PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PubMatic, which provides online publishers — including the majority of the comScore Top 10 — with the technology and services to significantly increase revenue and better manage their advertising inventory, today announced that a study contained in a new white paper, Audience Selling for Publishers (http://www.PubMatic.com/AudienceSelling) reveals that when consumers are presented with a more comprehensive explanation of advertising-based data tracking, they are less concerned about targeted advertising using their anonymous data. The white paper, which is one of a two-part series, helps publishers better sell audience-based advertising.
After observing that other studies with user opinions about anonymous data being used for online advertising were incomplete at best and misleading at worst, PubMatic commissioned an independent online research firm, Knowledge Networks, to conduct a survey of 500 U.S. Internet users. The users were asked their opinions about audience-based online advertising in three key stages: Before understanding how anonymous data is collected, after understanding how anonymous data is collected, and after understanding the benefits for that anonymous data collection. The study was conducted in early 2011 and included a representative, random sample of individuals that categorized themselves as “Internet users.”
Among the study findings in the white paper, Audience Selling for Publishers:
Unless you tell them, users don't understand that the 3rd party data used for interest-based advertising is anonymous. For example, when the survey participants were asked if they knew that some of their online behavior might be tracked about them for the purpose of advertising, 71% acknowledged they knew. But when asked if they knew the online data collected about them for the purpose of advertising was anonymous, only 40% understood it was anonymous.
Users are far more accepting of interest-based advertising when they understand that 3rd party data is anonymous. The more users understand the benefits associated with audience-based advertising, the more they are supportive of it. When asked without an understanding that only anonymous data is used for audience-based advertising, 64% disapproved. However, when asked after understanding that only anonymous data is used for interest-based advertising, 40% of those who had disapproved changed their mind and approved.
When the survey participants understood that the data collection was anonymous they understood the benefits included more relevant advertising AND that it helped subsidize free content, 53% changed their minds and approved.
According to the PubMatic / Knowledge Networks study, when U.S. Internet users understand the value trade-offs for anonymous browsing behavior tracking - specifically more relevant advertising and access to free content - they are much more supportive of it.
"The Internet user, the online publisher audience, is the center of our data-driven advertising ecosystem and their privacy is paramount. Whether it is through self-regulation or legislation, when given a choice about anonymous tracking, Internet users deserve to have all the facts about how it works and the benefits they derive from it before making a decision," says PubMatic, CEO, Rajeev Goel. "Once they are appropriately armed with this information, they should have the means at their disposal to easily implement a ‘do-not-track’ option if they prefer to, or not to."
The full study within Audience Selling for Publishers can be downloaded at http://www.PubMatic.com/AudienceSelling.
PubMatic: (http://www.PubMatic.com) PubMatic’s Sell Side Platform provides premium publishers one platform with the technology and services needed to earn the most ad revenue possible while protecting their brands online. Some of the world’s most respected publishers have chosen to work with PubMatic, including The Huffington Post, eBay, United Online, MSNBC, TV Guide, and the majority of the comScore Top 10.
PubMatic is privately held, backed by funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Nexus Venture Partners, and Helion Ventures, and has seven offices around the world in the US, Europe, and Asia.