The Educated are Harder to Advertise To

WESTBOROUGH, 2/10/2010 – The more college educated a state is, the harder it becomes to advertise to, according to online ad network Chitika’s latest study.  The Massachusetts-based company compared the ad click rates of individual states to those states’ rates of college education (from the US Census Bureau’s data), and found a strong inverse relationship.

The two states with the lowest ad click rate, Massachusetts and Washington, showed a much higher rate of college education than the national average.  West Virginia, which boasted the highest click rate, also had the lowest percentage of college graduates over the age of 25 in its population.  In between, the relationship between low click rate and high college education rate stayed relatively strong.

The study was conducted by Chitika’s research director for online insights, Daniel Ruby, who says the company “wanted a geographic idea of who was interested in ads.  By determining that, we could start looking at state-by-state census data and draw some conclusions about what demographics were best to advertise to.”

So what, then, are publishers and advertisers to take away from these findings?

“Obviously, if you’re targeting a more educated demographic, you need to do a better job of making your ad worthwhile,” says Ruby.  ”This, like everything, is an opportunity to push the industry towards the idea of content first, sales pitch second, even among advertisements.”

About Chitika

Chitika, Inc., is a search-based online advertising network, leading the way in intent-based advertising and search engine insights.  Chitika provides publishers with an innovative way to monetize search engine traffic, and advertisers a new way of generating leads with clear consumer intent.  With over 60,000 sites and 2 billion monthly impressions, the Chitika network is the pulse of the online world.  Through research and targeting, Chitika continually evolves its image as “the ad network that knows when not to show ads.”
For more information, visit http://chitika.com

Contact

Daniel Ruby
Research Director, Online Insights
Chitika, Inc.
+866.441.7203 x966
press@chitika.com