This chart shows how much consumers trust different kinds of advertising. In 2015, personal recommendations were the most trusted form of advertising with 83 percent of respondents stating that they somewhat or completely trusted recommendations they got from friends and acquaintances.

Trust in advertising – additional information

Advertising is responsible for delivering a message to existing and prospective customers on behalf of a company. If customers do not trust the message or indeed the messenger, then advertising will likely fail. All components of an advertising campaign can have an effect on levels of trust from the product itself to the platform used to target customers.
In April 2014, a YouGov poll asked: ‘Which advertisements do you feel are the most trustworthy?’ The results were ranked by product type. During the survey, 25 percent of respondents stated that they found casual dining restaurants (other than fast food) to be the most trustworthy. Other trustworthy advertisements mentioned included those for clothing stores, fast food restaurants and consumer electronics. In the same survey, respondents were also asked; ‘Which advertisements do you feel are the least trustworthy?’ Top of the list, with 34 percent of respondents were diet products, followed closely be financial or insurance services and products with 26 percent of respondents finding them untrustworthy.
Consumers worldwide were asked in a separate survey in 2011 and 2013 about their trust in different types of advertising. In both years, recommendations from people they know was the deemed the most trustworthy form of advertising. In 2011 and 2013, 68 percent of respondents stated that they somewhat or completely trusted consumer opinions posted online. At the other end of the scale, only 27 percent stated that they found text ads on mobile phones to be trustworthy.