Visual Attention and Recall in Website Advertisements: An Eye Tracking Study

Abstract

In the last decade, the number of websites has increased dramatically, and many advertisers spend a lot of money investing in ads on the Web. Online advertisements also represent a good source of exposure and increased income for many companies; moreover, there is a large potential to receive attention from many users. To explore the impact and influence of such ads, the present paper investigated visual attention and ad recall for online banners. An eye tracking study was conducted among 24 participants (12 male and 12 female), along with a survey questionnaire concerning recall and usability issues. The findings showed that the participants paid less attention to the ads than the website’s actual content (editorial text and pictures). Placement of the ad plays an important role in terms of attention paid. Females were better able to remember ads compared to males, and the ads remembered by both genders were largely the same. In terms of remembering the ads, the differences between genders were greater for unaided recall than for aided recall. The ads remembered by most participants were those on the homepage. The results also revealed that the female participants considered the website to have a higher degree of usability than the study’s male participants did. The final part of the paper provided concluding remarks and suggestions for upcoming research contributions.