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What Makes People Avoid Ads on Social Media?
Summary
An empirical study of Facebook data has broad implications for advertisers on social media platforms. This research found a link between users’ response to ads and their perceptions about intrusiveness and privacy concerns—as well as whether they were using a computer or mobile device.
Among the findings:
- Trust in Facebook emerged as a key driver of advertisement acceptance, but was lower on mobile devices than on PCs.
- On mobile devices, privacy concerns and need for control were linked to perceptions of ads as more intrusive and invasive of privacy.
- Evidence of avoidance behavior in terms of privacy protection was stronger among PC users.
- Distinguishing between advertising’s intrinsic value and its social value reveals differences in how value emerges as a function of the primary device used to access Facebook.
- Advertisements’ intrinsic value surfaced as a central driver in the mobile world: To be valuable to mobile users, an advertisement must provide a real service in facilitating ease of localization and access.
- Surprisingly, Facebook ads had greater social value for those users who consulted the network on their PCs than mobile users.
Caroline Lancelot Miltgen (clancelot@audencia.com) is a professor of marketing at Audencia Business School, Nantes, France. Her research investigates the impact of technology on society, consumption, and consumers, with a specific focus on privacy.
Anne-Sophie Cases (anne-sophie.cases@umontpellier.fr) is a professor of digital marketing at IAE University of Montpellier, France. Her work explores the impact of digital technology on marketing in the context of consumer behavior and on customer-relationship management.
Cristel Antonia Russell (cristelrussell@fulbrightmail.org) is a professor of marketing at Graziadio Business School, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA. Russell’s research intersects entertainment and marketing communications, with a special focus on the health and societal implications of marketing practice.