Online Ads So Pervasive, Many Ignoring Them Altogether
Consumer Attitudes
February 11, 2014 -- A consumer impact and engagement survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Goo Technologies, provider of high-end graphics for games and interactive web visualizations, examines the types of ads that consumers say they are most likely to ignore.
Overall, the survey of over 2,000 American adults finds online ads are ignored by the largest majority of those surveyed (82%), compared to traditional media ads, such as TV commercials (37%) and newspaper ads (35%).
Findings:
- 92% of respondents say they tend to ignore at least one type of ad.
- The types of ads most ignored:
| Types of Ads MOST Ignored (respondents could select all that applied) |
|
|---|---|
| Online ads (net) | 82% |
| Online banner ads | 73% |
| Online social media ads | 62% |
| Online search engine ads | 59% |
| Television commercials | 37% |
| Radio Ads | 36% |
| Newspaper ads | 35% |
| Other | 5% |
| None | 8% |
| Source: Goo Technologies, 2014 | |
- As reported by Marketing Charts, compared to Millennials (18-34-year-olds) -- the 65+ crowd is:
- More likely to avoid online banner ads (87% vs. 58%)
- More likely to ignore social media ads (76% vs. 48%)
- More likely to ignore search engine ads (72% vs. 47%)
- Almost twice as likely to avoid TV ads (50% vs. 26%)
- By a narrower margin, seniors also say they're more likely to ignore radio ads (46% vs. 34%) and newspaper ads (41% vs. 34%).
- Respondents with a household income of $100k+ per year are more likely than those households making less than $50k per year to say they ignore online ads, 86% vs. 78%, respectively.
- When asked what improvements would make them pay more attention to online ads, more than half of Americans (58%)—and fully 69% of Millennials (ages 18-34)—say:
- Make the ad funny – 40%
- Make it entertaining – 32%
- Add stunning graphics – 19%
- Millennials are more likely than any other age group (21% vs. 9% of those ages 35+) to say they would pay attention to online ads if they were interactive.
About: This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Goo Technologies from January 17-21, 2014 among 2,047 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
Source: Marketing Charts, Who’s Ignoring Which Ads?, Feb. 11, 2014 and Yahoo News, Goo Study: Most of Us Ignore Online Ads, Feb. 11, 2014.
