Report: News ads are less effective

Advertising on news sites, which have big traffic numbers, may not reap as many rewards as marketers originally thought. According to a recent report from Experian/Simmons, less than 30% of consumers report getting 'valuable infomration' about products and services from news website ads.

by Kristina Knight

Researchers found that consumers are actually less likely to buy a product or service which is advertising on a media website, news program, magazine or other resource.

This is likely because of the way consumers engage with media. Experian/Simmons has developed five dimensions of engagement: inspirational (giving consumers an emotional connection), trustworthy (consumers believe the content), life enhancing (consumers make decisions based on the content), social interaction (consumers talk to friends/family about the content) and personal timeout (gives consumers an escape). Of the five levels, media consumers give the highest marks for social interaction and trust.

Although these engagement levels are important, being able to talk to friends and family about a news story or trusting a news source is not the same an engaging with product advertisements. It could be that consumers are engaging with the content of news media and skipping over the advertising content.

That is not to say that marketers should halt news advertising, but perhaps marketers should consider how the ads are being shown. If possible, marketers should target their ads to specific types of content or to sections of a website or magazine read by a specific demographic.