The Exposure Effect of Unclicked Banner Advertisements

Abstract

Very low click-through rates (CTR) raise serious questions about the effectiveness of banner advertisements. However, we believe that the effect of a banner ad is not limited by clicks. Banner ad information itself can be processed by the audience.

We propose that the exposure effect of a banner ad exists even when the banner is not clicked. The results of our experiments strongly support this effect. Analyses also revealed that a non-clicked banner ad can create as strong of an exposure effect as clicked banner ads. Also, audiences that are able to recall the existence of the banner ad on a web page develop stronger implicit memory than those who cannot. Researchers are invited to re-test these interesting findings in various cultures with differing levels of Internet penetration and experience.

Citation

Yoon, H.-S. and Lee, D.-H. (2007), "The Exposure Effect of Unclicked Banner Advertisements", Taylor, C.R. and Lee, D.-H. (Ed.) Cross-Cultural Buyer Behavior (Advances in International Marketing, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 211-229. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-7979(06)18009-6