Gen Z Actually Likes Ads?

THE KIDS ARE WATCHING YOUR ADS

One of the hottest topics of conversation in marketing circles is always how “kids these days” are consuming media, but this week we learned something even more interesting: They might actually like being advertised to.

The people who get lumped together in the “Gen Z” category grew up with digital media. They’ve never known a time when ads weren’t popping up or sliding in as they were trying to consume media, and their information has always been recorded, tracked, and targeted. That’s probably why a number of recent studies seem to show that they may actually be in favour of better-targeted, more relevant advertising.

The first number that jumped off the page of a study reported by Marketing Dive was that over 75% of Gen Z reported buying a product based the recommendation of an influencer in the past year. When we narrow that down only to beauty and food & beverage products, that number jumps to 85%.

Note the word “reported” — boomers, and Gen X for that matter, are extremely reluctant to ever admit that any marketing effort has influenced their purchase decisions. Gen Zs are apparently self-aware and willing to own up to it. They’re also making it easier for advertisers to track them, even though they are better informed about how to block that tracking from happening. The study shows that Gen Z protects their data much differently than Boomers:

• 3x more likely to allow tracking when presented with prompts such as those for Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (compared to Boomers)
• Less likely to clear their browser cookies (41% vs. 59%)
• Less likely to use an ad blocker (27% vs. 32%)
• Proving their tech-savviness, they are much more likely to use a VPN (32% vs. 27%)

They are also significantly more likely to take an action, or recall what’s been advertised to them (especially when it comes to video ads):

• They’re much more likely to scan a QR code (25% vs. 9%)
• 45% of them are likely to recall an ad they’ve seen on YouTube
• They’re twice as likely to recall an ad on YouTube than one on TikTok

If all of that is true, it changes the whole relationship that advertisers and consumers have with each other. For the past few decades, ads have tried everything they could to masquerade as native or organic content, but what if they didn’t have to pretend to be something that they’re not?

In a world where the audience sees ads as being useful, or at least informative, they can focus on being helpful, educational, and straightforward. They can, and should, still be entertaining and beautiful, but wouldn’t it be refreshing to live in a world where content wasn’t trying to trick you?

Perhaps that’s an overly optimistic reading of the data, but at minimum, anyone who is targeting a younger audience should take into account the fact that they know what you’re doing when you’re targeting them, and if you do it well, they may even thank you for it.

• Read Marketing Dive’s breakdown of the data
• And read more about Gen Z’s preferences in this Precise Advertiser Report

GLOBAL ADS ARE UP

EVERYTHING ISN’T AWFUL

It can seem like all of the news is doom and gloom these days, but at least in the ad world, times have never been better. Right now, the industry is on track to top $1 Trillion for the first time ever. And not only is there more money flying around, but CPMs (average price of ads) are cheaper, conversion rates among online retailers are up, and consumer sentiment is very high.

Now, this doesn’t mean that it’s all champagne for every business competing online, but it does give us a bit of a positive outlook as we move towards the all-important Fall/Winter seasons.

• Read MediaPost’s report on decreasing ad prices here
• Read about the all-time high ad spends in MarketingDive here

ZERO-CLICK MARKETING

THE BEST CALL TO ACTION MAY BE NONE AT ALL

There’s a new idea emerging in digital marketing that credits people with understanding how to seek out ways to book and/or buy from us, meaning we don’t need to be nearly as direct about sharing links and shouting bold calls to action as we have in years past.

The idea of “Zero-Click Marketing” comes from legendary digital marketer, Rand Fishkin (ex-CEO of Moz and current CEO of SparkToro). One of the best content series that Rand ever created was called Whiteboard Fridays, where he would break down a seemingly complex digital marketing topic into simple terms. He’s brought that concept back in order to show us how today’s internet users are smart enough to navigate our digital properties, and that we should focus on creating useful content that drives follow-up engagement instead of shortcuts to our blogs and landing pages.

Is this idea going to be true for all audiences? Of course not. But it does introduce a new concept that’s worth considering, especially as we all start to adapt technologies like voice and AI that make navigating online properties even more intuitive.

• Check out Rand Fishkin’s 5-minute Whiteboard on Zero-Click Marketing
• And read more in a complementary article from the SparkToro team

INSTAGRAM IS TAKING ANOTHER FEATURE FROM TIKTOK

VIDEO REPLY HAS BECOME A CORE TIKTOK FEATURE

A big part of TikTok has become reaction videos, where creators respond directly to comments people have left on their previous videos. Some use it to provide further information to common questions, others use it to make sarcastic comments, and some get much more creative with their use of the feature.

The best part of features like these is how people use them creatively – so watch closely and consider taking inspiration from others as this reply update rolls out to Stories and Reels on Instagram.

Read more about how Meta is bringing yet another TikTok feature to an IG feed near you

A FEW MORE STORIES WORTH A CLICK

STUFF THAT WILL MAKE YOU JUST A BIT SMARTER THIS WEEK

• Shopify is going to enable Amazon Prime purchases — it seems counter-intuitive, but it may be genius
• Instagram is going to make it possible to share newsfeed posts to “close friends” only
• Google’s algorithm is always changing, so here are 6 new SEO ideas you should know about
• Sirius just released its 2023 podcast trends report that uncovers who’s listening, what they’re listing to, and which forms of advertising may be working best

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting