TV advertising is still the biggest influencer of UK buying decisions, ahead of celebrity endorsements and online video ads.
A study of 2,000 British adults, commissioned by Adzooma, has found that 56% are still more likely to buy something as a result of seeing a TV advert than any other type of marketing.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of shoppers said advertising works to encourage people to make a purchase, with a fifth of shoppers confessing they are more likely to buy a product if they've seen an advert for it multiple times.
The influence of online advertising is significant, however, with 26% of shoppers saying they decided to buy a product after seeing it featured within a sponsored social media post.
In addition, 61% of those polled said they were "grateful" for retargeted online ads that appear after browsing for specific products because they reminded them to purchase something they might have forgotten about.
More than a third of people said that they buy more things online than in-store; just a quarter say they do more of their shopping in-person. The average Brit is spending nearly three additional hours online each week since lockdown, browsing or online shopping.
The survey also analysed how long people take to make buying decisions and found that 63% confessed to making impulse purchases when surfing the internet; 62% said they spend online when they're bored.
Rob Wass, co-founder and ceo of Adzooma, said: "It's interesting to see how traditional advertising still plays such a big role, as well as the rise of online activity. Brits are still making a buying decision from things like social media ads and website advertising, and it just shows that this is a marketing tool which still needs to be perfected and optimised."
He added: "The last few months have also caused more businesses to seek help with their digital marketing and according to our research there was a 13% upsurge in people spending more money on online business services. We took the decision to open up our Adzooma platform for free indefinitely this month to help support businesses with their online marketing endeavours."
Written by Rachel Miller.