6 Digital Trends From Election Day

On the heels of analyzing how politics affects consumer behavior, Adobe Digital Insights (ADI) dug into how last week’s midterm elections impacted national news sites.

On the heels of analyzing how politics affects consumer behavior, Adobe Digital Insights (ADI) dug into how last week’s midterm elections impacted national news sites.

ADI used Adobe Analytics to analyze aggregated and anonymized consumer data from large news websites and mobile apps (over 150 billion visits and launches of 400 sites).

Here are the trends they uncovered:

1. Traffic To News Sites

Election Day saw a 311% increase in visits compared with an average day in October 2018. The day after voting saw a 320% increase, while the day before ballots were cast saw a 210% increase.

2. State-By-State Comparison

The following states, in the order they are listed, drove the most traffic to news sites relative to their populations.

1. Georgia
2. Virginia
3. New York
4. Arizona
5. Florida
6. Texas
7. Pennsylvania
8. California
9. Ohio
10. Minnesota

3. International Traffic

Twenty percent of traffic came from outside the United States on Election Day and the day after, indicating strong global interest in the U.S. political landscape.

4. Reader Engagement

Consumers spent more time to digest the details. Length of visits were five times longer, and consumers viewed three times as many pages on Election Day as compared with a typical October day.

5. Mobile Trends

Election Day was the most mobile day of the year, with smartphones capturing 61.16% share of visits (tablets 7.72%; desktop 31.12%). For smartphones, that is an 11% increase compared with an average day. Apps saw a 159% increase in launches.

6. Golden Hours Of Readership

National news sites saw five times as many visitors between 6 p.m. and midnight ET on Election Day as compared with an average day the month before.