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Newspaper Ads Help Drive Consumers to the Web

Some 44% of people who saw a product or service advertised in a newspaper in the past month researched it - and two-thirds (67%) of that group went online to find more information, according to a Google-commissioned survey from Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo.

The survey of 1,003 search-engine-using adults who also read newspapers (an estimated 82 million people in the US) finds that among those who go online to research a product, nearly half (47%) go directly to a product URL, 31% go to a search engine, and 22% go to another site:

Some additional findings from the study, below.

Effect on Purchasing

Some 42% of respondents reported that in the last month they purchased at least one product they had seen in the newspaper.

Most of them (83%) purchased at least one thing from a store or dealer; the second most common purchase venue was online (38%):

Among those who go online after seeing ads in newspapers, nearly 70% make purchases following their additional research.

Multi-channel Ads Increase Trust/Likelihood to Buy

Seeing products and services advertised in multiple channels increased both consumer trust in them and likelihood to buy.

Nearly half of respondents (48%) said seeing a product in the newspaper after seeing it online would make them trust the product more. More than half that group (52%) said they would be more likely to purchase the product if they saw a newspaper ad for a product they already knew about from the internet.

When rating which media are better for different functions, respondents considered the newspaper more useful for learning about promotions (68% - vs. 42% for the internet) and deciding where (54% v. 45%) and when (43% v. 30%) to buy:

About the survey: In mid-2007, Google commissioned Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo to conduct a study of American print newspaper readers with the goal of gathering data that explored how newspaper readers respond to newspaper ads by going online. The survey was based on a random digit dialing telephone sample of 1,003 target adults. Target adults were regular print newspaper readers who use the Internet, and search engines, at least once a month.