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Consumers not keen on mobile ads: study

A mere 10 percent of consumers that have viewed a mobile ad on a Web site or within an application claim that it drove them to buy online or visit a retailer in-store.

This was a key finding of a study conducted by Loop Analytics. A whopping 30 percent of respondents claim they were driven to download an application after tapping on a mobile banner.

?These findings imply that, similar to the digital Web or any other ad-based medium, consumers just aren't keen on ads regardless of where they are seen,? said Edward Hunter, chief information officer of Loop Analytics, New York. ?In mobile, however, consumers consider the device a more intimate and private connection to themselves, and are thus more likely to be driven away from brands whose advertising they perceive as intrusive or unfavorable to their mobile experience.

?A consumer who is a fan of a Web site or television station can certainly opt not to visit that site or watch that channel, but is less likely to allow ads they don't want to see divert them elsewhere,? he said. ?However, deleting a site's bookmark or an app altogether on mobile is a different story.

?Consumers can and likely will be fairly discriminating in the content they allow on their devices in response to their attitudes towards the ads in the content.?

Loop Analytics provides an analytics, advertising and research platform for mobile smartphone applications used by developers, publishers, advertisers, agencies and brands.

Unfavorable to ads
The Loop study found that 40 percent of consumers find ads on mobile WAP sites unfavorable to some degree, while nearly half of those surveyed found them unfavorable in mobile apps.

Because the highest percentage of those surveyed interacted with an ad on a mobile device to download an app versus all other reactions, it would seem that consumers are more welcome to ads when they are directly relevant to the mobile phone experience, versus driving some other type of behavior.

The highest rate of recall for mobile ads for consumers who recall seeing an ad was in apps or on mobile Web pages.

No other recall rate for a medium was above 15 percent, according to Loop.

Mr. Hunter said that marketers looking to capitalize on mobile would be wise to consider the intimate channel they are treading within.

?Mobile is very much a domain controlled by the individual consumer, and switching off a brand that intrudes on the consumers WAP or app space is easy, and pretty irreversible,? Mr. Hunter said. ?Apps might have varying ranges of repeat engagement for instance, but its nearly unheard of for a consumer to reinstall an app once they delete it.

?Finding relevance and value would seem to be two keys to staying on the friendly side of the consumer in mobile, as the highest engagement with mobile ads seems to revolve around downloading apps, which implies both,? he said.