Annoying Online Ads Drive Consumers to Blockers

Despite attitudes towards online advertising being more favorable than a few years ago, the number of people using ad blockers and spam filters has doubled since 2004.

by Helen Leggatt

According to a new study by Forrester Research "only 13 percent of consumers admit that they buy products because of their ads, and a paltry 6 percent believe that companies generally tell the truth in ads.”

The report, titled “Consumers Love to Hate Advertising”, recommends marketers find alternatives to invasive online ads. The sheer prevalence of online ads is enough to disrupt a trawl round the internet, and some pop ups have become so crafty and impossible to clear as to be positively distracting. This has undoubtedly driven the rise in use of ad blockers and spam filters, especially amongst broadband users (81 percent).

Consumers cite clutter, interruption and irrelevance as the key reasons for their frustration, states the report.

The key to engaging consumers, it concludes, is to facilitate an experience, not disrupt their viewing. Technology and targeting should go closer together in providing consumers with relevant, targeted and engaging ads.

Interestingly, it’s not just online audiences that are shunning advertising. Over 15 percent of television audiences use their digital recording devices to skip ad breaks.