New data from LoopMe has revealed that 18 per cent of Australian consumers make a purchase from an ad on a webpage every few months, with nine per cent buying this way weekly or monthly.
Nearly a fifth of Millennials (ages 35 – 44) will buy from online ads each week. The research was conducted in October 2024 to mark the 30th anniversary of the first online ad, which debuted on Wired magazine’s website HotWired on 27 October 1994.
That first banner ad – an ad that sits at the top of a webpage – was the start of a revolution in online advertising, leading to a range of formats being utilised by brands aiming to engage with potential customers.
While 54 per cent of Australian consumers today don’t notice the actual placement of where an ad sits on the webpage, ads embedded in the content draw 17 per cent of attention, bottom-of-the-page ads are noticed by seven per cent, and the banner ad at the top of the page by six per cent.
When the first online advertising campaigns appeared, most interactions on the web would have been via a desktop computer. Now mobile accounts for over 60 per cent of traffic and LoopMe’s data reflects the popularity of this device, with 14 per cent of consumers interacting more with ads on mobile, compared to only seven per cent interacting more on desktop or laptop.
With publishers increasingly looking to digital advertising to fund their publications and journalism, 23 per cent of respondents are happy to see non-intrusive ads if they keep online journalism free; 12 per cent would rather see ads than pay to read content.
