Over one-third of Americans (37%) say that television ads are the most helpful in making their purchase decision while 17 percent say newspaper ads are most helpful and 14 percent say the same about Internet search engine ads, according to a new AdweekMedia/Harris Poll.
Radio ads (3%) and Internet banner ads (1%) are considered to be the least helpful by many people. Over one-quarter of Americans (28%), say that none of these types of advertisements are helpful to them in the purchase decision making process.
Half of people aged 18-34 (50%) say televsion ads are the most helpful while 31 percent of those 55 and older say they find newspaper ads to be the most helpful. There is also a small regional difference. Forty percent of Southerners say they find television ads most helpful, while only 33 percent of Midwesterners feel the same.
Nearly half of Americans (46%) say they tend to ignore banner ads. Internet search engine ads fare better (17% of people ignore), television ads (13%), radio ads (9%), and newspapers ads (6%). Nine percent of Americans say they do not ignore any of these types of ads.
There are age and regional differences. Half of those aged 35-44 and 51 percent of Midwesterners say they ignore Internet banner ads compared to 43 percent of 18 -34 year olds as well as Easterners and Southerners. Among Americans 18-34 years old (20%) say they ignore Internet search engine ads while 20 percent of those 55 and older say they ignore television ads.
