Category: Mobile Marketing

Only a very small percentage of baby boomers have said that they would buy products advertised on smartphones.

Mobile ads have been taking off at an exponential rate in the United States, and as younger device users are enjoying the convenience and ease of m-commerce, baby boomers aren’t nearly as enthusiastic.

People in that generation are far less likely to enjoy receiving advertising when they use their smartphones.

According to the results of a study from eMarketer, almost three out of every four American cellular phone users – that is, 59.3 percent of the entire U.S. population – is a smartphone owner who uses his or her device at least one time every month in 2015. Smartphone penetration is greatest among younger generations. For instance, among device users between the ages of 25 and 34 years old, 90.2 percent have smartphones. Comparatively, in the age group of people aged 65 years and older and who own mobile devices, only 40.7 percent own smartphones that they use at least once monthly. Baby boomers are in the middle of those two groups, with a penetration rate of 64.4 percent.

That said, while they are mostly open to using the tech, they do not like receiving mobile ads.

Research conducted by Experian Marketing Services showed that Boomers like mobile ads far less than Generation Xers and Millennials. This study revealed that among baby boomers, only 28 percent agreed that “my mobile phone connects me to my social world.” Among those in Generation X, the figure was 46.2 percent, and among Millennials, it was slightly higher at 53.5 percent.

Baby Boomers were also much less likely to say that they felt that text messages were as meaningful to them as spoken conversations and were less likely to say that they used their mobile phones as their primary devices for accessing the internet.

Still, as much as boomers don’t like mobile ads, they are still considerable buyers of digital content, as about 2 out of every 3 baby boomers will make a digital purchase at some point in 2015, which is only a handful of percentage points behind the leaders, the Millennial generation.

This will allow people to be able to stop the personalized advertisements from following them around online.

For users who don’t like Facebook ads that follow them wherever they happen to go on the internet, the social network is now providing the option to block this from happening.

These personalized ads were first introduced last year to be displayed on sites off Facebook.

In this way Facebook ads were displayed on and off the social network’s site, based on the other websites and apps that people were using. The global deputy chief privacy officer at the social network, Stephen Deadman, explained that “Today, we’re introducing an additional way for people to turn off this kind of advertising from the ad settings page right on Facebook.”

This allows Facebook ads to be blocked from the company’s site, instead of having to use other services.

Previously, it was possible for internet users to be able to block the ads through the AdChoices program from the Digital Advertising Alliance, or by altering the settings directly on the iPhone or Android based smartphones. With these latest changes, it is now possible for this same goal to be accomplished directly through the Facebook site.

Although Facebook has been serving users ads based on the content on which they have previously clicked “Like,” a broader program was launched last winter. In December of last year, the company posted “Let’s say that you’re thinking about buying a new TV, and you start researching TVs on the web and in mobile apps,” adding that “We may show you ads for deals on a TV to help you get the best price or other brands to consider.”

The new option on Facebook allows a site user to opt-out. This means that the targeted Facebook ads will automatically be turned on, and they will remain that way be default unless a user actively goes to the “Settings” tab and changes the preferences for the social network’s advertisements.

The company has stated that it will continue to use the data that it collects by way of the use of the “Like” button on other websites in order to provide them with relevant advertising on Facebook.