Social network users 'are less tolerant of ads'

25/11/2008

A recent study has revealed that people who use social networking services (SNS), such as Facebook and MySpace, are less receptive to online advertising.

IDC conducted a survey which revealed that advertising on SNS has a lower average click-through rate than other online advertising - news that might interest people involved in search marketing and ecommerce.

Some 79 per cent of all users have clicked on an online advertisement in the past year.

However, only 57 per cent of SNS users were persuaded to further investigate an ad.

Karsten Weide, program director at Digital Marketplace: Media and Advertising, said: "The thinking has been that the popularity of SNS will attract a big audience and generate a lot of traffic."

He added that this should have produced a large amount of user-generated content and advertising inventory, but said that SNS have had "a hard time selling this".

In related news, a survey from Shape the Future found that advertisers are looking to spend more on online advertising over the next 12 months in a bid to cut overall marketing costs.