Consumers spend huge amounts of time engaging with digital media. And your accounts know that these formats offer the best places to reach their primary target audience. But ads aren’t always welcome, so here’s what to do about that.

Consumers Want Change

In an eyeo survey conducted by The Harris Poll, 2,500 consumers gave their honest opinion about ads. The news is not all bad. They understand that advertising is part of the value proposition when they consume digital content.

But they would like to see some changes. In this post, we’ll look at a few ways to help clients impress their primary target audience.

The Complaints

First, we need to understand the scope of consumer discontent. Around 73% of surveyed consumers have complaints about online ads. This is a higher percentage than people who complain about online security (65%) or privacy (64%) issues.

Interruption

What is the chief annoyance? Interruption. When consumers settle in to play an online game, they don’t appreciate being interrupted by an ad.

Repetition

Another irritation is repetition. It may be efficient and cost-​effective to produce an ad and deliver the content programmatically. But consumers intensely dislike seeing and hearing the same ad multiple times, especially in the space of an hour.

Ads that Hide the Content

The Harris Poll survey also points out that consumers have other concerns about online advertising. When they launch a browser and are inundated with ads popping up on the page, they’re frustrated. They can’t figure out how to access the content they want.

Poor Targeting

Consumers also complain about having to watch ads that are not properly targeted. In other words, these ads are not reaching the primary target audience.

The Worst-​Case Ad

Researchers report that nearly 80% of consumers particularly dislike automatic video ads. Your clients might believe these ads will capture attention. And you might be earning a slightly higher rate when you sell this format.

For consumers, a video playing loudly as soon as a browser loads is a complete turnoff.

Then there are the interstitial ads. Of course, it seems appealing to a marketer to take over a web page with a display ad. And sometimes a timer displays to count down how long a user might have to wait before getting to their content.

Fifteen or 20 seconds can feel like a very long time in these cases, which is why over 75% of online consumers object to interstitial ads.

Back in the day, when a consumer encountered a full-​page ad in a magazine, for example, they controlled whether they wanted to study it. If the product or service being promoted wasn’t part of their purchase intent, they flipped the page.

In online advertising, poorly placed interstitial ads are not the way to impress the primary target audience.

The Perfect-​World Scenario

What are the three ways for your clients to connect with the audiences they are selling to? When it comes to digital advertising, consumers want more control. Here’s what they’d most like to see.

• Reduce disruption of ads on websites/​streaming services 89%
• Filter the types of ads being shown 89%
• Rebalance value proposition between free content and ads 84%

You may not have control over some of these details. For example, it’s often the tech giants that decide how many ads run when a consumer accesses online site.

But you can help with ad targeting. You can use AudienceSCAN by AdMall to identify the media formats most frequently used by their existing and prospective customers. And you can guide your accounts as they create entertaining and engaging messaging.

The Selling Pressure

If you sell media space, you want to meet your targets. And your accounts buy ad space because they expect to increase sales. Industry experts point out that the exchanges between you and your accounts likely focuses on “targeting and measurement.” That focus makes sense.

In these cases, it’s easy to overlook that consumers sometimes react negatively. That means they may develop a negative attitude about the brand. That’s the last thing you want from the primary target audience.

Guiding marketers to target consumers appropriately will make a difference.

The number of ads shown in a given time period continues to be a pain point. Consumers have opinions on who should be responsible for “controlling the number of ads” shown. The opinions break out as follows:

• Ad-​tech/​media companies 53%
• Government agency 47%
• Independent agency such as the IAB 53%
• Tech companies 58%
• The consumers 40%
• Brands/​advertisers 49%

The Outlook

Your clients need to reach their prospects. And they need to encourage existing customers to buy more. Digital advertising can be effective to help accounts reach their goals. But the ecosystem is always changing.

Google has now backed away from its plan to remove third-​party cookies in its browser. This change will allow your clients to track activity more easily.

At the same time, the war between the tech giants continues. Apple’s Distraction Control tool may result in more consumers engaging in ad blocking. Up to 85% of consumers are interested in the technology.

These developments underscore the importance of working with clients to maintain a good consumer ad experience.

Your accounts may need to produce several ads in a campaign that can rotate during a streaming TV show. The ads should be suitable for all ages.

Another option is to purchase ad space before the content appears in order to avoid streaming disruption.

With these tactics, your accounts will have a better chance of impressing their primary target audience.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.