It’s not surprising that with more people spending most of their time at home, they are spending more time online, especially on social media. From the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, the average time people spend and interact with content online has increased. So, this led to increasing the importance of the ads as users will check out to take a break from the noise.
Previously, some researches showed that about 39% of consumers have bought from a new brand in the quarantine time. That happened because the quarantine time and the global lockdown made people more excited to try new products after they were bored staying home 24/7. The study demonstrated that brands can establish their open-mindedness and the relevant ads that appear on their trusted websites.
Consumers are now spending an average of nearly 7 hours daily engaging to online content, yet before the pandemic, the average was just 3 hours and 17 minutes. Social media is seeing the greatest benefits as there is no place to go or no events to share. 48% of consumers have increased their time spent on social media, especially youtube which increased to 43%, and TikTok that saw a huge growth in 18-24 demographics.
Before turning all their marketing budget to video content, marketers had to know that the context is as important. As per a study, 69% of consumers are likely to see an ad if it has a relevant context. This year, a study found that ads related to COVID-19 performed in a good way than ads that had any other messages.
The ad placement is important as well. Around 67% stated that they are likely to engage with ads on the site of a relevant publisher that they know or trust. While 55% would never (or be less likely) to use a brand if the ad demonstrated with fake news.
Results like these can create some sort of pressure on social media companies to create policies to their content as they need to increase the demand from advertisers. For example, Facebook, this summer, was the subject of an advertiser boycott as civil rights asked the platform more to stop hate speech and misinformation.
“This study highlights consumers’ openness to contextually-relevant ads and the importance of trusted news during these challenging times,” Dan Slivjanovski, CMO at DoubleVerify, said in the study’s press release. “Given the complex news cycles of 2020, a nuanced approach to brand suitability is more critical than ever.”
