Choosing to Discover the Unknown: The Effects of Choice on User Attention to Online Video Advertising

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Luo, Cheng; Jiang, Zhenhui (Jack); Li, Xiuping; Yi, Cheng; Tucker, Catherine
• 署名单位: Tianjin University; University of Hong Kong; National University of Singapore; Tsinghua University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.03291
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 6983-7003
• 关键词: online video advertising; CHOICE; user attention; conjecture formation and confirmation; Eye tracking

摘要

Online video platforms face the challenge of balancing the needs of their users with those of their advertisers. Although users typically prefer to have less intrusive ads, advertisers aim to effectively catch user attention. This paper investigates how the provision of ad choice affects the effectiveness of video advertising. We argue that allowing users to choose an ad to view may trigger a conjecture-formation-and-confirmation process that motivates users to pay more attention to the selected ad. Two online experiments and four laboratory experiments are conducted to test the theorized underlying mechanism of the ad choice effect. Study 1 finds when users are unfamiliar (versus familiar) with the content of ad options (i.e., they need to make conjectures about ad content), ad choice is more likely to increase user attention to the chosen ad. Study 2 and Study 3 show that the impact of ad choice on user attention is more likely to be positive when users are enabled to make conjectures about ad content, such as when choice options provide more relevant information about ad content. Study 4a and Study 4b provide more direct support for the underlying mechanism by showing that the ad choice effect is attenuated when users cannot form conjectures about ad content at the choice stage. Study 5 further demonstrates that the positive effect of ad choice is robust across different ad settings. Taken together, these studies show ad choice is more likely to boost the effectiveness of video advertising when the conjecture-formation-and-confirmation process is triggered.