Super PAC Spent $185K on Web Ads for Gingrich in Alabama, Mississippi

Newt Gingrich has been campaigning in Mississippi and Alabama in the hopes of winning today’s primaries there, and Super PAC Winning Our Future is backing him with web ads. The group has spent more than $187,000 on online advertising in the two states.

The expenditure is especially large when considering Winning Our Future spent around the same amount – $190,000 to aim web ads at voters in several Super Tuesday states including Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, North Dakota, Massachusetts, and Alaska.

Mississippi and Alabama voters today will see ads linking to WOF’s TimeToChoose.com, which aims to persuade voters that Gingrich is the Republican hopeful to beat President Barack Obama in the general election. “We cannot beat Barack Obama with a timid governor from Massachusetts who speaks in convincing, but plastic sound bites…. Nor can we beat Obama with a sweater vest-wearing big labor flip-flopping Senator from Pennsylvania,” states the site, which also features radio spots running in the two southern states.

The organization is using retargeted display ads, Facebook, and search ads to aim the “Time to Choose” message to Republicans in Alabama and Mississippi. “We get very granular on people we believe are most likely to vote in the Republican primary, and most likely to vote for Newt, or are on the fence,” said Sam Hassell, president of Intelimarc, the agency handling online and other ad buys for WOF.

According to Federal Election Commission data, WOF spent $93,500 each in Mississippi and Alabama on March 11 on online ads to support the former House Speaker.

Another group, Winning Freedom, has also purchased web ads in support of Gingrich. The organization spent $8,500 on ad buys with Google and Microsoft earlier this month.

Gingrich’s campaign itself is pushing people to the polls through Facebook. As they did on Super Tuesday, the Gingrich team is reaching out to Alabama and Mississippi voters on the Newt Gingrich Facebook page through “Mississippi Matters” and “Alabama Action Center” tabs. Rather than showing people where to vote today, however, the pages offer a video of Gingrich visiting a natural gas drilling facility in Mississippi, a backdrop for his comments on the need to drill more here in the U.S. in order to reduce gas prices.

As Gingrich gets positive support from Winning Our Future, Mitt Romney proxy PAC Restore Our Future has been attacking Rick Santorum in online ads delivered to Alabama and Mississippi voters. The group spent around $132,000 on web ads in the states.