Everyone Hates Advertising… Does Paid Advertising Still Work?

There’s been a ton of conversations online about the demise of advertising. Twitter hasn’t been too successful with its advertising package. Facebook is successful, but consumers are growing weary of ads splattered everywhere. And paid search continues to drive incredible revenue… but search is declining as other methods for seeking and finding information online grow in popularity.

Of course, if you were to ask consumers (and TechnologyAdvice and Unbounce did), you’d think they were worthless:

• 38% of respondents said they don’t pay attention to ads online.
• 79% of respondents said they almost never click online ads.
• 71% of respondents said personalized and behavior-based ads are intrusive or annoying.
• 90% of respondents said they never made a purchase commitment after clicking on an ad.

Of course, peoples’ perception when asked could be somewhat different from the results you achieve. If you think ads are dying or you want them gone, wait until you begin hitting ad walls and sponsored content everywhere. I’d much rather have obvious, relevant advertising than sneaky advertising!

Online paid media has a mixed reputation. Many businesses consider it a key component of their marketing strategy, but there are just as many critics. If you scour the web, you’ll find hundreds of articles offering best practices for gaining clicks and conversions, and hundreds more decrying the villainy of interruptive marketing.

Does online advertising work?

The bottom line is that the effectiveness of your campaigns can be improved over time with some of the advice here in this infographic. However, the bottom line a matter of ROI. Even with a very small click-through rate and conversion rate, is the strategy still profitable? No doubt you’ll want an omnichannel and inbound strategy to increase lead volume and decrease cost per click; however, ads alone can be incredibly effective. Someone is clicking on them, right?

Download the full report from TechnologyAdvice and Unbounce, Study: Is Online Paid Media Still Effective in 2015? to learn where online media has room for improvement and how to optimize your digital ads for engagement and conversion.