27% of Social Media Users View Ads More Negatively than in 2017

A new study, commissioned by social media management platform Sprout Social, has discovered that 27% of social media users view ads more negatively than in 2017.

1,000 Americans were surveyed and the results concluded that two-fifths (39%) said that recent political events had meant their trust in social ads had decreased.

Consumers who had complained about social advertising also said it was due to uninteresting content (31%) and irrelevance (26%).

Sprout Social also discovered that consumers on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are not “finding much to stop them from scrolling” past ads recently.

The study found that one-third of people are more likely to engage with those social ads which are more educational. 65% of consumers said that they would click on these ads to learn more.

The most popular ad features were found to be entertaining content (41%) and discounts (37%).

On the other hand, video was also very well liked, with 83% of the survey respondents stating this was their most favoured feature on an ad.

GIFs were also viewed favourably by 58% of social media users.

People were also reportedly more interested in viewing ads from brands (57%) than from influencers (43%).

Read more here.