What Consumers Think of Personalized Online Ads消费者如何看待个性化网络广告

Just as online advertising has evolved over the last decade， so too have consumer feelings about personalized ads. When scrolling Facebook， some users are delighted to see an advertisement in their feed that’s related to one of their recent Google searches， while others are concerned about the proverbial “Big Brother” watching over them.

正如网络广告在过去十年中业已发展一样，消费者对个性化广告的感受也已发生变化。在刷脸书动态的时候，一些用户很高兴在推送中看到与他们最近的一条谷歌搜索相关的广告，而其他人则担心传说中的“老大哥”在监视他们。

What consumers think of personalized ads

消费者如何看待个性化广告

Back in 2017， a study designed to explore how consumers cope with online behavioral advertising， published in the International Journal of Advertising， found that many consumers are worried about the risks to their privacy that come with personalized ads. “The perception of risk is much stronger than the perception of benefit，” the author’s study said in a statement.

早在2017年，一项旨在考察消费者如何应对在线行为广告的研究发表在《国际广告学刊》上，该研究发现许多消费者担心个性化广告会带来个人隐私泄露的风险。该研究在一份声明中表示：“对风险的感知远比对利益的感知更为强烈。”

Subsequent studies， however， suggest a considerably more mixed reaction.

然而，后续的研究显示，消费者对此有一种相当复杂的反应。

Advertising and analytics company Innovid’s July 2020 study， “Consumer attitudes on personalized ads，” found that 43% of survey respondents—a sample of 1，000 U.S. adults—believe it’s important that digital ads are personalized. 29% said they would be more likely to make a purchase if advertising was personalized， and 31% said personalized ads drive brand loyalty. The company deems this audience “now consumers，” perhaps because respondents expressed an interest in seeing advertising that reflects “the context of [their] moment”—what websites they’re visiting or TV shows they’re streaming1 at any given time.

广告分析公司因诺维德在2020年7月进行的一项名为“消费者对个性化广告的态度”的研究发现，在接受调查的1000名美国成年人中，有43%的人认为数字广告的个性化很重要。29%的人表示，如果广告是个性化的，他们更有可能进行购买，而31%的人表示个性化广告能增强品牌忠诚度。该公司将这部分受众称为“即时消费者”，可能是因为受访者表示对看到反映“（他们）当下情境”（即他们正在访问的网站或正在线观看的电视节目）的广告感兴趣。

The Innovid results stand in contrast to a study commissioned by social justice organization Global Witness2 and YouGov3 less than a year later on German and French social media users’ views about personalized online experiences. In February 2021， 57% of those polled said， “I don’t want my personal data being used to target me with any ads， either commercial or political.” Only 11% were OK with it.

因诺维德的研究结果与不到一年后由社会正义组织全球见证和舆观调查网委托进行的一项研究形成了鲜明对比，后者关注的是德国和法国社交媒体用户对于个性化在线体验的看法。在2021年2月的调查中，57%的受访者表示：“我不希望我的个人数据被用来向我投放任何广告，无论是商业广告还是政治广告。”仅有11%的人表示能够接受个性化网络广告。

The respondents were largely against personalized ads based on income， health information， voting records， sexual orientation， religious views， personal events （like pregnancy）， race or ethnicity， location， gender and age. Additionally， 44% said platforms should disclose which companies are paying for personalized ads and how the targeting works.

受访者普遍反对基于收入、健康信息、投票记录、性取向、宗教观、个人事件（如怀孕）、种族或民族、位置、性别和年龄等信息的个性化广告。此外，有44%的人认为平台应该公开哪些公司正在为个性化广告付费以及目标投放的工作原理。

Of course， looking at these studies together isn’t technically an apples-to-apples comparison. Participant demographics weren’t consistent across the surveys， nor were the questions. But even when considering the variables， consumer sentiment on personalized ads remains an open question without a consensus answer.

当然，将这些研究放在一起看并不是严格意义上的同类比较。各项调查中的参与者人口统计特征并不一致，问卷调查设置的问题也不相同。但即使考虑到这些变量，消费者对于个性化广告的看法仍然是一个有争议的问题，没有一致的答案。

How online ads have evolved

网络广告是如何发展的

Online advertising has long been a game of cat-and-mouse between brands and their ad agencies on the one hand and everyone else on the other. Early Flash-powered banner ads often ran into browser compatibility problems before HTML54 standardized webpage content displays. Hover ads5 （also known as interstitials） were so reviled by consumers that search engines began grading them as that page’s primary content to discourage their use. In the meantime， the print advertising industry collapsed in on itself， forcing advertisers to seek new digital platforms for their content.

在线广告长期以来一直是品牌及其广告代理与其他所有人之间的一场猫捉老鼠的游戏。早期基于Flash技术的横幅广告经常在浏览器兼容性方面遇到问题，直到HTML5将网页内容显示标准化。悬浮广告（也称为插页式广告）被消费者深恶痛绝，以至于搜索引擎开始将它们评定为该页面的主要内容，以遏制其使用。与此同时，印刷广告业自身也陷入了崩溃，迫使广告商寻找新的数字平台来展示他们的内容。

Simultaneously， cookies6 were being refined to provide granular tracking of individual consumers. Search for something on Google or Bing today， and for months afterward， you’re likely to see sidebar ads relating to that search on unrelated webpages. This is the phenomenon of personalized online ads.

与此同时，网络跟踪器的应用日益精进，为广告商提供了对个体消费者进行精细化追踪的能力。当你在谷歌或必应上搜索某个内容后，接下来的几个月里，你很可能在不相关的网页上看到与该搜索内容相关的侧边栏广告。这就是个性化网络广告现象。

How businesses should approach online ads

企业应该如何应用网络广告

When do personalized ads cross personal boundaries？ That’s the question at the heart of another study featured in a 2021 edition of Computers in Human Behavior Reports shared online by ScienceDirect. This investigation determined “people hold quite negative attitudes towards personalized advertising.”

个性化广告何时越过了个人界限？这是2021年《计算机与人类行为报告》在线版（由ScienceDirect分享）中另一项研究的核心问题。这项调查显示，“人们对个性化广告持相当负面的态度”。

However， the authors acknowledged a “personalization paradox，” in which personalized ads can be both effective and ineffective because consumers accept them only up to a point. It was said a “tipping point” occurs when companies serve consumers higher prices based on personal data they’ve collected about them， further fueling those “negative perceptions” about the businesses and how their personal information is being used.

然而，研究的作者们也承认了一个“个性化悖论”，即个性化广告可能既有效又无效，因为消费者只在一定程度上接受它们。据称，当公司基于收集到的消费者个人数据向他们提出更高报价时，就会出现一个“临界点”，这进一步加剧了消费者对商家及其个人信息使用方法的“负面看法”。

Douglas Karr， founder of marketing technology publication Martech， cautions against careless personalization. “There’s nothing more insulting than getting an email with an intro like ‘Dear [FIRST NAME].’ Not only are you not listening to your customer as they grant you the privilege of access to their personal information， you didn’t even take the time to validate the data before pushing them a message. It’s basically letting them know that you don’t care about them.”

营销技术出版物Martech的创始人道格拉斯·卡尔警告说，个性化营销不能随意。“收到一封以‘亲爱的［某某］’开头的电子邮件，没有比这更冒犯的了。你不仅没有在客户给予你访问他们个人信息的特权时倾听他们的意见，甚至在推送消息之前都没有花时间验证数据。这基本上是在告诉他们，你不在乎他们。”

Situations when personalized online ads are acceptable and when they aren’t—and to whom—may seem like a giant gray area. That’s why businesses may be better off focusing on personalization that isn’t specific to an individual， but to their audience en masse. A conjoint analysis can help companies determine consumer preferences and use the results to guide marketing decisions. Customer segmentation is another option， as you’re usually breaking customers into major groups （like geographic ones） without getting insensitively personal.

个性化网络广告何时可接受，何时不可接受，以及向谁展示，这些问题似乎是一个巨大的灰色地带。因此，企业最好将注意力集中在不针对个人，而是关注广大受众的个性化上。联合分析可以帮助公司确定消费者偏好，并使用分析结果来指导营销决策。客户细分是另一个选择，这种方法通常会将客户分成主要群体（如地理群体），而不会麻木地触及个人层面。

When collecting data on customers， businesses should be forthcoming about not only doing so but also about how that information will be used and protected. That transparency demonstrates the ethics you value as a company and signifies to the consumer that you respect them and their privacy. If a data breach does occur， be honest with your customers and do everything you can to mitigate the damage.

在收集客户数据时，企业不仅应该明确告知客户他们正在收集数据，还应该说明这些信息的用途和保护方式。这种透明度展示了公司所秉持的道德观，并向消费者表明你尊重他们和他们的隐私。如果确实发生了数据泄露，请诚实地告知客户，并尽你所能减轻损失。

After decades of light-touch regulation， some consumers are understandably concerned about the risks to their privacy that personalized online ads pose， alongside wider issues surrounding workplace monitoring and state surveillance. Yet， at the same time， companies are pouring resources into customized advertising in an attempt to make up for collapsing print advertising revenue and increasing consumer blindness to traditional banner ads. However， targeted online ads aren’t as extreme as some other methods， like facial recognition advertising， and if done well， can attract customers rather than turn them off.

在几十年的宽松监管之后，一些消费者担心个性化网络广告给他们隐私带来的风险，以及有关工作场所监控和国家监控的更广泛问题，这是可以理解的。然而，与此同时，公司正在投入大量资源到定制化广告中，以弥补印刷广告收入的下降和消费者对传统横幅广告的日益忽视。但是，定向网络广告并不像其他一些方法（如面部识别广告）那样极端，如果做得好，可以吸引客户而不是让他们反感。

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者）

1 stream在线收听（或收看）。 2一家非政府组织，成立于1993年，长期关注腐败、环境和企业公平等社会问题，常发布调查报告，用调研成果来挑战所谓的权威，推动制度变革。 3一家致力于国际数据调查与分析的组织，成立于2000年。

4互联网的新一代标准，是构建以及呈现互联网内容的一种语言方式，被认为是互联网的核心技术之一。 5插页式广告是一种全屏广告，会覆盖广告投放应用的整个交互界面，通常出现在应用内容之间，展示在应用流程的自然过渡点上，例如活动之间的切换处、暂停处，或游戏关卡之间的暂停中。

6 cookie网络跟踪器（记录上网用户信息的文件）。