New research has revealed that consumers continue to feel that the “appropriate” number of ads that appear over the content of the web pages they are browsing is two per hour.
The figure, from Dynamic Logic’s AdReaction 5 Study on consumer perceptions of specific forms of advertising, is consistent with the results for the same question asked in the previous AdReaction 3 & AdReaction 4 surveys, conducted in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
AdReaction is a recurring survey conducted by Dynamic Logic aimed to measure consumer opinions and perceptions of various types and formats of advertising. AdReaction 5 was fielded in September 2007 in the US in addition to Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
There continue to be people who feel that over-content – or “intrusive” ads – are never appropriate, even to support free web content, but this amounts to roughly one in four people (21%).
The majority of US respondents feel that some over-content ads are appropriate to support free content and that number centres around two over-content ads per hour (a calculation based on median number).
The percentage of people who feel that no over-content ads are appropriate has dropped from 32% in 2003 to 21% in the latest study, suggesting that people may be more willing to accept some advertising in exchange for viewing free content.
The study also highlighted that two-thirds of respondents felt advertising on the websites they visit has increased over the past six months. Compared to the results of this question back in 2005, more people – 66% – say online advertising is increasing compared to 57% three years ago.
Figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau show that UK internet advertising expenditure grew to £1.68 million in the first half of 2008, a 21% year-on-year like-for-like increase (see Internet Advertising Spend Up 21%).
According to the IAB, without the growth shown by online, the advertising market as a whole would have experienced a 4.6% decline in the first-half of the year rather than the actual 0.7% year on year fall.
European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) research released in September showed that the internet is continuing to prove the medium of choice for advertisers as they seek to maximise ad spend budgets (see Internet The Medium Of Choice For Advertisers).
The research found that 81% of advertisers claim that their allocated online ad spend has grown in 2008 and predict that it will continue to do so over the next couple of years (+16% in 2009 and +17% in 2010).
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