How users' knowledge of advertisements influences their viewing and selection behavior in search engines

According to recent studies, search engine users have little knowledge of Google's business model. In addition, users cannot sufficiently distinguish organic results from advertisements, resulting in result selections under false assumptions. Following on from that, this study examines how user...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Vol. 72; no. 3; pp. 285 - 301
Main Authors Schultheiß, Sebastian, Lewandowski, Dirk
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.03.2021
Wiley Periodicals Inc
Subjects
Advertisements
Advertising
Attention
Business models
Information literacy
Information seeking behavior
Knowledge
Knowledge Level
Literacy
Online advertising
Personal computers
Search engines
Smartphones
Viewing
Visibility
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Summary:According to recent studies, search engine users have little knowledge of Google's business model. In addition, users cannot sufficiently distinguish organic results from advertisements, resulting in result selections under false assumptions. Following on from that, this study examines how users' understanding of search‐based advertising influences their viewing and selection behavior on desktop computer and smartphone. To investigate this, we used a mixed methods approach (n = 100) consisting of a pre‐study interview, an eye‐tracking experiment, and a post‐study questionnaire. We show that participants with a low level of knowledge on search advertising are more likely to click on ads than subjects with a high level of knowledge. Moreover, subjects with little knowledge show less willingness to scroll down to organic results. Regarding the device, there are significant differences in viewing behavior. These can be attributed to the influence of the direct visibility of search results on both devices tested: Ads that were ranked on top received significantly more visual attention on the small screen than the top ranked ads on the large screen. The results call for a clearer labeling of advertisements and for the promotion of users' information literacy. Future studies should investigate the motivations of searchers when clicking on ads.
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ISSN:2330-1635
2330-1643
DOI:10.1002/asi.24410