Report: Marketers have trust issues with online advertising media

Many marketers just don’t trust online advertising media, causing a large proportion to avoid online marketing altogether.

by Helen Leggatt

Almost 70% of marketers surveyed for The Fournaise Marketing Group’s Global Marketing Effectiveness Report said they were unsure if they got what they paid for from online media. They were also suspicious of reports from media owners, including any traffic metrics provided.

According to Fournaise’s report, many marketers:

- don’t know if they actually get what they pay for

- don’t know if they can trust the visitor and/or traffic profile online media owners and publishers claim their sites have

- have the feeling there is a lot of click fraud

- don’t know if their ads appear in the sites and/or sites’ sections where they should appear

- don’t trust the traffic and click-through reports digital media owners give them

North America and the U.K. had the most skeptical marketers. Seventy-eight percent of North American marketers and 75% of British marketers doubted the effectiveness of their online marketing campaigns.

“The bottom line: the discrepancy between what is claimed and/or purchased and what is actually delivered is beginning to cast a shadow on the long-term credibility of the industry,” said Jerome Fontaine, CEO and Chief Tracker at Fournaise Marketing Group. “Online media have now the immense challenge of winning the trust and confidence of marketers and must be prepared to be audited and be accountable for the results they deliver.”