Tailored ads? No thanks say consumers

A bit of a wake-up call for anyone using behavioural advertising (ads served up according to your web surfing habits).

According to academics from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California (Berkeley), 2/3 of Americans don’t want tailored ads. However, when told that tailored advertising involves a bit of snooping to find out what you are doing online, that figure rises to 3/4+.

Meanwhile according to Daily Finance, 86% of consumers aged 18-24 polled in the same survey said it’s not ok for brands to tailor ads for sites they’ve been visiting, putting paid to the myth that younger people online aren’t that fussed about privacy.

Given the risible click-through rates (0.83% is the figure I’ve seen quoted) for online advertising, and the on-going debate as to how online ads should be measured, targeted advertising would have seen to be a way forward for brands looking to optimise their online spend.

No thanks say consumers, we don’t want you to invade our privacy and guess what we like. Or at least in the States they do, and there’s no evidence that they’d be any different elsewhere.

Image – Practical Owl