How Effective Are Your Online Paid Ads Really? [Infographic]

These days, paid ads come in a lot of different shapes and sizes -- social ads, sponsored “native” ads, paid search ads.

With every new medium or media outlet, a way to advertise seems to inevitably follow, but from a marketer’s perspective, are they worth the money? Do they actually work?

On one side, we have some swearing by their effectiveness and ROI, and on the other, we have Inbound purists who find paid advertisements intrusive and spammy.

HubSpot recently released an Ads add-on to help its users more effectively leverage online ads with their Inbound efforts, but inversely, their 2015 State of Inbound report found that 27% of marketers think they’re the most overrated marketing tactic. -- What’s a Marketer to believe! 

Addressing the strategic tug-of-war, TechnologyAdvice teamed up with Unbounce to bring us this infographic and ask the question, “Is Online Paid Media Still Effective in 2015?”

As a part of a larger report developed by the two companies, the infographic illustrates some surprising statistics on how 456 internet users feel about banner/display ads, social ads, and sponsored search engine results.

Here are just a few of its highlights:

• 79% of users almost NEVER click online ads
• 55% say seeing a relevant message is the most effective way of getting them to click an ad.
• 89% of users would rather click an ad that leads to content or products than a form
• 71% of people still find personalized or “behavior-based ads” intrusive and annoying.