Commentary

Shocker! Study Finds College Students Like Relevant Ads. And Two-Thirds Use Facebook

by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 5, 2016

In breaking news, Fluent, a company that specializes in marketing to students, has released a study which -- surprise, surprise -- found that college students like targeted ads that are relevant. Pretty shocking, right? Ads that are targeted and delivery information about products people actually want are actually appreciated? Who knew?

The study, which surveyed 1,310 American students ages 17-24, found that 53.4% of students would click on a Facebook ad if the ad featured a product or service they cared about. Again, really shocking, right? In addition, 49% of respondents said they would click on a YouTube ad if the ad was something they cared about. This is some deeply revealing sh*t, right?

The results were similar for other social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Meerkat, Periscope and Vine. So what do these Gen Z's like about ads"? About 46% said "The ad is about something I need or care about." Just over 33% said, "A great photo or first seconds of a video are attention-grabbing. And 27.85% said "The ad is fun to watch, no matter whether I need or want the product."

Are these results really that great? I'd be worried about the 55% who, apparently, have no interest in advertising even if the ad is about something they need or care about. This is sort of like getting excited when your direct response advertising gets the typical 3% response rate. It's like, "Yeah, whatever. Who cares about the 97% who don't give a sh*t."

In terms of what platforms this age group uses most, somewhat surprisingly, Facebook is used most with 67% reporting usage. This was followed by, unsurprisingly, Snapchat at 51% and Instagram at 50%.

Of the findings, Fluent EVP Michael Carey said, “Facebook leads the pack by being the foundation for communication with anyone, from new to long-time friends, to family spread far and wide, as well as for favorite brands. The platform keeps on top of technology trends, from messaging to video, and that’s helped solidify its position as this generation’s default social platform. In turn, Snapchat and Instagram are leading platforms for Gen Z when it comes to maintaining more immediate and closer relationships.”

marketing, millennials, research

2 comments about "Shocker! Study Finds College Students Like Relevant Ads. And Two-Thirds Use Facebook".

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Michael Carey from Fluent Group, April 6, 2016 at 10:07 a.m.
Hoping you've recovered from your state of shock, Richard. While we think it's important to confirm some of the things that seem obvious to most of us -- as you most kindly point out -- the point of our survey was to learn more about how college students use different social media to manage their every day lives and relationships. We also don't believe everything we've heard about this audience and wanted to confirm it for ourselves. And we did learn some new things while at it; who said in-person conversations weren't important with this audience? We offer a bit more on that here:
http://www.fluentgrp.com/wp-content/uploads/Press.pdf
Thanks for the post (we think).
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Patrick Giblin from 451 Degrees Inc, April 7, 2016 at 12:31 p.m.

Michael and Richard...great write up here and this is the future of Ad tech in my opinion. Relevancy is what creates opportunity for people to engage. People WANT Ads but they want them to be relevant to Where they are and not where they have been. Cookies are dying a painful death. Optmizing Content as it evolves through the Social side is the future. Would love to share how we execute this through 451 Degrees either on line of off line. There is a shift in the underground of Ad Tech and we want to help Content owners optimize their content to real time relevancy and matching the keywords to the content as it evolves.