Aiming to pop Obama's digital balloon, Romney advisers pump up online campaign

Romney aides acknowledge their online and mobile efforts are unlikely to surpass Obama’s in scale. The president’s reelection campaign spent $26 million on online advertising through May 31 — far more than Obama had spent at this stage in 2008, when he was revolutionizing the use of technology in politics, and at least four times more than the Romney campaign. By one measure, Obama delivered more than 800 million paid Internet ads in February alone — six times more than the entire Republican primary field. …

The Romney campaign is building advantages, however. Where 5 percent of Obama’s fans are engaging on Facebook at a given time — for example, by liking, commenting on or sharing a post or a video — 32 percent of Romney’s are engaged.

Another difference: Where Obama’s campaign has engineered its digital products in-house — most notably, a “dashboard” that debuted in spring and enables supporters to connect with the campaign, keep up with news, volunteer and give money — Romney’s campaign is outsourcing much of its development work to private-sector digital firms.