Social Network users in Mexico receptive to Ad Campaigns.

According to the May 2012 Asociación Mexicana de Internet (AMIPCI) and ELOGIA study “Hábitos de los Usuarios de Internet en México,” social networks were second only to search engines as the type of website where internet users in Mexico recalled seeing online ads.

While two-thirds of web users recalled seeing search ads, social networks, at 57%, were not far behind, and way ahead of ads on ecommcerce sites (18%) and those on news sites (17%).

The same survey found that 53% of social network users had a positive opinion of the ads served to them via social networks, while only 17% disliked them.

It’s worth noting, though, that the recent presidential campaign in Mexico may be strongly influencing these trends. According to AMIPCI and ELOGIA, political campaigns were the most recalled social network ad category (77%), well ahead of products (61%) and services (58%).

Such is the impact of this year’s presidential race on social media that Socialbakers.com, an analytics firm that reports data directly from Facebook’s API, estimated Facebook gained over 2 million users in the month leading to the July 1 election.

Activity on social networks is not just about politics, however. The March 2012 Ipsos OTX and Ipsos Global @dvisor study “Socialogue” found that 55% of internet users in Mexico had recommended a brand they “liked” or followed on a social network, putting users in Mexico ahead of those in Argentina (54%) and Brazil (51%) in this category.

And sharing is more than a cold “like” in Mexico, as Breno Soutto, intelligence coordinator at E.Life said: “[Users in both] Brazil and Mexico share stories about everyday situations, including evaluations, usage stories, prepurchase questions, advice from previous buyers, and price discussions about products and services they interact with.”

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