Social Networkers Lukewarm to Ads; Opt-In Most Appealing

Only 40% of social networkers say they would be receptive to opt-in advertising on their networks, and an ever lower number (20%) find behavior-based campaigns appealing, according InsightExpress research, reports MarketingVOX.

The survey, which was undertaken to determine how willing people are to see advertising on social networks, generally finds low levels of overall interest in all forms of social network advertising.

In contrast to opt-in and behavior-based ads, however, acceptance of randomly generated ads varies according to which network they are viewed on, the survey found. Social networkers were least likely to say they wanted to see ads on sites where they already are prominent. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of users on Facebook, Myspace, Classmates.com, LinkedIn and Reunion.com would want to see randomly generated ads, but that number rises to 43% among users of CafeMom, Twitter and Flickr users, who appear to be more receptive.




“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, VP/group director-Digital Media Measurement at InsightExpress.

Facebook, MySpace are Gateways

InsightExpress found that 43% of the online population has reported using a social network site and 71% of these users maintain profiles on at least two or more. The research also reveals that Facebook and MySpace are the primary gateway social networks - the ones with which users begin exploring social networking before potentially branching off into other sites:

* Of social networkers that have only one profile, 46% chose MySpace and 36% chose Facebook.
* Those with two or three profiles were broken down thus: 78% are on MySpace, 71% on Facebook, 22% on Classmates.com and 11% are on LinkedIn.
* Of those with four or more profiles, 92% are on Facebook, 89% are on MySpace, 60% have a Classmates.com, 40% use Reunion.com, 33% have a LinkedIn, 11% have Flickr, and 10% have Twitter.

“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,” said Lipner.

Last month Netpop Research predicted potential opportunities for social network advertisers during the economic downturn.

About the research: The research was conducted by InsightExpress between Dec. 15, 2008 and Jan. 12, 2009 using RDD telephone sampling methodology. A total of 1,593 respondents completed the survey, and the results were weighted to reflect the online population.

Source: marketingcharts

Web Ads More Memorable in Context

Ads that run on websites with related content are 61% more likely to be recalled than ads running on sites with unrelated content, according to Condé Nast and McPheters & Company, which recently released additional data from a relevent study about ad effectiveness in various media.
This new information is the result of a more in-depth analysis that looked at the effectiveness of internet banner ads that were aligned with the content of the websites they appeared on vs. those that were not.
Examples of ads in context are food ads running on food sites, entertainment ads on entertainment sites, etc.

The study also revealed that social network, shopping, and food sites generate the highest recall levels (29% to 39%).

Additional findings from the analysis:

* Recall of ads varies by site type.
* Search and portal sites generate the lowest recall levels.
* There are large differences in recall by product type.

“While we have long known that context is important for print advertisers, we welcome proof that the same is true online,” said Drew Schutte, SVP and chief revenue officer for Condé Nast Digital. “These results reinforce the importance of a marketer being associated with category-specific websites with established brands.”

About the study: The research used McPheters & Company’s AdWorks methodology to measure recall for 400 ads on a variety of websites. Ads were segmented by whether they appeared on websites with related content. Recall of ads was measured among internet users who were directed to surf the Internet at will for 30 minutes. McPheters & Company fielded the survey at CBS Vision’s Television City lab facilities in Las Vegas.