Survey of Internet users’ attitudes toward Internet advertising

Many have speculated about the current state of Internet advertising (IA), how it compares to advertising in general (GA), and its implications for traditional marketing models and practices. Although many estimates exist regarding who uses the Internet as well as guidelines about how best to design IA, little is known about Internet users’ attitudes toward IA, much less what characterizes these attitudes. To test this, a national sample of over 400 participants with at least some exposure to the Internet was surveyed. The results revealed no majority opinion of IA: approximately a third of respondents liked, disliked, and felt neutrally toward IA, respectively. A regression analysis indicated that enjoyment of looking at Internet advertisements, its informativeness, and its utility for making behavioral (purchasing) decisions contributed to participants’ attitudes toward IA. Enjoyment of looking at IA contributed the most to attitudes toward IA, yet at the same time appears to be one of IA's weakest features. In order to assess whether attitudes toward and perceptions of IA might reflect attitudes toward advertising in general by this demographic group, rather than attitudes toward IA per se, responses were compared to those of a demographically weighted-to-match national sample of over 1,000 who answered similar questions in regard to advertising in general. The results indicate that more respondents found IA to be informative and trustworthy than a demographically similar sample found GA. Even though the attitudes and perceptions of IA and GA were significantly different, the structure of GA and IA attitudes was the same. Implications for the design of IA are discussed.