Similarly, The Mind & Mood report, conducted earlier this year by Ipsos Australia, found that almost half of Australians didn’t want targeted advertising on social media, saying they find the process “creepy” and “insulting”.

Particularly frustrated at the targeted advertising online were women over the age of 40 who said that receiving ‘53 year old mum looks 37’ advertisements, accompanied by ‘dating for seniors’ advertisements, was incredibly offensive. 

One respondent said: “I’ve got single on my status and now they advertise all these dating sites on the side. It’s rude”. 

Laura Demasi, research director for the Mind & Mood report, told B&T that you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who would say something positive about the practice, yet she isn’t against social media marketing as a whole.

Instead, she believes consumers just need to be given the option of participating. 

You have the polar opposite with opt-in forms of digital advertising like following Facebook brand pages.

Giving people a choice to engage with you is incredibly powerful. They have some sense of ownership, they feel like they’re getting something out of it, and they like you for it.

Findings in the report backed this, with many of the respondents indicating they were happy with the organic marketing efforts of brands.

They just wanted to have the choice to opt-in to see posts and tweets from brands they like, something Econsultancy has long reported

[Image credit: Nicolas Raymond]