Spot-On

What Spot-On does

Spot-On is a private political advertising technology company founded in 2005 and headquartered in San Francisco, operating under the legal entity SteelWill, Inc. The company operates as a purpose-built direct-buying platform for political advertising, connecting political campaigns, media consultants, and advocacy organizations to a curated network of 3,000+ local and national news publishers for targeted ad placement. Its core product is the Pinpoint Persuasion Platform (P3), which provides district-level targeting by zip code, county, state house, and Congressional district, along with a real-time campaign reporting dashboard and creative management tools. The platform explicitly positions itself as an alternative to programmatic advertising, emphasizing direct publisher relationships, transparency on ad placement, and full payment of gross political rates to publishers.

The platform consists of two main modules: P3 for Media Buyers (enabling campaign planning and execution across local news sites with video, audio, banner, and rich media placements on mobile, desktop, and connected TV) and P3 for Publishers (helping local news outlets manage pricing, editorial policies, and ad inventory). Supporting features include the Virtual Slate Card for pooled multi-campaign ad buying. Spot-On generates revenue through per-seat monthly subscription fees with volume discounts, plus ad placement transactions at gross political rates, sold through a direct enterprise sales motion targeting campaigns, media buyers, and consultants across all levels from Congressional to down-ballot races.

Name

Spot-On

Legal name

SteelWill, Inc.

Website

https://spot-on.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Spot-On operates the Pinpoint Persuasion Platform (P3), a direct-buying advertising platform that connects political campaigns, media consultants, and advocacy organizations to a curated network of 3,000+ local and national news publishers for district-level targeted political advertising.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Platform Subscription: Spot-On charges a monthly fee for access to the P3 platform. Access is sold on a per-seat basis with discounts for volume purchases.
2. Ad Placement Fees: Revenue generated from ad placements at the gross political rate charged by outlets. Ad prices are the standard political rates charged by publishers and do not change - Spot-On pays the publisher their full political rate.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Spot-On operates the Pinpoint Persuasion Platform (P3), a political advertising technology platform that connects political campaigns with local news outlets. The platform enables campaigns to purchase targeted political advertising placements on local news inventory, facilitating hyper-local political ad delivery to voter segments through trusted local media sources.

Product overview

Spot-On offers the Pinpoint Persuasion Platform (P3) as its core unified product — a political advertising buying platform designed specifically for political campaigns. P3 consists of two main modules: one for media buyers (enabling direct ad purchases across 3,000+ local news outlets with district-level targeting) and one for publishers (connecting local news sites to political advertising inventory). The platform includes supporting features like the Virtual Slate Card for multi-campaign coordination. All offerings are purpose-built for political advertising rather than brand marketing, emphasizing direct publisher relationships over programmatic ad buying.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Pinpoint Persuasion Platform (P3): A buying platform designed to serve the political market, connecting political campaigns to local news audiences for targeted advertising.

Products and services

• Pinpoint Persuasion Platform (P3)

Quantifiable outcome

• More than 70% of local news readers are regular voters, enabling efficient voter targeting through trusted local outlets
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Tactician MediacoreTechnology or IntegrationStrategic data partner providing rich insights into publisher activity, media placement, and voter audiences to support the P3 platform's targeting capabilities.
• L2 DatacoreTechnology or IntegrationStrategic data partner providing data assets for voter audience insights and media placement analytics on the P3 platform.
• ABC NewsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNational news outlet available on the P3 platform for political advertising placement, featured in platform interface alongside other major publishers.
• Fox NewsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNational news outlet available on the P3 platform for political advertising placement.
• GannettminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMajor newspaper and digital publishing company with outlets available on the P3 platform for political advertising.
• HuluminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorStreaming platform available on the P3 platform for political advertising placement, though subject to platform's own political ad policies.
• Los Angeles TimesminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMajor metropolitan newspaper available on the P3 platform for political advertising placement.
• CBSminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMajor broadcast network available on the P3 platform for political advertising placement.
• Tribune PublishingminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNewspaper and media publishing company with outlets available on the P3 platform for political advertising.
• New York TimesminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMajor metropolitan newspaper available on the P3 platform for political advertising placement.
• Adams Publishing GroupcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorIndependent media company acquiring and modernizing local newspapers across rural and small-town America, providing inventory for the P3 platform.
• CherryRoad MediacoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorIndependent media company rebuilding local journalism businesses across rural America, contributing to the P3 publisher network.
• Hoffman MediacoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorIndependent media company rebuilding local journalism businesses across rural America, contributing to the P3 publisher network.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• DSPolitical: DSPolitical is a political ad-tech platform offering programmatic and direct-buy political advertising across CTV, display, audio, and social channels — the most directly comparable competitor to Spot-On in US political ad buying.
• NGP VAN (Bonterra): NGP VAN / Bonterra is the dominant technology provider for Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations, offering fundraising, compliance, and integrated voter outreach tools — overlapping with Spot-On on the campaign-buyer side of the political ad ecosystem.
• Aristotle: Aristotle is a long-established political data, compliance, and campaign technology provider offering voter data, FEC compliance, and campaign management software — a directly comparable full-stack political tech vendor for campaigns and consultants.
• Cycle (formerly BSD Software): Cycle is a campaign management and digital advertising platform purpose-built for political campaigns — directly comparable to Spot-On's P3 in serving the political media buyer workflow with campaign-specific targeting and reporting.

Emerging players

• TargetSmart: TargetSmart provides voter data, targeting, and political audience analytics — an emerging specialist with meaningful overlap on the targeting/intelligence layer that complements Spot-On's curated inventory.
• Resonate: Resonate offers audience data and political targeting capabilities, intersecting with Spot-On's district-level and voter-segment targeting on the demand-side intelligence layer rather than the inventory layer.

Broad incumbents

• The Trade Desk: The Trade Desk is a leading independent programmatic DSP that competes with Spot-On for political ad dollars at scale — broader in scope and geography but overlapping on the demand-side buying workflow for political and issue advertisers.
• Google Ad Manager: Google Ad Manager is a dominant programmatic ad platform with political ad capabilities across display, video, and CTV — a broad incumbent that competes for the same political ad budgets, albeit without Spot-On's local-news specialization.
• Magnite: Magnite is a leading CTV and video SSP that enables political ad buying on premium streaming inventory — a broad incumbent competing for the same political ad budgets on the connected-TV side of the market.
• Meta Ads: Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ads is the largest social ad platform and a major historical channel for political advertising — a broad incumbent that has been restricting political ads but still commands significant political ad spend that Spot-On indirectly competes against.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SpotOnPolitics

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Spot-On