According to a report from Nielsen, your susceptibility to and tolerance of social media advertising is tied to your ethnicity.
Nielsen looked at interactions with social ads and found that Asian-American consumers are much more likely to react positively, all across the board. They were more likely to share an ad, like an ad, and make a purchase based on the ad.
Whites were the least likely to share, like, or buy from a social media ad, with Hispanics and African-Americans falling in between the two.
Nielsen also found that of those who made a purchase after viewing an ad, most obtained a coupon first. Check out their mini-infographic below:
Nielsen also had this to say on the current state of social media advertising:
“Consumer attitudes towards advertising on social media are still evolving, though a third of social media users agree that ads on social networking sites are more annoying than other online ads. More than a quarter of users say they don’t mind seeing tailored ads based on their individual profile information. Not only do consumers not mind certain ads, they also engage with them by liking or sharing an ad (26% and 15%, respectively), or actually making a purchase (14%). As attitudes towards advertisements evolve, and ads become more accepted based on consumers’ responsiveness level, social media platforms can become more and more like traditional, ad-supported media.”
Another recent study from Adobe/Edelman Berland painted a still pretty bleak picture of online ad credibility. Over half of respondents said that most online marketing was “a bunch of bullshit,” and 68% said they were “annoyed” by online ads. In fact, people said they were 7 times more likely to pay attention to their dentist than pay attention to an online ad.