Many consumers feel overwhelmed by online content and advertising. According to the Ad Preferences* survey conducted by GetApp, 66% of consumers frequently ignore or hide ads, demonstrating a growing resistance to intrusive advertising.
Faced with these new habits and preferences, it is becoming difficult for marketers to find the right balance and avoid resorting to intrusive advertising at the expense of effective advertising. Consequently, marketers must adapt their strategy and review how they communicate with their target audience, particularly in terms of marketing email frequency and content relevance, if they want to improve engagement and build trust. To help them gain clarity and deliver campaigns that meet today’s consumer expectations, GetApp conducted a global survey with a total sample of 5,996 individuals, including 500 French individuals.
Key Takeaways
- 54% of consumers unsubscribe because they receive too many messages.
- 41% often ignore or hide marketing communications.
- 34% use ad-blocking tools.
Unsubscribing and Managing Unwanted Marketing Communications
Consumers are increasingly demanding about the marketing communications they choose to engage with, and often opt out when they feel overwhelmed or find the content irrelevant.
The survey reveals that 54% of consumers unsubscribe because they receive too many messages, while 46% do so because the content is irrelevant to them. This underscores the importance of moderation and relevance in marketing communications. Businesses must carefully manage the frequency of their messages, ensuring that each communication provides added value and meets the consumer’s interests to avoid being perceived as spam.
The Risk of Ending Up with Marketing Communications in the Spam Folder
Beyond simply unsubscribing, consumers employ a variety of strategies to manage unwanted marketing messages. According to the survey, 53% of respondents marked emails as spam or junk, which prevents further messages from the same source. Additionally, 36% used spam filters or email blocking tools, while 23% reviewed and adjusted their privacy settings on websites and apps to limit unwanted communications.
These actions underscore the importance of respecting consumer preferences and the need for companies to offer clear and easily accessible options for managing communication preferences. Failure to do so not only risks losing consumer engagement but also harming brand trust and reputation.
Tolerance and Interaction with Marketing Communications
Regarding the frequency with which consumers are willing to receive marketing messages from the same company, the survey shows that tolerance for frequent communications is relatively low. While 38% of respondents indicated they would unsubscribe if they received five or more marketing emails from the same company within a 30-day period, 62% would do so well before this number. It’s worth noting that French respondents are the least patient in this situation, compared to respondents in the other countries where the survey was conducted.
Companies must therefore be strategic about the frequency of their contact with consumers. Over-communication can quickly lead to unsubscribes, while under-engagement can cause a brand to fall into oblivion. The key is finding the optimal frequency that maintains brand presence without overwhelming consumers. According to our survey results, French respondents would accept an average of 4.36 marketing communications from the same company over a 30-day period before deciding to unsubscribe.
French respondents are the most tolerant of online advertising
The survey also sheds light on how consumers interact with online advertising. While French respondents are somewhat reluctant to receive high-frequency marketing communications, it is interesting to note that this apprehension is less pronounced when it comes to clicking on online ads. Indeed, 32% of respondents reported intentionally clicking on ads, which is more than in other countries where the survey was conducted, such as the United States (28%), Canada (28%), the United Kingdom (26%), or Japan (24%). The level of engagement in France therefore appears to be quite high, despite a low tolerance for excessive marketing and spam.
Furthermore, while 28% of respondents had not clicked on any ads in the past week, French respondents were less vigilant about online advertising, with 25% admitting to having clicked accidentally. Furthermore, 15% of consumers experienced both intentional and accidental clicks.
These findings suggest that while there is a certain level of engagement with online ads, a significant portion of this engagement may be involuntary. This makes it difficult for advertisers to measure the true effectiveness of their campaigns.
Business Tips
To improve intentional user engagement, marketers should strive to create more targeted, relevant, and engaging content.
Targeted: After defining clear objectives for your advertising campaign (is it to increase sales, generate leads, or increase brand awareness?), it is important to have a good understanding of your target audience. To do this, you can rely on demographic data, market research, or behavioral analysis.
Relevant: The data from these studies will help define relevant content likely to interest the target audience. This relevant content must be personalized and comply with the guidelines of the platform on which the ad will be displayed. It is therefore important to first research the types of advertising that work on each platform and the consumer profiles that can be targeted.
Attractive: In addition to being relevant, the content of online ads must be attractive to capture the attention of the target audience. This requires not only high-quality designs or visuals, including colors that reflect your brand image, but also simple and direct CTAs that really make people want to click. Ad Avoidance, Hiding, and Blocking Behaviors
Trends in Ad Avoidance and Hiding
Despite a relative tolerance for online advertising, there is a certain resistance from consumers, manifested by the frequency with which they ignore or hide these communications. According to the survey, 41% of respondents often ignore or hide ads, while 25% do so almost always. In other words, 66% of consumers regularly avoid ads, which presents a significant challenge for marketers who rely on these ads to reach their audiences.
The high rate of ad avoidance suggests that many consumers find ads intrusive or irrelevant. To combat this phenomenon, advertisers must consider less intrusive ad formats or more engaging and interactive ad experiences that capture attention without distracting it. Native advertising is one such approach. Unlike traditional online advertising, native advertising integrates naturally into the environment of the site or platform on which it is displayed, without disrupting the user experience. To achieve this goal, native advertising must have a style and content perfectly suited to the site on which it is displayed and present quality content, including useful and interesting information that effectively meets the needs of the target audience.
Business Tips
To create effective native advertising, businesses can use content marketing software. Thanks to its social integration and workflow management features, this software automates the processes of creating, publishing, and tracking the ROI of marketing campaigns linked to any online content, including native advertising.
Explosion in the Use of Ad-Blocking and Anti-Tracking Software
In recent years, the use of ad blockersand anti-tracking software has exploded, reshaping the online advertising landscape. Currently, 34% of internet users use ad-blocking or anti-tracking tools, while 57% do not. The growing adoption of ad blockers highlights a significant trend: users are increasingly protecting their online privacy and distrusting intrusive ads.
The implications for online advertising are profound. As more and more users choose to block ads, advertisers are struggling to reach their target audiences. This trend is forcing a shift toward more ethical and user-friendly advertising strategies and non-intrusive formats, such as native ads, while also pushing companies to prioritize transparency and data privacy to regain consumer trust.
How to Adapt to Changing Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior is changing, with consumers now having clear expectations about how they would like to see improvements in online advertising. The survey found that 60% of respondents want less intrusive ads, while 40% would like to see more relevant ads.
This feedback indicates a growing demand for a better online experience, where ads are not only less disruptive, but also more personalized and meaningful. For marketers, this means leveraging data and advanced targeting strategies to ensure ads are relevant to each consumer’s needs and interests. Furthermore, reducing ad intrusiveness by using formats that integrate seamlessly into the user experience, such as contextual or native ads, can help create a more positive perception of advertising and improve overall engagement.