Burst Media has released the results from a survey on the topic of ad clutter. The survey was administered to over 4,000 web users with the purpose of better understanding how ad clutter impacts a web users’ Internet experience, as well as its impact on the perception of advertisers who place ads on cluttered sites. Overwhelmingly, the findings reveal that websites cluttered with advertisements do a disservice to the publisher, the advertiser and the visitor.

According to the survey results, ad clutter not only annoys the audience but it also diminishes ad effectiveness. An astonishing three-quarters (75.5%) of the respondents who remain on a site they perceive to be cluttered say they pay less attention to advertisements appearing on its pages.

Additionally, although respondents accept that advertising will appear on a web page, for a majority (52.6%), there is low tolerance for more than two advertising units per web page. More than one-quarter (29.9%) of survey respondents immediately leave a site if they perceive it to be cluttered. Women are more likely than men to abandon a site that appears cluttered – 32.1% versus 27.5%.

A resounding survey finding is the negative impact advertising clutter has on a consumer’s perception of an advertiser’s products and services. One out of two (52.4%) respondents has a less favorable opinion of an advertiser when their advertising appears on a web page they perceive as cluttered. One-half (56.4%) of women claim clutter negatively impacts their opinion of an advertiser, versus 48.3% of men.

The survey also found that ad clutter’s negative impact on respondents’ opinions increases with age. Less than half (46.8%) of respondents 18-24 years were impacted negatively by clutter whereas nearly two-thirds (63.2%) of respondents 55 years and older were unfavorably impacted.

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