Survey: Mobile ad relevance depends on age of user

Mobile Internet usage doesn't cannibalize PC usage. Google's PC search dominance carries over to mobile. And users see more mobile ad, but whether these pitches are deemed relevant depends on age.

Those are some of the takeaways from a Bernstein Research survey. Jeffrey Lindsay conducted a survey of 360 smartphone users as a follow up to his research on mobile advertising.

Among the high level findings:

• 67 percent of respondents said that smartphones increased their Internet usage for personal use and 45 percent said work related usage rose.
• 95 percent of users use the same search engine for the PC and mobile.
• 37 percent of respondents say they are clicking on more paid search links and seeing more display adds. Users 18 to 34 found mobile ads to be more relevant than their PC counterparts. Older users panned mobile ads across the board.

The latter point is the most interesting and sheds some light on Google's purchase of AdMob. Google's ad business could get a nice boost from mobile even if the market today is small.

Here's the breakdown of mobile ad perceptions based on age groups:

Simply put, mobile ads are a young user game for now.