Study Confirms: People Hate Ads, Would Not Pay to Avoid Them

Few people really enjoy ads, but advertising revenue traditionally allows media to be provided at no incremental cost, or lower cost, than would be the case if consumers paid for the full cost of their media.

Internet advertising saves United Kingdom users $232.24 (£140) a year, according to an analysis by Ebuzzing.

Still, about 98 percent of respondents surveyed on behalf of Ebuzzing also say they would not pay that additional amount to have an “ad-free” experience. That finding is consistent with virtually all surveys that ask consumers whether they would really be willing to pay a substantial amount for an “ad-free” experience.

On the other hand, consumers are adept at avoiding or minimizing ads, so marketers will have to create more engaging forms of advertising, to have an impact, Ebuzzing also suggests. That is about what one would expect an advertising services firm to say, however much the suggestion is logical.

The study, which surveyed a nationally representative group of more than 1,400 UK consumers, revealed 63 percent of web users skip online video ads “as quickly as possible.”

For users 16 to 24, 75 percent do so.

About 26 percent of respondents said they mute their sound, while 20 percent scroll away from the video. Some 16 percent use ad blocking software.

For younger people, the incidence of ad avoidance efforts were higher in all cases.

Respondents were asked what would make them more likely to watch online video ads. Relevance was important. Some 34 percent saying the ad “should be relevant to me” and 20 percent reported “‘being able to select the ad I watch” also was important.

About 38 percent of those respondents 16 to 24 indicated ability to select ads was important.

Some 26 percent suggested ads should be ‘funny or entertaining’ and 21 percent prefer short ads (less than one minute run time). About 16 percent said ads should be relevant to the content being consumed at the time.

The study also found that 77 percent of consumers never upgrade to paid for versions of free mobile apps.

The estimated value of advertising was arrived at by calculating the average value of each Internet user by taking the amount spent on digital advertising in the U.K. last year - $10.6 billion (£6.4 billion) and dividing it by the number of Internet users in the country (45 million).