Factors Influencing Rural Digital Advertising Adoption in Alberta, Canada

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
  • Digital advertising’s popularity in Canada is growing, according to digital revenue projections and market share data. While Google and Facebook are the major players in the Canadian digital advertising space, available data does not make geographic distinctions between urban and rural data. This makes it difficult to predict whether rural businesses are adopting digital advertising methods at the same rate as the national data shows. This qualitative study explores whether businesses in rural Alberta are adopting digital advertising methods, and if so, how they are navigating toward digital platforms. To ensure a sample that is reflective of rural advertising behaviours, Alberta communities located within 40 km of a major urban media market and with populations of more than 8,000 were excluded from the study. Findings drawn from interviews show that rural business owners are in the entry-level stages of integrating digital advertising strategies, but few are venturing past introductory engagement with digital advertising platforms. They appreciate digital advertising’s potential for reach, cost, usability and learning opportunities, but are also aware of other ‘traditional’ advertising platforms, such as newspapers, that can better reach the specific demographics of the customers they are trying to reach, and who are worthy of continuing support. While it is evident that rural businesses have adopted digital advertising, findings show inconsistencies between the data collected in this study and the existing research literature on this topic. This points to the need for deeper exploration of digital advertising in rural-specific markets.

  • Date created
    2020-08-23
  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Type of Item
    Research Material
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-n5kk-j137
  • License
    Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International