People Trust People 2X More than Brands (Part 2)

Recently, I made the case that people trust people more than they trust brands.

We put this to the test by comparing Props content promoted through a person against the same Props content promoted through a brand. Everything else remained constant. We measured click-through-rate (CTR), the rate at which people clicked on the promotion to read more of the content.

Audiences click on content promoted by a person almost 2X more than the same content promoted by a brand.

Props content promoted though the author achieved an 8.38% CTR compared to a 4.62% CTR for the same content promoted through the brand. The results are even more astounding when you compare them to non-Props content and to ads:

Furthermore, women and younger people responded more favorably to content promoted by the author versus a brand. According to our test:

Women are more skeptical of brands than men:

• Cost per click (CPC) among women was 21% more efficient for content promoted by the author
• But CPC among men was only 10% more efficient for content promoted by the author

Younger people are more skeptical of brands than older people:

• CPC among people 35-44 was 33% more efficient from content promoted by the author
• CPC among people 45-54 was 35% more efficient from content promoted by the author
• However, CPC among people 54 and older was only 12% more efficient from content promoted by the author​

The takeaway? If you want to unlock new and younger audiences to your website, you'd better be in the legitimate content business and avoid ads and ads disguised as content.

I hope this helps you make better decisions. If you'd like to know how Props accomplishes all of this, please e-mail me at joseph@props.us. I look forward to hearing from you.