Dive Brief:
- Research from Moz and Fractl found more than half of millennials block online ads, a result that raises earlier totals by separate research from GlobeWebIndex.
- Mobile device research from Experian Marketing Services found less than 8% of Baby Boomers would buy something based on viewing a mobile ad.
- Meanwhile, now that iOS 9 with its ad blocking capability has been released, Apple mobile users have already made paid ad blocking apps top downloads at the App Store.
Dive Insight:
Separate groups of research offer marketers insights into how two different demographic groups – millennials and Baby Boomers – share similarly bleak feelings toward digital ads.
A July 2015 study by Moz and Fractl revealed that 63% of Gen Y blocks online ads, a figure that is much higher than research from earlier this year by GlobeWebIndex finding that closer to one-third of millennials used ad blocking technology. The same study also gauged millennial attitudes toward different ads types such as retargeting, social media and paid search. Of all the types covered mobile ads were seen the most unfavorably with only 6.5% describing them as “highly relevant” and 29.5% saying mobile ads were “very irrelevant.”
Separate research by Experian Marketing Services also found Baby Boomers do not like mobile ads with only 7.9% reporting being willing to buy something based on a mobile ad. The same study showed a higher level of smartphone penetration with mobile users in the younger demographic group. Just over 90% of 25 to 34-year-old mobile users had a smartphone, while fewer than 41% of 65 and up had a smartphone.