Paper Info
Title
Differentiation of online text-based advertising and the effect on users' click behavior
Abstract
There is a drop in advertising click rates when using background coloration.There is a drop in content click rates when using background coloration.There is no difference in click rates when using unfamiliar differentiation. 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.
Year
DOI
Venue
2015
10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.031
Computers in Human Behavior
Keywords
Field
DocType
Advertising,Crowdsourcing,Behavior
Search advertising,Contextual advertising,Advertising,Crowdsourcing,Computer science,Keyword advertising,Online advertising
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
50
C
0747-5632
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.36
7
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jason T. Jacques173.11
Mark Perry242.07
Per Ola Kristensson3131791.21