July 9th, 2018, Prasenjit Karmakar
More than half (52%) notice advertisements when scrolling through their newsfeed
Brands are trying to connect with their users in one way or another across a range of social media platforms. As competition increases and consumers’ attention span reduces, it is getting tougher for brands to catch attention of its consumers across these social media platforms.
YouGov analysed various factors that impacted social media advertisement effectiveness like advertisement noticeability in newsfeed, propensity of consumers to notice and clicks on these targeted advertisements, what makes these advertisements grab the attention of consumers and make them relevant and engaging. YouGov research revealed the insights on what makes the brand message stand apart.
Newsfeed advertisements’ noticeability varied depending on where the advertisements were displayed. Across the UAE & KSA 80% of consumers notice advertisements when scrolling through their newsfeed. 3 in 10 of those respondents notice the ads/post in the newsfeed always, with more people in UAE (35%) than in KSA (21%).
Consumer’s work status also impacted whether they noticed these advertisements. YouGov research revealed, the working individuals (85%) tend to be more vigilant about the ads/posts in the newsfeed compared to the non-working ones (71%).
The true impact of advertisements that are driven towards asking consumers to take some action on these ads can be directly correlated to click rate of these advertisements. YouGov research revealed that Facebook stands out when it comes to making consumers click these advertisements. People are more likely to click on a post/advertisement on Facebook (62%) compared to other social media websites.
Following this in the UAE 83% of Facebook users are inclined to click on an ad compared to people in KSA with sits at under half (43%). Instagram (42%), Snapchat (33%) & Twitter (38%) are a more favoured social media channels in KSA compared to UAE. Ads on Instagram (44%) & Snapchat (26%) are more likely to be clicked by women while men are more inclined to click on ads shown on Twitter (34%).
UAE men tend to be the most actively engaged with social media advertisement where people in UAE (56%) and more men (55%) click on the ads that appear in the newsfeed.
As, attention span of an average social media user hovers around 8 seconds, brands need to make their message stand out to grab maximum attention. YouGov research revealed ‘the image’ is the first thing that grabs attention and makes someone click on the post.
Another key factor that impacts social media message engagement is the relevancy of these messages. This may sound alarming to any brand focussing on social media as channel for engagement that close to 40% do not find the advertising content relevant (36%) or engaging (35%).
Well, if this sounds too an uphill task for brands, consumer’s social graph may come to brands’ rescue. Over one third of respondents are likely click on the ads/post shared by friends.
Commenting on the findings Head of Omnibus Research, Kerry McLaren, said, “As brands focus on social media to connect with their consumers, this survey shows that brands need to lay their attention on creating engaging content with clear focus on building trust factor in brand messaging. There are stark contrasts when it comes to how the UAE & KSA digest social content so it is important for clients to recognise this and direct their campaigns accordingly, providing relevance of advertising to their audience.
Data collected online by YouGov Omnibus among 1,015 respondents in Saudi Arabia and 1,005 respondents in the UAE between 22 March and 02 April 2018 using YouGov’s panel of over 5 million people worldwide. Data is representative of the adult online population in both countries.