It's a world of contradictions. A while ago Facebook faced a consumer backlash for its Beacon programme, which stored users behavioural data so that it could serve targeted adverts.
So I was surprised to hear that 56% of respondents to a new survey said their social networking experience would be better if marketers pushed more targeted ads (full story).
This reflects the experience of online marketers, particularly in the email sector. Targeting your marketing activitly according to premission and preferences creates huge efficiencies and it also helps to build a relationship with your customers. Get it right most of the time and they'll start to trust your ads - image that!
1 comment:
I agree with Tom's comments. OK I may be biased as a fellow web marketer but my take on it is:-
Most users would prefer a free service with ads to a paid service without ads.
Everyday, people get exposed to thousands of ads online, on radio & tv, in the press, at point of sale etc. At my web marketing seminars I always ask the audience if they can recall an ad they have seen or heard that day and typically only 1 or 2 people can recall 1 or 2 ads. People just ignore ads that are not relevant to them. The reverse is also true. When you are thinking of buying a new car, you begin to see the same model everywhere.
If a free service has to rely on ad revenue, it is better for the service, for the advertiser and for the user to have relevant targeted ads.
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