What Consumers Think of Personalized Online Ads消费者如何看待个性化网络广告

Just as online advertising has evolved over the last decade， so too have consumer feelings about personalized ads. When scrolling Facebook， some users are delighted to see an advertisement in their feed that’s related to one of their recent Google searches， while others are concerned about the proverbial “Big Brother” watching over them.

正如网络广告在过去十年中业已发展一样，消费者对个性化广告的感受也已发生变化。在刷脸书动态的时候，一些用户很高兴在推送中看到与他们最近的一条谷歌搜索相关的广告，而其他人则担心传说中的“老大哥”在监视他们。

What consumers think of personalized ads

消费者如何看待个性化广告

Back in 2017， a study designed to explore how consumers cope with online behavioral advertising， published in the International Journal of Advertising， found that many consumers are worried about the risks to their privacy that come with personalized ads. “The perception of risk is much stronger than the perception of benefit，” the author’s study said in a statement.

早在2017年，一项旨在考察消费者如何应对在线行为广告的研究发表在《国际广告学刊》上，该研究发现许多消费者担心个性化广告会带来个人隐私泄露的风险。该研究在一份声明中表示：“对风险的感知远比对利益的感知更为强烈。”

Subsequent studies， however， suggest a considerably more mixed reaction.

然而，后续的研究显示，消费者对此有一种相当复杂的反应。

Advertising and analytics company Innovid’s July 2020 study， “Consumer attitudes on personalized ads，” found that 43% of survey respondents—a sample of 1，000 U.S. adults—believe it’s important that digital ads are personalized. 29% said they would be more likely to make a purchase if advertising was personalized， and 31% said personalized ads drive brand loyalty. The company deems this audience “now consumers，” perhaps because respondents expressed an interest in seeing advertising that reflects “the context of [their] moment”—what websites they’re visiting or TV shows they’re streaming1 at any given time.

广告分析公司因诺维德在2020年7月进行的一项名为“消费者对个性化广告的态度”的研究发现，在接受调查的1000名美国成年人中，有43%的人认为数字广告的个性化很重要。29%的人表示，如果广告是个性化的，他们更有可能进行购买，而31%的人表示个性化广告能增强品牌忠诚度。该公司将这部分受众称为“即时消费者”，可能是因为受访者表示对看到反映“（他们）当下情境”（即他们正在访问的网站或正在线观看的电视节目）的广告感兴趣。

The Innovid results stand in contrast to a study commissioned by social justice organization Global Witness2 and YouGov3 less than a year later on German and French social media users’ views about personalized online experiences. In February 2021， 57% of those polled said， “I don’t want my personal data being used to target me with any ads， either commercial or political.” Only 11% were OK with it.

因诺维德的研究结果与不到一年后由社会正义组织全球见证和舆观调查网委托进行的一项研究形成了鲜明对比，后者关注的是德国和法国社交媒体用户对于个性化在线体验的看法。在2021年2月的调查中，57%的受访者表示：“我不希望我的个人数据被用来向我投放任何广告，无论是商业广告还是政治广告。”仅有11%的人表示能够接受个性化网络广告。

The respondents were largely against personalized ads based on income， health information， voting records， sexual orientation， religious views， personal events （like pregnancy）， race or ethnicity， location， gender and age. Additionally， 44% said platforms should disclose which companies are paying for personalized ads and how the targeting works.

受访者普遍反对基于收入、健康信息、投票记录、性取向、宗教观、个人事件（如怀孕）、种族或民族、位置、性别和年龄等信息的个性化广告。此外，有44%的人认为平台应该公开哪些公司正在为个性化广告付费以及目标投放的工作原理。

Of course， looking at these studies together isn’t technically an apples-to-apples comparison. Participant demographics weren’t consistent across the surveys， nor were the questions. But even when considering the variables， consumer sentiment on personalized ads remains an open question without a consensus answer.

当然，将这些研究放在一起看并不是严格意义上的同类比较。各项调查中的参与者人口统计特征并不一致，问卷调查设置的问题也不相同。但即使考虑到这些变量，消费者对于个性化广告的看法仍然是一个有争议的问题，没有一致的答案。

How online ads have evolved

网络广告是如何发展的

Online advertising has long been a game of cat-and-mouse between brands and their ad agencies on the one hand and everyone else on the other. Early Flash-powered banner ads often ran into browser compatibility problems before HTML54 standardized webpage content displays. Hover ads5 （also known as interstitials） were so reviled by consumers that search engines began grading them as that page’s primary content to discourage their use. In the meantime， the print advertising industry collapsed in on itself， forcing advertisers to seek new digital platforms for their content.

在线广告长期以来一直是品牌及其广告代理与其他所有人之间的一场猫捉老鼠的游戏。早期基于Flash技术的横幅广告经常在浏览器兼容性方面遇到问题，直到HTML5将网页内容显示标准化。悬浮广告（也称为插页式广告）被消费者深恶痛绝，以至于搜索引擎开始将它们评定为该页面的主要内容，以遏制其使用。与此同时，印刷广告业自身也陷入了崩溃，迫使广告商寻找新的数字平台来展示他们的内容。

Simultaneously， cookies6 were being refined to provide granular tracking of individual consumers. Search for something on Google or Bing today， and for months afterward， you’re likely to see sidebar ads relating to that search on unrelated webpages. This is the phenomenon of personalized online ads.

与此同时，网络跟踪器的应用日益精进，为广告商提供了对个体消费者进行精细化追踪的能力。当你在谷歌或必应上搜索某个内容后，接下来的几个月里，你很可能在不相关的网页上看到与该搜索内容相关的侧边栏广告。这就是个性化网络广告现象。

How businesses should approach online ads

企业应该如何应用网络广告

When do personalized ads cross personal boundaries？ That’s the question at the heart of another study featured in a 2021 edition of Computers in Human Behavior Reports shared online by ScienceDirect. This investigation determined “people hold quite negative attitudes towards personalized advertising.”