Facebook Ads, Comments Don't Sway Purchases

Social Media

June 6, 2012 -- Four out of five Facebook users have never bought a product or service as a result of advertising, likes, or comments on Facebook, a Reuters/Ipsos online poll shows.
 

Q. Have you ever bought products or services because of advertising or comments you saw on Facebook?
Age Group	Yes	No
All	20%	80%
18-34	28%	72%
35-54	17%	83%
55+	12%	88%
Source: Ipsos/Reuters Facebook Poll, June 2012

The survey of over 1,000 American adults also finds a drop in engagement with the social media site with 34% of Facebook users surveyed were spending less time on the website than six months ago. The top reasons cited:  finding the site boring, not relevant or not useful (27%), a lack of time (25%), and concerns about privacy (24%).
 
About two out of five people (41%) polled say they used Facebook every day. The heaviest Facebook users are aged 18 to 34 with 60% being daily users. Among people aged 55+, 29% say they are daily users. Nearly half of the Facebook users polled spend about the same amount of time on the social network as six months ago.
 

Reuter's article on the poll results also notes a major problem the site is facing with getting advertisements seen: "Consumers' increasing use of smartphones to access Facebook has been a drag on the company's revenue. It offers only limited advertising on the mobile version of its site and analysts say the company has yet to figure out the ideal way to make money from mobile users."

 

About: The Ipsos/Reuters data is based on an online survey of 1,032 Americans conducted from May 31 - June 4, 2012. The data were weighted to the U.S. current population data by gender, age, education, ethnicity and a political values scale. The survey has a "credibility interval" of +/-minus 3.5%.

 

Sources: Reuters, Facebook comments, ads don't sway most users: poll, June 4, 2012 and Marketing Charts, Facebook Impressions Don’t Influence Most Users to Purchase, June 4, 2012.