Research indicates social media users are not adept at identifying influencer marketing, even though regulatory disclaimers are mandated. Eye-tracking studies reveal users often scroll without awareness, allowing ads to blend seamlessly with organic content. This auto-pilot scrolling hampers the identification of sponsored content. Users sometimes intentionally engage with ads, influenced by social trends and peer discussions. Regulations from the UK Competition and Markets Authority aim to ensure all sponsored content is distinctly marked as advertising to enhance transparency and consumer awareness.
We wanted to understand how ads are really experienced in daily scrolling - beyond what people say they notice, to what they actually process.
It's not that people are worse at spotting ads. It's that platforms have made ads better at blending in. We scroll on autopilot, and that's when ads slip through.
We may even engage with ads on purpose, because they're designed to reflect the trends or products our friends are talking about and of course we want to keep up.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) requires that all sponsored content on social media is clearly identifiable as an ad, including where you've been paid to post content.
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