Word-of-mouth recommendations and reviews, either from someone they know or a stranger’s opinions online, are the most trusted sources of information for buying decisions, according to the latest Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report, The findings speak highly for information gathered through social media or other forms of user-generated content.

Meanwhile, though traditional paid media still are trusted by a great number of consumers, their influence is on the decline. Nearly half of consumers around the world say the trust ads on TV (47%), in magazines (47%) and in newspapers (46%), but those numbers dropped by 24%, 20% and 25% respectively, in a relatively short period of time — between 2009 and 2011.

Still, Nielsen notes that global advertising spend increased 7 percent from 2010 to 2011, driven by a 10% increase in television advertising.

Among the more marketer-driven sources for online information and advertising, company websites and permission-based emails fared well. Fifty-eight percent of global online consumers trusted information they found on a company website, and 50% trust emails they signed up to receive.

Next up on the trust scale are search engine ads, which are trusted by 40% of those surveyed. Thirty-six percent trust online video ads, and 30% believe banner ad messages. Notably, the banner ad number has increased 27% since 2007. Sponsored ads on social networks are trusted by 36% of respondents.

Mobile ads of various types have increased trust levels 61 percent since 2007 and 21 percent since 2009. The most trusted are display ads — both videos and banners — on tablets or smartphones, which are trusted by 30% of global respondents. Text ads on mobile phones are slightly less trusted, at 29%.

Interestingly, Nielsen found that relevance often correlated strongly with trust, suggesting that online marketers could raise trust levels by making ads more relevant.

To conduct its research, Nielsen surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries.

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Email Marketing | Facebook: Advertising | Mobile Marketing | Search Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: General

About The Author: Pamela Parker is executive features editor of Marketing Land and a contributing editor for Search Engine Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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