Despite the recognised significance of personalisation for marketing efforts, more than half (56%) of consumers have admitted to still seeing ads that aren’t relevant to them.
This follows news from this summer that Google had reverted on their plans to abandon third-party cookies. Instead, it will keep third-party cookies up and running if they are not disabled manually by the user.
This lack of personalisation gives consumers little reason to approve cookies when Google hands over the reins in the form of browser-level cookie settings.
According to the latest study by Epsilon, 47% of consumers also reported seeing the same ad too many times. More concerning are issues raised with the disruption caused by advertising. 34% of respondents said they had ads pop up at the ‘worst possible time’.
More positively, 20% have noticed an overall improvement in brand efforts to personalise messages and interactions across several key verticals over the last two years.
20% reported enhancements specifically in the grocery brand category, indicating that those who recognised improvements did so particularly with messages from grocers such as Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
“These improvements illustrate the contribution of first-party data-led strategy to a more positive consumer perception of advertising. Grocery has long been the poster child of retail media, with the frequency of purchases and vast customer bases foundational to a channel focused on smarter use of transactional data.” said Elliot Clayton, managing director UK at Epsilon.
The research also highlighted that some brands are too busy focusing on personalisation for younger generations and failing to target the over 55s properly. 38% of 18-24s say brands have got better, while this sentiment is felt by just 11% of people aged over 55.
Further, 67% of over 55s say most ads are irrelevant to them and they scroll past.