Online advertising: Perception and attitude of nigerian undergraduate students

World-wide, internet has been acknowledged as an advertising medium. In Africa, particularly in Nigeria where access to internet is still limited, it remains hazy what the perception and the attitude of the few internet users to online advertisements are. This study therefore investigated Nigerian University Undergraduate internet users’ perception and attitude to online advertisements making use of Ajayi Crowther University Students as a case study. The study employed survey design where undergraduate students of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo in Oyo State, Nigeria constituted the target population. Sample was drawn from the three Faculties of the University through purposive sampling procedure. Data were generated with Students Perception and Attitude to Online Adverts Scale (SPAOAS) which was developed and validated. Using Cronbach Alpha, the instrument yielded reliability co-efficient of 0.82. Data were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. The study found that 92% of undergraduate internet users perceive (notice) online advertisements, 50.6% pay attention to the perceive advertisements by way of clicking on them while 66.3% actually retain or can recall the online advertisements. 63% of internet users have negative attitude to online adverts while only 37% possess positive attitude. No statistically significant difference was found between the attitude of male and female undergraduate internet users to online advertisements.