Whether you’ve got some time to kill during your commute or fancy doing some reading on your lunch break, we have the perfect material for you. Check out last week’s round-up of marketing news for the latest happenings in the industry.
40% Of Brits Dislike All Forms Of Online Advertising
According to Ofcom’s Adult’s Media Use and Attitudes Report, 40 per cent of Brits dislike all forms of online ads, a quarter were unaware they receive personalised ad experiences, and a tenth listed ads as their main online concern. It is also found that this dislike for ads grew dramatically the older the respondent was.
The study also revealed how users avoid ads:
• 32 per cent don’t tick boxes to allow companies to send newsletters or to make contact
• 31 per cent use adblocking software or features
• 9 per cent give out false information to avoid spam
• 9 per cent only visit ad-free sites.
Read the full 216-page report here.
Google Ad Revenues UP 24.4%
Google’s parent company Alphabet has reported advertising revenue grew 24.4 per cent to $26.6bn in the first quarter of 2018, whereas overall revenues were up 26 per cent to $31.1bn.
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer, Ruth Porat, has been quoted saying:
“The sustained outstanding performance reflects the benefits of innovation and secular growth, with mobile search in particular again leading the way. Robust growth in network revenues was again lead by our programmatic business.”
Facebook Is Called Out By Martin Lewis, Founder Of Moneysavingexpert.com
This week it was revealed that entrepreneur and TV personality Martin Lewis is taking legal action against Facebook after repeatedly being the victim of scammers using his identity in fake Facebook adverts.
Lewis had repeatedly reported these adverts (more than 50 of them), only for them to be taken down and others appear soon after in their place. These ads used his reputation as a financial expert to trick users into making poor money decisions, therefore he is claiming defamation of character and is seeking exemplary damages at the High Court.
LYING DIRTY SCAMMERS have taken £19k off a vulernable man using fake facebook ads about me. Pls help by RTing this https://t.co/a2UatXxXPW
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) September 7, 2017
Lewis has said:
“Enough is enough. I’ve been fighting for over a year to stop Facebook letting scammers use my name and face to rip off vulnerable people – yet it continues. I feel sick each time I hear of another victim being conned because of trust they wrongly thought they were placing in me. One lady had over £100,000 taken from her.
I don’t do adverts. I’ve told Facebook that. Any ad with my picture or name in is without my permission. I’ve asked it not to publish them, or at least to check their legitimacy with me before publishing. This shouldn’t be difficult – after all, it’s a leader in face and text recognition. Yet it simply continues to repeatedly publish these adverts and then relies on me to report them, once the damage has been done.”
Below Fold Ads Reportedly More Engaging Than Those Above
A recent study of over three billion engagements across 130 million page views on 400 websites by ad tech company Sovrn has suggested that ads below the fold work better than those above the fold.
The research found users engaged with ads below the fold for 27 per cent of the viewable dwell time, and just 3 per cent for above the fold. These below fold ads were also seen for 2.6 times longer than those above and cost five times less money.
Sovrn CMO, Andy Evans, comments:
“Currently the industry prioritises viewability, or dwell time as a metric, but our research has highlighted that this is leading advertisers to make potentially costly decisions about their audience.
We’re all guilty of opening browser tabs to look at content that we end up closing without even seeing the page, let alone an ad, and yet current metrics could end up counting these such instances, when they shouldn’t. By looking actively at engagement and various factors such as a click, scroll or tab changes, we can see that the user is engaged and increase the propensity to convert by targeting them in that moment.”
For more news updates, guides and opinion pieces, take a look at a few more of our articles.