How different information types affect viewer’s attention on internet advertising

The effect of internet advertising has been a controversial issue, especially on the topic of how to effectively draw more attention from internet users. According to traditional attention theory, we know people pay lesser attention on other objects if the main browsing contents occupy more of the viewer’s mental resources. Therefore, we know different information types of webpage should have different influences on users’ attention. On the other hand, an effect called ‘banner blindness’ makes viewers naturally overlook the advertising based on their previous experience. It is therefore becoming more and more difficult to increase viewer’s attention on advertisement simply by adding salient features on the advertisements. In light of this new challenge in Internet advertising, verifying the different influences of the information types on advertising attention is the main goal of this study.Great amounts of previous studies relevant to internet advertising focused on the advertisement itself, like the form, color, size and location. However, this study put focus on how the information types and the webpage structure influence the viewer’s attention on banner advertising. This research tested the effect on user attention of four common information types on Internet webpages: (1) text-based webpage; (2) text-picture mixed webpage; (3) picture-based webpage; and (4) video-based webpage. This study hopes to provide valuable information for matching advertising with viewing tasks that will stimulate the most user attention.