Social Networking Sites and Advertising

Social Networking sites are used by millions of people around the globe and thousands of new users are jumping on social networking sites every day. Almost all of these social networking sites and new entrants are dependent on the advertising to generate the revenue to keep them going. However, a recent study shows that consumers have a very low tolerance for online ads.

A majority of those asked, accepted that advertising will appear on a web page but they had very low tolerance for more than 2 advertising units per web page. Some say that they would leave the site immediately if they thought that it was cluttered with advertising. Women are more likely than men to abandon the site. (Have lots of ads on the site and can’t figure out why people are abandoning, this might be a reason, time for me to do some testing)

It is not only the publishers who are negatively affected by the ad clutter but also are the advertiser’s products and services. Users are less tolerant of social networking sites advertising than other forms of online advertising. Ads on these sites have lower click through rates than traditional online ads. Lack of ad effectiveness and slowing economy is making marketers cut their spending on Social Networking sites.

Your thoughts and comments?