Study: Social Networkers Prefer Opt-In Vs. Random Ads
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, February 10, 2009
What ad models most effectively reach
social networkers, today? According to the social networkers themselves, opt-in advertising works best, while behavior-based campaigns and randomly generated ads are far less successful. About 40% of social networkers condone the practice of opt-in advertising, according to data being released today by market research firm InsightExpress.
Meanwhile, according to a survey of 1,593 respondents at the end of the year, only 20% of these social beings gave behavior-based campaigns the green light.
Only approximately 23% of LinkedIn, Facebook, Classmates, MySpace, and Reunion profilers said randomly generated ads are acceptable. (However, about 43% of CafeMom, Twitter, and Flickr users classified random ads as acceptable.)
"Recognizing the rapid growth of social networks and social networking audiences, advertisers have focused on creative engagement and how to apply their brands within a new environment," said Drew Lipner, vice president and group director of the Digital Media Measurement team at InsightExpress.
"The broad and exciting acceptance of social networking also reinforces the distinct need to develop targeted and relevant campaigns for this channel with the help of advanced measurement tools."
Overall, InsightExpress found that 43% of the online population reports using a social networking site. And, at least for the time being, a full 71% of those social networkers claim to maintain profiles on two or more such properties.
Not surprisingly, Facebook and MySpace were found to be the two primary "starter" social networks, serving as an entry points for networking forays on other sites with more targeted memberships.
Of the social networkers who have created only one profile, 46% are on MySpace and 36% are Facebook.
Of those who have two or three profiles, 78% can be found on MySpace, 71% on Facebook, 22% on Classmates, and 11% can be found on LinkedIn.
Among individuals with four or more profiles, 92% have Facebook, 89% have MySpace, 60% have Classmates, 40% have Reunion, 33% have LinkedIn, 11% have Flickr, and 10% have Twitter.
Users are reacting negatively to intrusive ads, mainly because we've seen ads that work in a non-intrusive manner. It's much more difficult to build a good opt-in campaign but, when done properly, these campaigns not only perform better than their counterparts but also guard against negative brand perception as your audience starts to move from preferring opt-in campaigns to demanding them.
Aside from those thoughts, these types of campaigns can really create engaged audiences. We've seen some campaigns that were only supposed to last 8 weeks continue strongly far passed their end date. I think that's because people are so used to being talked to, that they jump at the chance to being talked with.