The Politics of Search

How Political Orientation Affects Trust in Search Advertising

Here in Canada, it is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which is a stat holiday here. But I know it's probably not a stat where you are.

So today, a special deep dive marketing science issue.

We marketers make a lot of assumptions about people. The conservatives like big showy patriotism, like flags and anthems, and progressives like anything to do with the environment. There you go. Problem solved. Now you have your creative.

But what if we're missing a huge piece of this puzzle — user behavior: How people of different political leanings interact with the marketing tools that get us the sale.

One of the biggest tools, of course, is search ads.

Is it possible that conservative buyers and liberal buyers think of and use our Google ads differently?

That's what Alex Davidson set out to discover. He's the author of a research paper published last month in the Journal of Advertising called How Political Orientation Affects Trust in Search Advertising. He is an associate professor of marketing at Wayne State University in Detroit. He joins me now from his office in Montreal.

Dr. Davidson, welcome.

Thank you for having me here.

How Politics Affects Search Ad Trust

So is this true? Does the way people think politically have a bearing on how they use search ads?