Nielsen: Europeans Are More Responsive To Mobile Ads Than U.S. Counterparts

We’ve seen different studies done about the state of mobile advertising, highlighting issues like privacy and how people think of mobile ads compared to ads on TV. Today, some numbers that give us an idea of geographical breakdown: people in the U.S., it seems, like mobile ads less than those in Germany, Italy and the UK.

According to some new figures from Nielsen comparing consumer actions in the four countries, the U.S. scored almost consistently lower than the other three across different advertising-led actions on smartphone and tablet devices.

In the U.S., users are less likely than Europeans surveyed to make purchases on their smartphones, tablets or PCs as a result of seeing a mobile ad. Making purchases on mobile devices, as a result of seeing a mobile ad, scored lowest of all: in the U.S. only eight percent of tablet users said they would buy something on their tablets after seeing an ad; and in smartphones that figure was even lower at four percent.

Their most popular activity in the area of mobile ads, in fact, doesn’t directly convert to a sale: it is clicking on the ad itself to see more information. Twenty-four percent of users said they’ve done this before.

Purchasing goods on a PC after seeing a mobile ad on a smartphone was the most popular activity in Germany, with 34 percent of users saying they would do this.

In its wider look at U.S. digital consumers, Nielsen found that ads on mobile devices — either in the form of display ads or SMS messages — were some of the least-trusted forms of advertising, with ads on branded websites and TV the highest.

But Nielsen’s research also suggests that while traditional-format ads do not sit that well with users, there are many other inroads being made in using mobile devices to promote services and goods to users. They include price comparison services — the most popular form of “mobile commerce” at the moment, says Nielsen, as well as daily deal services in the form of apps from the likes of Groupon and Living Social.