We’ve all been there: It’s late at night. You can’t sleep. You flip on the TV. It’s one of those annoying infomercials.
Then the unthinkable happens: You think about reaching for your credit card. 4 easy payments of $19.95 makes a lot of sense.
Turns out, it’s the same case with online ads. Timing’s everything.
The U.K. Internet Advertising Bureau with Lightspeed Research reported that online audiences of all ages are more receptive to marketing messages from the early evening hours onward. Here’s Ad Age’s recap of the survey’s findings:
- Just 4.6% of those surveyed pay attention to ads before 9 am
- 11% of people pay attention to ads between noon and 2 pm
- 55% paid attention to ads after 6pm
Pretty simple: don’t bother people when they’re waking up or eating lunch — and sell when people are in a buying mood, which is apparently in the evening.
On the heels of Google’s announcement that
display ads are just as effective as search, it’s time for marketers and agencies to look at how they’re handling online ads. If time of day isn’t part of your online media buys, it probably should be.
The clock is ticking.