Differentiation of online text-based advertising and the effect on users’ click behavior
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Publication Date
2015-05-15Journal Title
Computers in Human Behavior
ISSN
0747-5632
Publisher
Elsevier
Volume
50
Pages
535-543
Language
English
Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Jacques, J., Perry, M., & Kristensson, P. O. (2015). Differentiation of online text-based advertising and the effect on users’ click behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 50 535-543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.031
Abstract
Online syndicated text-based advertising is ubiquitous on news sites, blogs, personal websites, and on search result pages. Until recently, a common distinguishing feature of these text-based advertisements has been their background color. Following intervention by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the format of these advertisements has undergone a subtle change in their design and presentation. Using three empirical experiments, we investigate the effect of industry-standard advertising practices on click rates, and demonstrate changes in user behavior when this familiar differentiator is modified. Using three large-scale experiments (N1 = 101, N2 = 84, N3 = 176) we find that displaying advertisement and content results with a differentiated background results in significantly lower click rates. Our results demonstrate the strong link between background color differentiation and advertising, and reveal how alternative differentiation techniques influence user behavior.
Keywords
Advertising, Crowdsourcing, Behavior
Sponsorship
This work was supported by a studentship from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.031
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/248114
Rights
Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales
Licence URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/
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