Gender studies completely fascinate me—better yet, gender studies related to Internet advertising.
B2B marketing company, Bizo, studied businesspeople's responses to online ads. The study results from Gendernomics: A professional take on who is looking at, and who is reacting to online ads reveal clicks, time and gender.
Rebecca Lieb in her article B2B Ads: Women click, men act summarizes the Gendernomics study as the following:
- How do businesspeople interact with online ads? Women click on them, men act on them, and both genders do so at vastly differing times of the day (and night).
In fact, women click on the ads 23% more often than men. But advertisers shouldn't give up on men; after clicking, 53% more men completed the call to action.
Within these male and female study results, industries and job roles are also an important factor. C–level executives along with marketing, advertising, IT and healthcare professionals compile the majority who act upon the call to action.
Smallbiztechnology.com also posted a blog review on the study and emphasizes the following application:
- This research enforces the fact that as you invest more and more in online advertising it is VERY important to MEASURE your results so that the DATA (not your gut instinct) can help guide you into how to PROFITABLY advertise online to your customers. It also shows how important it is to KNOW who your customers are.
As an agency in advertising, analyzing, measuring and possibly going back to the drawing board in order to better reach that target audience is a normal process. Whether you have a male or female target audience, this study confirms B2B decision makers are responding.
So, businesspeople, what do you think? How often do you click through ads? Or do you try your best to ignore them as you surf the web?