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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology

Fact or fiction? The truth about online advertising

Users don't like online advertising

Econsultancy's UK Internet Advertising Statistics Compendium has proved that users do engage with online advertising and consider it a vital part of the internet. 61% of adult users believe the internet would disappear without online advertising and 31% say they have made a purchase as a direct result of an online ad. Young users are the most engaged with 40% claiming to have bought a product or service because of an online advert and 68% finding online advertising helpful. Fiction.

fact or fiction graph
Photograph: Ebuzzing

Short form online video ads just as effective as TV

ComScore's Surviving the upfronts in a cross media world proved that short form online video ads are just as effective as their television counterpart. ComScore used their share of choice metric, which gauges consumer preference for a brand among its competitors, to compare 30 different advertisements that were tested in both online video and traditional TV formats. They found that the lift in share of choice for both TV advertisements and online video was 0.86. This correlates to roughly an 8% lift in sales for both formats, proving that online video ads are just as effective as traditional television advertising. Fact.

Online Video is a fad

The average Brit watches a huge 19 hours of online video per month that works out at roughly 176 videos in total. ComScore's report suggests that only 1.5% of online video is currently made up of advertising, whereas TV is 25% adverts. This suggests there is massive room for growth in online video advertising (although it is unlikely to reach the same volume as TV advertising) and that the upward online trend is set to continue. ComScore is not alone, Nielsen's Global Advertising Report also agrees that online video advertising is here to stay and encourages advertisers to 'refine marketing plans so that they reflect this new video-viewing behaviour'. Fiction.

Hopefully this has cleared up some of the myths surrounding online advertising, remember don't believe everything you hear.

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