Ted Cruz has a powerful tool as he tries to close the deal with Iowa voters: He has aired the most effective TV ads in the Republican presidential race, according to independent research by a private company.

The ratings come from Ace Metrix, a television analytics company that uses large online panels to rate the effectiveness of TV commercials. The company’s political unit found that Cruz’s campaign produced five of the 11 top-scoring ads among Republican voters this election, including the single most effective ad of the GOP primary so far.


The ad is simple: Cruz faces the camera, wearing a suit and red tie, positioned just right for the American flag pin on his lapel to be in the middle of the screen.

“Under President Obama and Secretary Clinton, the world is more dangerous and American is less safe,” Cruz says, brow furrowed. “If I’m elected to serve as commander-in-chief, we won’t cower in the face of evil. America will lead. We’ll rebuild our military. We’ll kill the terrorists. And every Islamic militant will know: If you wage jihad against us, you’re signing your death warrant. And under no circumstances will I ever apologize for America.”

According to Ace Metrix’s ratings, the normal rating in the political category was 452, under the company’s scale. Cruz’s “kill the terrorists” ad scored a whopping 704. Many campaigns have used Ace Metrix to gauge the effectiveness of their spots.

According to data provided by Ace Metrix, Republican viewers who were surveyed in panels of 400 to 500 people consistently found Cruz’s spots more watchable, persuasive, and attention-getting, and they typically made more viewers want to seek more information about Cruz after watching the spots. All of those items feed into the company’s composite effectiveness score.

Cruz’s ads also rate especially high on the Ace Metrix “credibility” scale, never more so than when he speaks straight to the camera. Cruz also scored the third-best ad in the ratings, a minute-long spot featuring his viral anti-media tirade against CNBC moderators in a November debate.

“Finally,” a narrator says at the beginning of the spot, “someone had the guts to tell it like it is.”

Almost all of Cruz’s TV advertising has been in Iowa, where he has lately been battling Donald Trump for first place in pre-caucus polls. Trump has opened a lead in the most recent surveys, but Cruz remains in striking distance.

His ad volume, like that of most candidates, has increased in the run-up to Monday’s caucus. His campaign spent more than five times as much --- nearly $400,000 – on broadcast TV last week, about five times the amount it spent just two weeks prior. The campaign did not respond to requests for comments on its advertising strategy.

Ace Metrix’s surveys did not record any purely negative ads in the top 10, but the closest thing to it came from Cruz — again, facing the camera. “Securing our borders and stopping illegal immigration is a matter of national security,” Cruz says, wearing that same red tie. “That’s why I fought so hard to defeat President Obama and the Republican establishment’s Gang of 8 amnesty plan.”

Cruz never mentioned Marco Rubio, who worked to craft that legislation. But as Cruz spoke, the camera cut to a picture of a grinning Rubio flanked by Democratic senators. “Their misguided plan would have given Obama the authority to admit Syrian refugees, including ISIS terrorists,” Cruz continued. “That’s just wrong.”

That straight-to-camera quality wasn’t there in every single top-rated ad. Donald Trump’s opening spot, which touted his proposed ban on Muslims entering the country, mostly featured a narrator along with grainy black-and-white footage of terrorists and immigrants.

But almost no other GOP TV ad captured viewers’ attention in the same way as Trump’s apocalyptic message. “He’ll quickly cut the head off ISIS, and take their oil,” the narrator said as explosions cut across the screen.

Republican participants in Ace Metrix’s panels rated that Trump spot as the second-best ad in their primary campaign.

But even the most effective super PAC ads made heavy use of candidates speaking to audiences and to the camera, even though outside groups have to get that footage themselves since they can’t coordinate with the campaigns. The most effective pro-Rubio ad, no. 4 overall according to Ace Metrix, came from the Conservative Solutions Project and used video of a speech he gave extolling the “American Dream.”

The top ad from Rubio’s own campaign, rounding out Ace Metrix’s top 5, also features the telegenic candidate in his own words. The entire 30-second spot is composed of debate footage in which Rubio called Hillary Clinton “disqualified” to hold the presidency.

Right to Rise, the pro-Jeb Bush super PAC; Ben Carson’s campaign; and the pro-Chris Christie America Leads super PAC also landed spots in the top 10 along with two more ads from Cruz.