Sixty-three percent of consumers surveyed said they trusted TV ads, while only 48 percent trusted online video ads.
According to a recent Trust in Advertising survey from Nielsen, consumers are more likely to trust TV ads over online video ads, but their trust in friends and family trumps all.
After polling more than 30,000 consumers across 60 different countries between February and March of this year, Nielsen found 63 percent of the consumers surveyed either completely or somewhat trust TV ads, compared to only 48 percent who trust online video ads.
More than eight in ten of the survey respondents (83 percent) said they either completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family, the No. 1 most credible source of advertising per Nielsen’s findings.
The second most trusted form of advertising came from brand-managed channels, with 70 percent of the respondents claiming they completely or somewhat trust branded websites. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they trust opinions posted online, making online reviews the third most trusted format, following family and friend recommendations and branded websites.
When looking at online and mobile ads, online video ads were the most trusted, followed by search ads (47 percent), social ads (46 percent) and mobile ads (43 percent).
Very little has changed in consumer trust toward online and mobile ads since 2013. The only changes noted in the last two years were a two-percent drop for social and mobile ads and a one-percent drop for search ads and text ads on mobile.
Nielsen found that Millennials have the highest levels of trust when it comes to online and mobile formats.
“Millennials consume media differently than their older counterparts, exercising greater control over when and where they watch, listen and read content — and on which device,” reports Nielsen Expanded Verticals President Randall Beard.
Nielsen assembled the following chart, breaking down trust in advertising formats by generations:
Trust in Advertising by Generations
