Even though online advertising takes up an increasingly large chunk of global advertising spending, it still lags behind traditional media in one key aspect: consumer trust.
According to a recent Nielsen study, television advertising remains the most-trusted form of paid media advertising. 62 percent of the 29,000 survey respondents stated that they trust TV ads. Television just edges out newspapers and magazines, which are trusted by 61 and 60 percent of the polled consumers. The most trusted form of paid online advertising is search engine advertising, which is considered trustworthy by just 48 percent of the respondents.
The results clearly indicate that consumers still have trust issues with online ads, although it needs to be noted that the perception of digital advertising has greatly improved over the past few years. Both search engine ads and online display ads saw double-digit increases in consumer trust since 2007, indicating that consumers are gradually getting used to these new forms of advertising.
Aside from paid media advertising, unpaid or earned advertising remains the most effective way to reach consumers: personal recommendations and online consumer reviews are considered trustworthy by 84 and 68 percent of the respondents, respectively.