Is it effective Google advertising among children under 25 years?

Judging by the headlines published in the press, it seems that this issue is the one that has preoccupied the media who have followed up our study of Eyetracking applied to Search Engine Marketing.

The truth is that in point 5 of our study we wondered if search engine advertising was still effective, and we concluded that yes, although we indicated as an observation that if a search for something specific (like the name of a hotel) segmentábamos 54 tests by age, we could see that none of the people in the age group under 25 years had looked at the Adwords side.

The Adwords Central looked almost everyone, but the sides were ignored by the vast majority of youth who participated in the study.

When asked users under 25 why they had not looked at the Adwords side, indicated that they had not done so because "It is advertising”.

If we look at the picture show with these words can observe the phenomenon. In this case, requesting find the website "Hotel Pulitzer Barcelona"And users could find it in Google Maps and the first SEO results. The heat map we see is the record built from the gaze of all those under 25 years.

The heat map created from other users is quite different, and shows even clicks on adwords side. (See second image)

The study also commented on the fact that in many cases, young people believe that advertising does not deserve your attention, it was an important issue and worthwhile treat in more detail some other time.

Let's treat now with a little more depth.

Theories of Postmodern Communication

These theories base their argument on the fact that Marketing is so pervasive in our society (the Consumer Society) Which certain groups to start to be immune to traditional marketing communications, including advertising.

Durante años nos hemos preocupado por cómo afectaría a nuestros hijos el gran número de impactos publicitarios que reciben desde que son niños hasta su madurez (al menos, como madre de 3, para mí ha sido un tema de especial interés y preocupación). Pues bien… parece que no había para tanto. El gran número de impactos publicitarios, sumado a su conocimiento sobre cómo funciona la Sociedad de Consumo, los ha hecho inmunes a una gran parte de la publicidad a la que están sometidos.

And not only they are immune, but have even appeared movements and anti-advertising groups. People who question the behavior of our own consumerist society, and some unethical practices of certain companies. The aim of these movements is to recover a life without much publicity. See for example Adbusters.

Is the end of the "era of Marketing"?

No, of course. It is only to some marketing activities and including some types of advertising.

Philip Kotler in his "10 Principles for the New Marketing"Assumes that Marketing as we know it is finished due to saturation of Marketing Communications and Advertising we receive, and must evolve into something much more in keeping with our time, in which the immediacy of information and total segmentation, have changed our consumption habits.

The truth is that marketing is so important in our society, as consumers increasingly have more knowledge on this subject. The implication of this is that consumers now are highly educated in marketing and advertising campaigns, public relations, direct marketing, etc. And therefore know all the tools and techniques used in communications with the intention to attract their attention, which to some extent makes them immune to them.

This causes the Marketing professionals have to seek new forms of communication to convey their messages. This is the Postmodern Communication, Internet and has a good field for expansion.

Are the Adwords Postmodern a form of advertising?

The term postmodern was coined in the 70s and refers to a type of society in which the lack of predictability and erratic vision of the world around us, as opposed to a science-based, objective knowledge world, laws are evidence universal and logical reasoning, which was where the "modern" world was based.

Applied to Marketing, this term refers to a type of communication oriented satisfy consumer habits at the individual level, the importance of brands when making a purchase decision, the importance of ensuring that individuals are not consumers feel normal, and the increasing intrusion of advertising in all areas of our life.

Because unfortunately, for a large part of society, what we consume comes to define who we are, from the point of view of advertisers it is extremely important to get their messages to each individual, no matter how difficult. Hence new types of advertising and marketing communication messages appear.

In this regard, Adwords, Communication can be considered Postmodern if we consider that segmentation can reach almost one to one. Also in the sense that intrude in many of our activities on the internet (to read the online press, to consult a search engine, to watch videos, etc ...). So the answer to the first question is "yes", the Adwords They can be considered a form of postmodern marketing communication.

To be a postmodern communication makes them more effective?

The Adwords no longer an ad in many cases easily identifiable. And therefore, as we have seen in the heat maps, users are able to detect and classify it as advertising, which reduces their effectiveness, especially if they are located away from information that is relevant to them. Hence Adwords plants are more effective than the Adwords side.

As for saturation, in this study we have found that certainly the youngest segments of our population begin to be saturated with advertising and have become immune to it. All that considered advertising no longer of interest to them. If they can not even look to the areas where advertising is.

We have seen even some of them go so far as to consider advertising the results of Google Maps and not watch them. Fortunately, not in all cases so, as we can see in the first heat map we have shown. Map I remember again, is only for users under 25 years.

The other looked at over 25 advertising side, as shown in the second map.