As the financial crisis came to a head in mid-September, Sen Barack Obama's campaign began to ramp up its online advertising. Image-based ad impressions by the Obama campaign grew 202 percent from the week beginning September 15th to the week beginning September 22nd and another 94 percent the following week. Obama's campaign also stepped up its sponsored link advertising in recent weeks, surpassing McCain's sponsored link advertising for the first time in the week starting October 13th. Unique visitors to BarackObama.com outpaced those to JohnMcCain.com nearly 2 to 1 in September. The unique audience at BarackObama.com went from 6.1 million in August to 7.9 million in September, increasing 31 percent month over month. Unique visitors to JohnMcCain.com grew 56 percent month over month, from 2.7 million to 4.2 million. Online video proved to be a strength for the McCain campaign in September. Growing 175 percent month over month, total streams at JohnMcCain.com increased from 1.2 million to 3.2 million. Unique viewers at the site also increased 175 percent during the month, growing from 475,000 to 1.3 million. The number of video streams at BarackObama.com increased 60 percent month over month, from 1.3 million total streams in August to 2.0 million streams in September. Unique viewers at the site also increased, growing 35 percent in September from 824,000 to 1.1 million.
