In 15 years of accelerating businesses, we've seen it all. Campaigns that burned budgets on ads without a pixel. Candidates who posted randomly and expected to go viral. Websites that never appeared on Google because no one did SEO.
This article is a list of real mistakes we've seen happen — and how your campaign can avoid each one of them.
Mistake #1: Starting digital marketing in August
What happens: The candidate waits for the official campaign to start to create a website, social profiles, and start posting. In August 2026.
Why it's fatal: Building digital authority takes months. SEO takes even longer. Those who start in August are competing with candidates who already have 12 months of digital presence, indexed content, and an engaged follower base.
How to avoid it: Start NOW. The minimum is to have a website live, active profiles, and content production at least 6 months before the first round. If you haven't started, every day counts.
📎 Read: [2026 Electoral Calendar: Month-by-Month Planning](#)
Mistake #2: Ignoring SEO and thinking a "pretty site" is enough
What happens: They invest in expensive design, but the site lacks a planned keyword, meta description, schema markup, or basic technical SEO.
Why it's fatal: When a voter types the candidate's name into Google, nothing appears. When searching for "proposals for education [city]," the competitor shows up. An invisible site = an invisible candidate in the digital environment.
How to avoid it: SEO is not after the site — it’s during the construction. Include keyword research, technical SEO, local SEO, schema Person, a blog with optimized content, and link building.
📎 Read: [SEO for Candidates: How to Appear on Google](#)
Mistake #3: Buying followers and likes
What happens: The candidate buys 20,000 followers for R$ 200 and feels relevant.
Why it's fatal: Fake followers don’t engage, don’t share, don’t vote. Worse: they lower the engagement rate, causing the algorithm to deliver your content to fewer people. Additionally, the TSE may classify it as illegal funding or irregular advertising.
How to avoid it: Organic audience growth. Invest in valuable content and legitimate paid traffic. 2,000 real and engaged followers are worth infinitely more than 20,000 bots.
Mistake #4: Generic messaging: "I’m a candidate because I love my city"
What happens: The candidate uses generic political jargon that could fit any campaign of any candidate in Brazil.
Why it's fatal: In a scarce attention environment, generic messaging is ignored in seconds. No one shares, no one remembers, no one votes based on "work, honesty, and competence."
How to avoid it: Define a clear and specific value proposition. Connect your campaign to real causes and pains. Use segmentation data to personalize the message by audience.
📎 Read: [Cause Marketing in Politics](#) · [Voter Segmentation with Data](#)
Mistake #5: Not having a CRM — managing contacts in a spreadsheet
What happens: The candidate collects hundreds or thousands of contacts and dumps everything into an Excel spreadsheet. There’s no segmentation, follow-up, nurturing, nothing.
Why it's fatal: A contact base is the most valuable asset of a campaign — but only if it’s used. A spreadsheet doesn’t do automatic follow-ups, doesn’t integrate with WhatsApp, doesn’t score voters by propensity to vote. Contacts go cold and become lost opportunities.
How to avoid it: Use a CRM from the start. Even if simple, it organizes, segments, and automates communication with your base.
📎 Read: [Political CRM: How to Organize Your Voter Base](#)
Mistake #6: Running an ad and never touching it again
What happens: Creates an ad on Meta Ads, puts R$ 500, and lets it run for weeks without checking.
Why it's fatal: Ads fatigue. CTR drops, frequency rises (the same voter sees the ad 10 times), and the money goes away without results. Without optimization, paid traffic is an open tap.
How to avoid it: Monitor paid media KPIs weekly. Test variations of creatives, copy, and targeting. Pause what doesn’t perform and redirect budget to what works.
📎 Read: [Paid Traffic for Campaigns in the 2026 Elections](#)
Mistake #7: Being on all social networks and not doing any well
What happens: Creates profiles on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Threads — and posts mediocre content on all.
Why it's fatal: Each social network has different formats, algorithms, and audiences. Spreading effort across 7 channels with generic content guarantees mediocrity in all.
How to avoid it: Choose 2-3 channels where your voter really is and excel in them. It’s better to master Instagram and WhatsApp than to be present and irrelevant on 7 platforms.
📎 Read: [Social SEO: TikTok and Instagram as Search Mechanisms](#) · [High-Performance Political Content](#)
Mistake #8: Not having a crisis plan and reputation management
What happens: A negative news story emerges, a video leaks, an opponent attacks. The campaign panics and reacts late and poorly.
Why it's fatal: In the digital world, a crisis can explode in hours. Without active monitoring and a response protocol, the negative narrative solidifies before the candidate can respond. Once the stain sets in, removing it is 10x more expensive and difficult.
How to avoid it: Have 24/7 mention monitoring, a response protocol (who speaks, in how much time, through which channels, with what tone), and a positive content strategy that serves as permanent shielding.
📎 Read: [Candidate Digital Reputation: Crisis Management](#)
Mistake #9: Not measuring — or worse, measuring the wrong things
What happens: The campaign only looks at likes, followers, and views and thinks it’s doing great.
Why it's fatal: Vanity doesn’t turn into votes. Without conversion metrics (CPL, registration rate, qualified leads), you don’t know if the money invested is generating real supporters or just pretty numbers in a report.
How to avoid it: Define business KPIs from the start. Cost per lead, conversion rate, base growth. Vanity metrics are a complement, not a priority.
📎 Read: [Digital Campaign Metrics: What to Really Measure](#)
Mistake #10: Doing everything alone or with "that nephew who understands the internet"
What happens: The candidate leaves digital marketing in the hands of a relative or friend "who messes with social media," without experience in political campaigns.
Why it's fatal: Digital political marketing in 2026 requires multidisciplinary technical knowledge: SEO, GEO, paid media, CRO, CRM, AI, analytics, electoral compliance. Amateurism is costly — in lost money and unearned votes.
How to avoid it: Hire professionals or agencies with proven experience in performance digital marketing. A campaign is not a place to learn by doing.
Checklist: Is your campaign making any of these mistakes?
- [ ] Did you start building digital presence at least 6 months before the election?
- [ ] Does your website have optimized SEO (keywords, schema, meta tags, speed)?
- [ ] Is your audience 100% organic, without buying followers?
- [ ] Is your message specific or could it fit any campaign?
- [ ] Do you use a CRM, not an Excel spreadsheet?
- [ ] Are your ads monitored and optimized weekly?
- [ ] Are you focused on 2-3 channels with excellence?
- [ ] Do you have a documented crisis protocol?
- [ ] Do you measure conversion, not just vanity?
- [ ] Is your digital marketing done by experienced professionals?
Result: Each "no" is a real risk for your campaign. Correct it as soon as possible.
*Don’t want to make these mistakes in your campaign? Kaizen Agency has 15 years of high-performance digital marketing and is a Google Premier Partner. [Talk to a specialist](/contato) or call 0800-550-8000.*