A new study conducted by Culture Intelligence from RED shows that more customers are getting turned off by intrusive advertising content on their phones and gadgets, even as brands continue to invest heavily in in-app advertising and other forms of mobile advertising.
Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions in the app market. With a young and mobile-savvy population driving a booming app culture, Nigeria leads the growth of the continent’s mobile app installs with a 43% rise between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021. South Africa’s market increased by 37% and Kenya increased 29% according to a report by Appsflyer and Google. Clearly, this reflects a booming market for in-app marketing.
Respondents who participated in the study are smartphone users, or have previously used one. In addition, 100% of the respondents confirmed that they have been exposed to in-app advertising content. Asked to select the major platforms that consistently push brand adverts that they consumer on their gadget, a majority of the respondents (87%) indicated Facebook as a significant platform, followed by Instagram, with game apps in third place at 42%.
On whether they find the in-app ads intrusive, 69.3% confirmed that they do, 22% said that they do not, while about 8% were uncertain. When asked if this intrusive advertising creates a negative perception about a brand in their minds, 51% of the respondents – mostly between 18 – 25 years – explained that the more an advert interrupted their phone usage, the more they disliked the advertiser. Just 16% said no, while the remaining 33% explained that they had no opinion about the issue. Interestingly, this could be related to a different issue on customer knowledge, especially in understanding what actions consumers can take to address what may be a problem.
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According to Business of Apps, consumers and internet users want more choices and control over their own data and which ads they see, and the option of participating in “ad-free” zones. In a previous research by Marketing Dive, four out of five (82%) advertisers said mobile device identifiers, which are used to pinpoint specific smartphone users, are important for ad targeting, but 53% said privacy implications are an “urgent issue”. Currently, more countries and companies are beginning to adopt stricter data privacy rules.
“For Ads to become less intrusive, brands need to listen to the preferences of their audiences,” said Dare Babatunde, a communication expert and project manager. “Consumers want to move away from behavioural targeting ads ecosystems into Ad-free zones, and many of them have no problem subscribing just to avoid them. The downside is that brands who do not understand how much they can become a nuisance can actually lose the customers offline too”.
Over the past year, in-app advertising revenue has increased significantly, with 213% in South Africa, 141% in Nigeria, and 74% in Kenya — with more people on their phones due to the lockdown; while non-organic game installs (from ads) increased by 56% as game marketers were increasing spending in response to increasing consumer.
Consumers who feel ads are becoming too invasive will only continue to take actions that brands, apps and advertisers should take more seriously. For them, especially millennials and Gen Z, it means supporting systems that feel more aligned with decentralization, and less aligned with ad-based practices.
