The Real Cost of Political Texting (And the Higher Cost of Not Texting)

Every campaign, from first-time candidates to seasoned consultants advising state parties, eventually asks the same question: "Can we afford to add texting to our budget?"

It's the wrong question.

The right question is: "Can we afford NOT to text?"

Because here's the truth that 2,000+ campaigns have learned the hard way: the cost of texting is predictable, transparent, and measurable. The cost of NOT texting - lost votes, lost donations, lost volunteers, lost races - is often invisible until it's too late.

This guide breaks down both sides of the equation. You'll walk away understanding exactly what texting costs, what you get for that investment, and what you're leaving on the table if you skip it.

The Actual Cost of Political Texting (No Hidden Fees)

Let's start with the straightforward part: what texting actually costs.

Per-Message Pricing

The core cost of P2P texting is the per-message rate. Industry-wide, you'll see:

What this means in practice:

For a local race texting 10,000 voters, you're looking at $200-$300. For a congressional race reaching 100,000 voters multiple times, budget $2,000-$6,000 over the cycle.

Registration Fees (10DLC Compliance)

Every campaign must register for 10DLC compliance to send messages. Here's what it actually costs:

• Brand registration: $4.50 (one-time)
• Campaign Verify vetting: $95 (required for political campaigns)
• Campaign registration: $10/month (3-month minimum)

Total to get started: ~$130 for the first 3 months

This is an industry-wide requirement - every platform pays these same underlying fees. Some platforms mark them up or bundle them into opaque "setup fees." We pass them through at cost.

What You Should NOT Be Paying For

Watch for hidden costs that inflate your actual spend:

Separate carrier fees: Some platforms advertise "$0.015 per message" then add "$0.005-$0.01 carrier fees" on top. Your real rate is $0.02-$0.025. Political Comms pricing is all-inclusive.

Monthly platform fees: $99-$499/month subscription fees eat into your budget whether you're texting or not. Pay-as-you-go is better for campaigns with variable activity.

Feature paywalls: Basic capabilities like segmentation, analytics, or two-way messaging shouldn't cost extra. If a platform locks these behind premium tiers, you're overpaying.

Monthly minimums: If you must spend $500/month but only send $200 worth of messages, your effective rate just doubled.

Sample Budget: A Real Campaign Scenario

Scenario: State legislative race, 3-month general election

That's your entire P2P texting program for a competitive state leg race. No monthly fees. No surprises.

The Cost of NOT Texting: What You're Leaving on the Table

Now for the part most campaigns don't calculate: what happens when you skip texting entirely.

Lost Reach: The Channel Voters Actually Use

Let's compare how different outreach methods actually perform:

What this means: If you have 50,000 voter contacts:

• Texting: 49,000 see your message, 7,500-12,500 respond
• Email: 10,000-12,500 see your message, 1,000-2,500 respond
• Mail: 2,500-5,000 engage, under 500 respond

When you skip texting, you're choosing the channels where 75-95% of your outreach goes unseen.

Lost Conversations: The Relationship Gap

P2P texting isn't just broadcast - it's two-way conversation. Real volunteers answer real questions in real time.

What those conversations produce:

• Voter questions answered ("Where do I vote?")
• Concerns addressed ("What's the candidate's position on X?")
• Commitments secured ("Can I count on your vote?")
• Relationships built (supporters become volunteers)

What you lose without them:

Voters who had questions but didn't get answers. Soft supporters who never became committed. Potential volunteers who were never asked.

Every unanswered question is a voter who might not show up.

Lost Votes: The Margins That Decide Races

In 2024, dozens of races were decided by margins that texting programs routinely produce:

The math:

• P2P texting produces 2-4% turnout lift among contacted voters
• A campaign texting 50,000 sporadic voters generates 1,000-2,000 additional votes
• Cost: ~$1,500 in texting

The reality:

For every race lost by fewer votes than a texting program would have generated, the "savings" from not texting cost the entire campaign.

Real example: A 2024 congressional campaign spent $1,500 on GOTV texting and generated an estimated 2,250 additional votes through 3-point turnout lift. They won by 1,847 votes. The texting program didn't just help - it was the margin of victory.

Lost Donations: The Fundraising Gap

P2P texting delivers the best fundraising ROI of any channel:

Example: A state house campaign spent $255 on texting 8,500 previous donors and raised $14,250 in 48 hours. ROI: 56x return.

What you lose without texting:

• A campaign that raises $50,000 via email could raise $100,000-$150,000 with texting at similar effort
• End-of-quarter pushes fall short of goals
• Urgent appeals don't reach donors in time

The donation you didn't receive because you didn't text is invisible - but it's real.

Lost Volunteers: The Recruitment Gap

P2P texting is the most cost-effective volunteer recruitment channel:

Example: A Senate campaign texted 25,000 supporters and recruited 680 volunteers at $0.92 each. Those volunteers made 85,000 phone calls and knocked 42,000 doors.

The multiplier effect:

• $625 in texting → 680 volunteers
• 680 volunteers × 4 hours = 2,720 volunteer hours
• Value at $15/hour = $40,800 in volunteer labor

What you lose without texting: Fewer volunteers means fewer doors knocked, fewer calls made, and weaker GOTV capacity. The campaign that can't recruit efficiently operates with a smaller army.

Competitive Disadvantage: When Your Opponent Texts

If your opponent runs a P2P texting program and you don't:

• They reach 98% of their targets; you reach 20-25%
• They have real-time conversations; you send one-way mail
• They recruit volunteers at $1 each; you spend $15-25
• They raise money at 2 cents per dollar; you spend 50 cents
• They generate 2-4% turnout lift; you generate 0%

In competitive races, these advantages compound. The campaign with superior voter contact wins more often than the campaign with more money but worse contact rates.

The Math That Changes Everything

Let's make this concrete with cost-per-vote comparisons.

Cost Per Additional Vote by Channel

Translation: For the cost of generating ONE additional vote via direct mail ($50-100), you can generate 25-100 additional votes via texting.

What $500 in Texting Actually Buys

For context: 300-500 votes decides most local races and many state legislative contests.

The Break-Even Analysis

Question: At what point does texting pay for itself?

For GOTV:

• $1,500 texting spend ÷ $1.50 per vote = 1,000 additional votes
• If your race margin is under 1,000 votes, texting is decisive

For fundraising:

• $500 texting spend at 40x ROI = $20,000 raised
• Break-even: Raise more than $500 (happens almost always)

For volunteer recruitment:

• $300 texting spend at $1.50/volunteer = 200 volunteers
• 200 volunteers × 4 hours × $15 value = $12,000 in labor
• ROI: 40x

Texting doesn't just pay for itself - it multiplies your investment across every campaign function.

What "Expensive" Actually Looks Like

When campaigns say "we can't afford texting," they often spend money on less effective alternatives.

$5,000 Comparison

Option A: TV Advertising

• One 30-second spot in a mid-sized market
• Reaches ~100,000 passive viewers
• No targeting beyond geography
• No interaction or response tracking
• No volunteer recruitment, no fundraising
• Likely impact: Minimal and unmeasurable

Option B: Direct Mail

• 5,000 glossy mailers at $1 each
• ~500 people engage with it
• No response mechanism
• No conversation
• One-way communication
• Likely impact: Low and unmeasurable

Option C: P2P Texting

• 200,000+ messages sent
• 196,000 voters see your message
• 30,000-50,000 respond and engage
• Real-time conversations with volunteers
• Volunteer recruitment, fundraising, GOTV all in one
• Measurable response rates, conversion rates, ROI
• Likely impact: High and trackable

Same budget. Vastly different results.

The Illusion of "Free"

Some campaigns avoid texting because volunteer phone banks or door knocking seem "free."

They're not.

Hidden costs of "free" alternatives:

• Volunteer time has value ($15-25/hour equivalent)
• Phone bank software still costs money
• Walk lists and printed materials cost money
• Volunteer coordination takes paid staff time
• Lower contact rates mean more hours needed

The efficiency comparison:

A volunteer texting for one hour accomplishes what 20+ hours of door knocking would achieve.

Making the Budget Decision

For Campaigns Under $10,000 Total Budget

Recommendation: Texting should be your primary voter contact method.

Why: You can't afford the inefficiency of expensive channels. A $1,000-2,000 texting program reaches more voters than $5,000 in mail or $3,000 in phone banking.

Sample allocation:

• P2P texting: $1,500-2,500 (15-25%)
• Digital ads: $500-1,000
• Printed materials: $500-1,000
• Everything else: Volunteer-powered

For Campaigns $10,000-$50,000 Budget

Recommendation: Texting should be 15-25% of your voter contact budget.

Why: You have room for multiple channels, but texting delivers the best ROI. Use it for GOTV, fundraising, and volunteer recruitment while supplementing with mail for voters you can't text.

Sample allocation:

• P2P texting: $2,500-7,500
• Digital ads: $2,000-5,000
• Direct mail: $2,000-5,000
• Field operations: $2,000-5,000

For Campaigns $50,000+ Budget

Recommendation: Texting amplifies everything else.

Why: At scale, texting isn't an either/or choice - it makes every other channel work better. Text to drive people to events. Text to reinforce mail messaging. Text to recruit volunteers for door knocking.

Sample allocation:

• P2P texting: $7,500-15,000
• Integrated with mail, digital, and field programs
• Used for GOTV, fundraising, volunteer mobilization, and persuasion

The Bottom Line

The cost of texting:

• ✅ $0.015-0.03 per message (all-inclusive)
• ✅ ~$130 for 10DLC registration (brand + vetting + 3 months)
• ✅ Predictable, transparent, measurable
• ✅ $1-2 per additional vote generated

The cost of NOT texting:

• ❌ 98% of voters never see your outreach
• ❌ Thousands of potential conversations never happen
• ❌ Hundreds or thousands of votes left on the table
• ❌ Fundraising at 10-50x lower efficiency
• ❌ Volunteer recruitment at 10-25x higher cost
• ❌ Competitive disadvantage against opponents who text

The decision:

Texting isn't an expense - it's an investment with the highest return in political campaigns. Every dollar spent on texting generates $20-50+ in value through votes, donations, and volunteer labor.

The campaigns that skip texting to "save money" often spend more on less effective channels - and sometimes lose races by margins smaller than what a texting program would have delivered.

Over 2,000 campaigns trust Political Comms because we make this math work: guaranteed lowest pricing, 97.8% delivery rates, and transparent costs with no surprises.

Ready to see what texting can do for your campaign? View our pricing - no monthly fees, no minimums, all features included.

Want help calculating your potential ROI? Contact our team - we'll build a custom projection based on your race, budget, and goals.