Consumers’ Preferences in Online Advertising: 2018 Edition

In December 2017, Clutch published a survey, stating that despite the continuing popularity of TV advertising, online ads are steadily increasing their impact on people (43%).

The Survey also showed that younger generations (18-34) are more likely to pay attention to ads than Baby Boomers (55 and older). Considering the fact that young people prefer the Internet over TV, online advertising will gain more recognition among consumers in 2018.

Mobile Video

Mobile Video is on the rise. In 2017, its plays reached 60% of all video starts. Oyala predicts that mobile video will top 70% of market share this year. As said by Jim O’Neil, Ooyala principal analyst, “the explosion of mobile video content is driving views off of TV”.

Thanks to the growing mobile video popularity, smartphones ad impressions reach 51% of all digital impressions, and mid-rolls are bringing the best VTRs.

What Users Do Not Like

High Ad Density

As investments in programmatic are set to continue to increase, some publishing websites go overboard with the number of ads they show to the visitors. Instart Logic research shows that 51% of surveyed Americans want sites to decrease the number of ads, and 57% are annoyed with intrusive pop-up ads.

Manav Mital, CEO of Instart Logic, said that users came to understand the importance of online advertising but think that publishers could do a better job by exposing visitors to fewer ads.

Slow Pages

We mentioned before that users do not tolerate waiting while browsing. In fact, 36% of visitors would leave a site if it takes too long to load, and 36% say that they will never come back to that site again (Clutch).

Retargeting

Only 2 percent of consumers do not mind retargeted advertisements.

They find this kind of ads invasive to their privacy. Some claim highly personalized retargeted adverts are “creepy” and get irritated by them.

How to Act in 2018

This year promises to boost video advertising, especially on mobile. Focus on creating engaging video content to attract new audiences and improve advertising strategies. Meanwhile, our video ad network is here to help you implement viewable yet non-intrusive video ad units to boost your ROI. We have solutions that will match your business goal.