Campaigns often budget for texting by multiplying a per-message price by an estimated volume, and then get surprised by the real bill. A texting budget has more moving parts than that, carrier fees, platform costs, the people to run P2P, and the waste from filtered sends. Building a realistic budget means accounting for all of them. Here's how.
What goes into a texting budget?
More than the sticker per-message rate:
- Message volume times all-in per-message cost. The platform price plus carrier fees, which are passed through on every message, including MMS at a higher rate.
- Platform and tool costs, any base fees for the platform and integrations.
- People, especially for P2P, where volunteers are free but coordination takes staff time, and any paid texters.
- Registration, one-time and recurring 10DLC and Campaign Verify costs.
- A margin for waste, if any sends get filtered, you pay for them, so a compliant program minimizes this line.
How do you estimate volume?
Work backward from your goals and calendar. Estimate how many messages each part of the program needs, list-building sends, fundraising asks, GOTV reminders, across the cycle, and remember that volume concentrates at the end, the GOTV push and end-of-quarter fundraising can dwarf routine sends. A texting calendar helps translate the plan into a volume estimate, which times the all-in per-message cost gives you the core of the budget. Build in the peak, since under-budgeting for the final surge is a common mistake.
How should the budget relate to the whole campaign?
Allocate by return, not a fixed percentage. There's no magic share of the budget that goes to texting; the right amount depends on the race and what texting is producing per dollar versus other channels. Because texting's cost per outcome is often favorable, especially in smaller races, disciplined campaigns frequently allocate meaningfully to it, but as a result of the math, not a rule. The budgeting discipline is to fund texting to the level it's earning, track the actual cost per outcome, and shift resources toward whatever produces the most votes and dollars. A realistic texting budget, all-in costs, peak volume, and return-based allocation, keeps a program funded without surprises and spending where it works.
Frequently asked questions
What goes into a texting budget?
Message volume times the all-in per-message cost (platform price plus carrier fees), platform and tool costs, people (especially P2P coordination), registration costs, and a margin for any filtered-send waste. It's more than a per-message price times volume.
How do you estimate texting volume for a budget?
Work backward from goals and the calendar, estimating messages for list-building, fundraising, and GOTV across the cycle, and build in the peak, since volume concentrates at the end with the GOTV push and end-of-quarter fundraising. Under-budgeting the final surge is a common mistake.
How much of the campaign budget should be texting?
There's no fixed percentage, it depends on the race and what texting produces per dollar versus other channels. Because texting's cost per outcome is often favorable, especially in smaller races, campaigns often allocate meaningfully, but by the math, not a rule.
Keep reading: how much of a campaign budget should go to texting and the cost per vote of political texting. For carrier registration, see The Campaign Registry.