Following my commentary on how consumers are increasingly getting turned off by "too-much" advertising and your advertising strategy might need to change, my attention has now been drawn to a study conducted by BURST! Media.
Here are a few key messages from the study:
Low Tolerance for Clutter: 60% do not want more than two ad units per page. Ouch!
Brand Favorability at Risk: 50% have a less favorable opinion of an advertiser’s product or service when their advertising appears on a web page they perceive as cluttered. This will call for complete redesign of billions of webpages and the programs that manage them.
Perceived Clutter Causes Site Abandonment: More than one-third say they immediately leave a site if it appears cluttered. No wonder the click-through rates for banners is close to zero and for text ads less than 5%.
Message Effectiveness Deteriorates: Fully three-quarters who remain on a site they perceive to be cluttered say they pay less attention to advertisements appearing on its pages.
This is what it means for advertisers, publishers, and media firms:
1. Rethink strategy.
2. Be creative. I have already seen studies that show that even email marketing is facing serious challenges (with most bulk messages never being delivered, or even worse, the sender being labeled a spammer). Are blogs an alternative? They are not intrusive and allow the consumer to be in control.
3. Talk to your consumers. Ask them how they would like to be made aware of product features, promotions, etc.
Suggested reading: Principles of Internet Marketing
Here are a few key messages from the study:
Low Tolerance for Clutter: 60% do not want more than two ad units per page. Ouch!
Brand Favorability at Risk: 50% have a less favorable opinion of an advertiser’s product or service when their advertising appears on a web page they perceive as cluttered. This will call for complete redesign of billions of webpages and the programs that manage them.
Perceived Clutter Causes Site Abandonment: More than one-third say they immediately leave a site if it appears cluttered. No wonder the click-through rates for banners is close to zero and for text ads less than 5%.
Message Effectiveness Deteriorates: Fully three-quarters who remain on a site they perceive to be cluttered say they pay less attention to advertisements appearing on its pages.
This is what it means for advertisers, publishers, and media firms:
1. Rethink strategy.
2. Be creative. I have already seen studies that show that even email marketing is facing serious challenges (with most bulk messages never being delivered, or even worse, the sender being labeled a spammer). Are blogs an alternative? They are not intrusive and allow the consumer to be in control.
3. Talk to your consumers. Ask them how they would like to be made aware of product features, promotions, etc.
Suggested reading: Principles of Internet Marketing