Let’s face it: the perception of social media ads has declined recently.
One of the scariest stats says that nearly 60% of Americans don’t believe advertising. In fact, they often align ads with “fake news.”
So how can your business create entertaining social media ads? And ensure they spark action?
To stop users from scrolling past your ads, keep reading!
The Ugly
First, the ugly, no-good, awful news.
Sprout Social conducted a survey of more than 1,000 Americans and found that their collective perception of social advertising has declined in the past year.
In part, this is due to our current politically-charged climate.
One big factor turning consumers off is when social media ads are shown next to ‘objectionable’ online content or on fake news sites.
As a matter of fact, Sprout’s research showed that 39% of consumers attributed their declined perception of social media ads to recent political events.
They reported the largest-ever drop in trust across the institutions of government, business, media, and NGOs.
Ouch.
If you’re interested in more on “truth decay” and what it means for marketers, check out my post on {grow}.
While there’s not much we can do about the above, we can go from bad to better.
The Bad
If we’re going to focus on what we can control, let’s look at another point made in Sprout Social’s recent survey.
The top reason for the drop of interest in social media ads?
58% of respondents said they were simply seeing too many social ads overall.
This highlights advertisers concerns that Facebook and other sites are jam-packed with ads and turning users off.
Furthermore, now that users have ad-blockers in their arsenal, even fewer ads are being shown.
So how can your social media ads combat this?
In a word: Entertainment. Sprout’s study showed that entertaining ads are the best way to stop ad fatigue.
Additionally, discounts, how-tos, and storytelling are other ways to keep your ads in…
