Is your clients’ digital advertising driving away consumers? Many business owners believe that once they establish a digital presence, consumers will love their brand and buy from them. Over the past 25 years, digital advertising has evolved into a complex ecosystem. New Accenture research in the 2019 Consumer Pulse Survey shows that marketers must be savvy and respectful when they use digital targeting or they risk falling out of favor with consumers.

Data Gathering Concerns

One promise of the digital revolution in advertising was that marketers would no longer waste their budgets. They’d be able to target consumers who were most interested in buying from them. To realize the full potential of digital, your clients need to collect data. But there’s a fine line between data collection and tactics that consumers call creepy. The following percentages of consumers object to:

• Getting an ad for a product they discussed near a voice assistant but didn’t search for 73%
• Ads that follow them across devices 69%
• Chatbots that seem to have accessed shopping (not purchase) history 66%
• Ads on social media that seem based on shopping visits to another site 66%
• Chatbots that seemed to have accessed past customer service activity 64%

Consumers are over the magic that the internet once promised. The exciting possibilities now also seem problematic. It’s not that consumers mind the data gathering done by businesses. They want to know what’s being done with that data. A significant majority, 71%, believe brands have too much information about them. Specifically, they object to the fact that brands have information that consumers didn’t share.

The Path to Successfully Communicating With Consumers

With more consumers on the alert about protecting personal information, your clients need to walk a very fine line. Because if they don’t, 51% of shoppers will take their business elsewhere. Consumers expect marketers to be fully transparent about what they are doing with personal information. 

Businesses must promise to tell the truth about what they’re doing. Consumers appreciate hearing that a marketer will use information like preferred apparel styles and sizes to communicate promotions via email. Experts also encourage marketers to incorporate proper attribution data into their models. When they know which ads have influenced consumers to make purchases, they’ll know what to use in the future. Finally, businesses should refrain from using technology to collect data that consumers haven’t specifically agreed to. One future issue Accenture analysts point to is using data from consumer conversations that are recorded by computer microphones. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's a good idea.

AudienceSCAN profiles from AdMall by SalesFuel contain detailed information about the kind of advertising that influences consumers to make purchases. Your clients might also be interested in the profile of consumers who object to ads that follow them across the internet. Review these profiles and share the data with clients who want to maintain a transparent relationship with their customers.