Choozle 2018 Digital Advertising Trend Survey Reveals Consumer Sentiment Opposes Predicted Trends for Ad Blockers, Channels, and Privacy

Mid-Year Trend Update Shows Negative Sentiment Towards Online Advertisement Is on the Rise

Choozle, self-service programmatic advertising platform, released the findings of its 2018 Digital Advertising Trend Survey. The survey, which included 502 randomly-selected US consumers, explores consumer experience with the trends predicted to impact the digital advertising industry in 2018 – including the most influential advertising platforms, consumer behavior, and data privacy.

“The survey showcases a broad shift in the digital advertising landscape since the start of the year”

The results revealed that consumer sentiment opposes many of the trends predicted for 2018, including the rise of video, voice, and ad blockers. It also brought to light that many consumers are unaware of how these developments affect them. Some of the key results were as follows:

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Ad Platforms and Types

• Mobile has continually been predicted as the leading digital advertising channel in 2018, but only 45 percent of respondents said they were more likely to click on mobile ads, the majority of which were in the younger age group (18-29).
• Facebook (54 percent) and Google (44 percent) remain the most influential platforms for advertising followed by Instagram (23 percent), Spotify (28 percent), and Pandora (24 percent).
• Despite video being a major predicted trend in 2018, 72 percent of consumers do not prefer video ads over other types of online advertisements.

Consumer Sentiment and Behavior

• Contradictory to industry reports and predictions, 54 percent of respondents have not used an ad blocker in the past six months.
• Forty-three percent of consumers report feeling negatively towards advertisements, compared to a similar survey conducted by Choozle from April of 2017 where only 34 percent reported a negative sentiment.
• Reasoning behind the negative sentiment include being shown the same advertisement multiple times (25 percent) and advertisements slowing down the webpage (19 percent).

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Personal Data and Privacy

• Forty-four percent of respondents reported that they are not very knowledgeable (26 percent) or not at all knowledgeable (18 percent) about what personal data online companies have about them.
• Eighty-nine percent do not think companies are doing enough to protect their personal data.
• Sixty percent of consumers did not know what the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are or how they could be affected. However, 78 percent of respondents think the US government should adopt stricter privacy and security standards.

“The survey showcases a broad shift in the digital advertising landscape since the start of the year,” said Jeffrey Finch, Choozle co-founder and Chief Product Officer. “While consumer sentiment opposed the vast majority of predicted trends for 2018, results did reaffirm that consumers are expressing a greater affinity towards connected devices and being served advertisements through streaming services like Spotify. However, it may be in the best interest of advertisers who have pillared their efforts in trends such as video or voice to revisit their strategies if they wish to stay ahead of ever-changing consumer behavior.”

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