In other words: magazine subscribers actually want to read the ads. And the ads are part of that, because they align with the rest of the content and add to the magazine’s value. Readers engage differently with physical contentĮven bland ads still benefit from one of the biggest advantages of print: people subscribe to magazines based on their interests. The American Marketing Association says, “ worth it in the end because of print’s longer shelf life and higher potential for reverberations beyond the initial reader.” 4. While you can quickly see the results of your digital ads, print ads take longer to reach their maximum value as they pass from hand to hand, home to home, and office to office. “It’s a physical product, it takes time to arrive at a person’s house, it’s there for a long time so there are many impressions, and there’s a pass-along and an audience reach that accumulates over at least two weeks,” says Andy Blau, former CBO of Time, Inc. When someone plops a magazine on their counter, desk, or coffee table, your ads stay there until the entire magazine goes in the recycling bin-or to someone else’s desk. It sounds crazy, but print ads last until the content they’re attached to no longer has value. Or they kept finding your ad on Google until they decided to stop using Google. Imagine if someone kept seeing your Facebook ads until they decided to delete their account. Other studies involving brain scans have found that physical ads activate different parts of the brain than digital ads, and viewing them “involves more emotional processing, which is important for memory and brand associations.” 3. That may be why neuroscientists have found that people are 70 percent more likely to recall your brand after seeing it in a print ad than a digital ad.

For advertisers, this means that traditional print media ads are more likely to make a lasting impression and, thus, lead to more sales.” “While digital content is scanned quickly, paper-based reading is slower and more deliberate, leading to greater rates of comprehension and recall,” says Media Space Solutions. In a magazine or newspaper, readers still have distractions, but there are generally fewer of them, and you physically move through ads as you interact with the content. Any given page may have dozens of links, ads, calls to action, and choices competing for your attention. People recall print ads better than digital ads In their analysis, MarketingSherpa cautions advertisers: “Just know that advertising in newspapers and magazines will tend to add credibility to your product or service, while an online pop-up ad will reduce the credibility for your product or service.” 2. In the survey, people sorted advertising channels into “ads I trust,” and “ads I don’t trust.” These are the results for ads people indicated that they trust. This may come as a shocker, but when MarketingSherpa surveyed 1,200 Americans in 2016, they found that consumers trust print ads more than any other type of advertisement. People trust print ads more than digital ads Here are four ways print ads have an edge over digital advertising.

But when you advertise in a reputable magazine with an established audience, it comes with several other big advantages. You can also isolate precise demographics so that they’re the only ones seeing your ads. It’s far easier to measure the effectiveness of a digital ad campaign because you can see exactly how many people saw your ad, clicked on it, and converted. As your brand explores what to do with your advertising budget, someone will inevitably ask, is print advertising still worth it? Why invest in print ads when you have so many great digital options?ĭigital advertising has some major strengths that print ads can’t replicate.

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