prezvid and BlogP.I. each have in-depth reports on what Google AdWords ads are resulting when searching on Presidential candidate names (thanks TechPresident). Sure, campaigns this year are doing a lot more buying against names of their opponents.

But where are the issue-based keyword buys? I figured I’d punch in a bunch of timely issues people with an interest in current events and politics (yep, the ones who actually vote in primaries) might be searching on. Guess what? My searches came out with nada, zilch, zip.

The only candidate campaign that bought on any of the words I searched for was Obama, who is targeting a generic link to “Iowa,” which seems too vague if they’re trying to reach people in Iowa (who might be searching on Ethanol, for instance, which came up with no candidate sponsored links).

Anyway, here are the keywords I searched Google on which resulted in zero sponsored links from candidate campaigns (nor even from congressional members with definite stakes in a lot of these issues): iraq war, troop surge, social security, poverty, global warming, climate change, new hampshire, homeland security, terrorism, immigration, us attorneys, alberto gonzales, iran, iran nuclear, nuclear weapons, china trade, trade deficit, wmd, afghanistan, pelosi syria, british sailors, retirement, gay rights, women rights, feminism, labor rights, minimum wage, living wage, abortion, pro life, roe v wade, draft, military draft

Oh, and on a lark, I did a search on “Obama smoking.” It actually resulted in a sponsored link to none other than conservative news site, NewsMax.