There is a secret most digital marketers try to keep to themselves. That is just how much data is available to the likes of us on individual audiences online, enabling us to micro-target populations to be influenced by whatever it is we are trying to peddle.

The reason we keep it (mostly) to ourselves is, beyond the creep out factor, if the whole truth got out, the crackdown would be swift and as a result, less work for us.

Talented digital marketers are highly sought after for a reason. Because we can impact decision making, rapidly.

So – as a digital marketer, observing the current debate going on in the US is interesting in several ways. First and foremost, the lengths the Donald Trump and by extension, the Republicans, are going to deny that anything happened at all. And secondly, the Democrats passively not calling them out on just how much BS that is.

The Russians stole the US election and put Donald Trump, their likely puppet, in the Oval Office. It’s guaranteed.

Why can I be so sure? Although I have no access to the analytics or stats, the results of the campaign speak for themselves. It’s patently clear that, with a massive budget, the Russians undertook a micro-targeted, multi-channel digital marketing and influencer campaign to generate a regionalized and curated audience all in an effort to impact their voting decisions.

Here’s how it probably worked. Let’s say the Rusisans wanted to impact voters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. They would post something on a social platform that looks something like this (which they did):

Everyone who clicks on one of these, or likes it or follows the page; their online lives are now captured. Next, the Russians would create a Facebook lookalike audience.

Facebook lookalike audiences are an advanced targeting option that goes beyond the basic interest and demographic targeting functionality. They are an insanely effective Facebook targeting tool to find an ideal audience. At the core of all lookalike audiences is a source audience upon which to build a lookalike audience.

Like one that clicked on those anti-Hillary and pro-Bernie posts. Facebook takes all of the data points of that source audience and finds new, similar people using a set percentage sample (which is specified by factors like age, race, income, religion etc.) of a general population.

Then, filter that audience data for a region that the Russians want to concentrate on; say, Michigan, Pensylvania or Wisconsin. Then bombard those folks with ads and influencer posts and like-material, plus one-on-one interactions and chats with Russian operatives to further send them down the rabbit hole they just created.

Then wash…rinse…repeat.

The Huffington Post broke down what was required really well:

Although Trump lost the popular tally by nearly 3 million votes nationally, he won three states that most observers expected to go to Clinton by a total margin of 77,744. Were the Russian efforts enough to have moved 77,744 votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania?

Clinton supporters argue that when an election is that close, every factor is potentially a game-changer. For example, shifts in polling numbers suggest that former FBI Director James Comey’s letters reopening, and then reclosing, the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state could also have cost her the election ― an argument Clinton herself has made.

One Republican-leaning pollster, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the question is impossible to quantify with any certainty. To move that many votes in those three states, the pollster said, would mean moving about 600,000 votes nationally ― or about half a percentage point. That said, he added that Trump’s success in using WikiLeaks to hammer on about emails and thereby remind voters of Clinton’s biggest vulnerability ― the FBI probe into her emails ― clearly makes that kind of vote shift plausible.

“I’m much more open to the notion that it mattered,” he said.

Sure. All that mattered. (Wikileaks is another Russian outlet by the way.) But another significant part – I would content the most successful part – was their digital content and syndication campaign. The Russians didn’t need to go national. They went regional. It wasn’t 1/2 a percentage point nationally. It was a relative handful of people in just three States.

Using available demographic data they either researched themselves or were provided by the Trump digital team, with more than $1-million/month, they utilized the most powerful advertising platforms available ever and Russia tipped the scales in favour of their guy.

Putin hates Hillary Clinton. Putin likes Donald Trump.

One of those two is the President of the United States and it was not because the American people organically made that decision. They were sold on the idea. Or rather, at least 77,744 susceptible, easily influenced people were.