Survey: Consumers Engage with Well Targeted Marketing Messages

Personalization/Targeted Ads

November 13, 2013 – Sociomantic Labs, a firm offering programmatic advertising solutions for eCommerce marketers, commissioned a study on consumer attitudes toward online shopping and digital advertising.

The study, conducted by independent research firm ResearchNow, polled 1,000 consumers. It found that personalized ads lead to a marked improvement in a marketing channel’s perceived influence, as well as a channel’s ability to encourage consumers to take action. Results:
 

• Contrary to popular belief, 70% of respondents said they are comfortable receiving ads and content crafted specifically to them.

• The biggest marketing offense was not ad targeting, but the poor execution of that targeting – 41%t listed their top marketing pet peeve as ad spam (ads for the same product appearing multiple times on a single page).

• When executed well, across all channels targeted messages were more influential:
   
  • Online Ads – 26% of respondents rated online ads as influential; that number rose to 52% among respondents who ranked online ads as well targeted.

  • Mobile Ads – 22% of respondents who found mobile ads well targeted said these ads were likely to influence their online buying behavior, compared with only 5% of the total response pool.

  • Facebook – 50% of people who found Facebook ads well targeted said the channel influenced their buying behavior, compared with only 17% of the general pool.

  • Pinterest’s influence among people who found the channel well targeted was 47%, compared with only 11% for those that found it not targeted.
  • Only 3% of general respondents listed Twitter as influential, but among people who found Twitter to be well targeted, that number rose to 31%.

• In addition to improving a channel’s influence, the survey also found that effective targeting increased a channel’s ability to drive conversion. Compared with the general response pool, the likelihood of a person acting on a discount was higher among those who felt the channel was well targeted:
   

  • Online Ads – Among people who reported web ads as well targeted, 74% said they are likely to act on a coupon delivered through that channel, up from 53% of total respondents.

  • Mobile Ads – 35% of respondents said they were likely to act on a coupon delivered through a mobile ad; that number nearly doubled among those who said mobile ads are targeted (67%).
  • ​Email Offers – 82% of people said that they would be likely to act on an offer delivered through email. Among those that felt email was well targeted, this already high number rose to 91%.

About: The data for this study is based on a survey of 1,000 consumers conducted by independent research firm ResearchNow in September 2013.

Source:  Sociomantic Labs, New Survey From Sociomantic Labs Shows Personalization Dramatically Improves Digital Advertising’s Ability to Influence and Convert Consumers, Nov. 13, 2013.