Online Information Review

The effectiveness of web ads: rectangle vs contextual banners

Josefa D. Martín‐Santana, Asunción Beerli‐Palacio,
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Josefa D. Martín‐Santana, Asunción Beerli‐Palacio, (2012) "The effectiveness of web ads:
rectangle vs contextual banners", Online Information Review, Vol. 36 Issue: 3, pp.420-441, doi:
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36,3 The effectiveness of web ads:
rectangle vs contextual banners
Josefa D. Martı́n-Santana and Asunción Beerli-Palacio
420 Department of Economics and Business Management,
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Received 7 October 2010
Accepted 28 July 2011
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this work is to analyse the relationship between click-through rate (CTR)
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and the traditional measurements of advertising effectiveness and to measure the advertising
effectiveness of two less common formats of online advertising in blogs: rectangle and contextual, as
well as to explore which factors influence that effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey was used to gather data. Advertising effectiveness
was determined using the traditional measurements employed for conventional media at cognitive,
affective and conative levels and analysing the CTR.
Findings – The results reflect a direct relation between measurements of effectiveness and CTR,
differences in the effectiveness of the two advertising formats, and that the factors influencing that
effectiveness are attitude toward the web site, involvement with the product and duration of web site
visit.
Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the study is that the experimental
design is focused on two types of formats inserted into two types of blog and about only one product.
A further limitation is the need to analyse other factors that may influence the effectiveness.
Practical implications – The principal conclusion of the study is that managers should not
evaluate the effectiveness of their online campaigns by using only the CTR.
Originality/value – Despite the increase in their use, blogs have not received attention in the field of
advertising research.
Keywords Advertising, Advertising effectiveness, Online advertising, Internet, Blogs, Banners
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The spread of the internet has changed the way people conduct their daily activities
and browsing and reading information online has become an integral part of people’s
lives. Many consumers now spend more time online than viewing television (Truong
et al., 2010). The number of people regularly accessing the internet is reported to have
grown by 244.7 per cent worldwide between 2000 and 2007 (Internet World Stats,
2007). One of the reasons for the growth of the internet is that many companies
combine traditional and online advertising for integrated marketing. As spending on
internet advertising continues to rise, advertisers are looking for new avenues to
increase advertising effectiveness (Wu et al., 2011). Yaveroglu and Donthu (2008) state
that effective communication on the internet is becoming increasingly difficult for
advertisers as advertising clutter on the internet has increased and consumers
Online Information Review generally focus on web page content as opposed to banners.
Vol. 36 No. 3, 2012
pp. 420-441 Compared with other audiovisual media, the internet is more rational and is less
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited likely to arouse emotions (Leong et al., 1998). Studies show that part of the public
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684521211241431 prefers internet advertisements (Yoon and Kim, 2001). This may be due to the
 characteristics of the internet, such as interactivity, multimedia techniques, easy Effectiveness of
24-hour access to the most updated information, and global coverage, among others web ads
(Pavlik, 1998). This has led to internet advertising becoming one of the most common
marketing strategies (Wu et al., 2011). In fact PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2009) estimates
that the digital media advertising market will surpass approximately $90 billion in
2013. Important areas of internet advertising growth are display (banner) ads,
alternative delivery mechanisms such as ad word placement, search engines, and 421
email, and rapid growth venues such as blogs and social networks (Goodrich, 2010).
Moreover banners are in themselves a form of passive advertising that the internet
user is exposed to, without asking and without necessarily engaging in the
communication (Chandon and Chtourou, 2005). Websites, conversely, are a form of
active advertising, where the internet user has taken the initiative to seek out more
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information.
In general online advertising inspires greater trust and is perceived as less irritating
than advertising in conventional media. Interactivity enables users to adapt the
advertisement to their needs, decide whether to read it or not, determine the time spent
reading it, access the information immediately and freely choose the page they wish to
be displayed. The internet is perceived as a highly suitable medium for obtaining
information about a product, especially in contexts of high involvement products
where the search for information is more complicated and time-consuming (Yoon and
Kim, 2001).
One of the main objectives of internet advertising is to make the user click on the ad,
visit the advertiser’s website and stay there as long as possible (Briggs and Hollis,
1997; Chandon et al., 2003; Chandon and Chtourou, 2005). However nowadays several
factors highlight the need to evaluate the effectiveness of online advertising. There is,
on the one hand, higher advertising saturation in the web environment (Yaveroglu and
Donthu, 2008) and, on the other, a tendency for users to avoid internet advertisements,
mainly due to the perception that the ads inhibit the reading of the web content, quick
access to a page, etc. (Cho and Cheon, 2004). This leads consumers to focus on the
content of the website and ignore the banners (Yaveroglu and Donthu, 2008).
So far the effectiveness of banner advertisements has mostly been measured by
consumers’ active response to the banner (Wakolbinger et al., 2009). In order to create
brand awareness and to awaken interest and purchase intention, advertising
campaigns, however, also aim to stick in the consumer’s memory (Briggs and Hollis,
1997). In recent years there has been controversy over whether to concentrate on
click-through or exposure based figures (e.g. brand recall) for the measurement of
online advertising effectiveness (Danaher and Mullarkey, 2003). In fact recent research
has shown that assessing only the CTR does not provide a true picture and that banner
advertising can provide a brand-building effect even with low direct CTR (Pfeiffer and
Zinnbauer, 2010). Taylor (2009) states that in the long run, new media messages need
to build the brand to be effective. In an era where branding is more important to
marketers than ever, as a general rule, digital advertising needs to take advantage of
new media’s unique brand-building capacity.
Furthermore with the proliferation of information and communication technologies,
the internet serves as an important medium for people to interact with each other in the
cyber world. Among internet applications, blogs have shown tremendous growth in
recent years and exceed all the other internet applications in the number of users
 OIR (Osman et al., 2009; Wang and Lin, 2011). In 2007 112.8 million blogs worldwide were
36,3 active, 34 per cent of broadband internet users in the US had read someone else’s blog,
and 13 per cent of the users had created their own blogs (Osman et al., 2009). Chu and
Kamal (2008) estimate that 175,000 new blogs are launched every day. Witnessing this
unprecedented phenomenon, businesses are seeking opportunities to harness the
potential power of this new marketing channel (Wang and Lin, 2011). Considerable
422 excitement and optimism surround the potential of social media for marketers – after
all, that is where attractive audience segments are starting to amass – but just like any
marketing medium, measurement is a critical component for success and it is in its
infancy (Murdough, 2009). This rapid growth commands both advertisers and
academics’ attention (Chu and Kamal, 2008).
Due to the existing controversy regarding CTR, this paper’s first aim is to analyse
the relationship between the CTR and the traditional measurements of advertising
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effectiveness. The second aim is to analyse whether there are differences in the
effectiveness of two less common advertisement formats (rectangle and contextual)
inserted into a blog, as this web page category is becoming increasingly used. The final
purpose is to understand how effectiveness results are affected by the type of blog
(blogs targeting high- and low involvement audiences), by the attitude toward the
website, by the involvement with the product and by the duration of blog visit.

Literature review
The paradigms used to study effectiveness of online advertising are brand
construction and direct response (Chandon et al., 2003; Hollis, 2005). In the first case
banners help to improve the communication strategy and the objectives include
increasing brand recall and improving attitude to the advertisement and the brand. In
the second case banners can be likened to a reply coupon whose effectiveness must be
measured by its ability to produce a response. As the CTR measures direct response, it
can similarly be used as a measure of effectiveness (Chandon and Chtourou, 2005).
The CTR, which is based on the number of clicks on an advertisement inserted in a
web page, can be considered a predictor both of interest in the advertised product and
of purchase intention (Pavlou and Stewart, 2000; Chtourou et al., 2001). Most
advertising agencies use CTR as an effectiveness indicator and fail to measure other
effects, cognitive and affective, of the banner (Shen, 2002). Excessive use of the CTR
has been questioned by some authors (Drèze and Hussherr, 2003; Lohtia et al., 2003;
Chandon et al., 2003) as it focuses exclusively on an active response to the ad rather
than possible exposure to it. Brand-related measurements have been relegated to
second place behind CTR. Manchanda et al. (2006) mention the debate in the literature
on how to measure banner effectiveness, which generates attitudinal effects that
cannot be evaluated by means of the CTR, which is considered a poor indicator of
individuals’ responses to banners.
Hollis (2005) shows that direct response and brand construction are complementary
rather than contradictory paradigms and the application of either model depends on
the audience and the aim of the advertisement. Hollis (2005) concludes that clicking on
a banner is a result of the effect of brand construction combined with a desire to know
more about the brand. Similarly Chandon and Chtourou (2005) state that clicking is
part of the persuasion process and CTR does not necessarily conflict with traditional
measurements of effectiveness. They consider that the CTR is a suitable measurement
 for short-term advertising aims and when consumers are asked to respond online, Effectiveness of
while traditional measurements are appropriate for long-term objectives and when no web ads
online response is expected. Moreover Spalding et al. (2009) state that by considering
different branding goals, advertisers can identify which metric (or metrics) could be the
primary success metrics for the campaign. For example an advertiser seeking to launch
a new brand may want to focus on building brand awareness first as a prerequisite to
gaining brand trial. That advertiser may choose to focus on upper-funnel metrics such 423
as aided brand awareness or message association that can assess whether consumers
are aware of the brand. Advertisers with well-established brands, however, may
already see high levels of brand awareness in their target market and so focus on
persuasion metrics (i.e. purchase intention) that are closer to actual purchase
behaviour.
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The literature reveals a broad variety of methods to measure advertising

effectiveness, including cognitive, affective and conative measurements in addition to
CTR. So far no superior method has been identified, partly due to the dependence of the
applicability of measurement methods on the advertising channel and on the goals of
campaigns (Wakolbinger et al., 2009).
The methods of measuring online advertising effectiveness do not differ
substantially from measurements used in conventional media, since consumer
response to online advertising is very similar to response to conventional media
(Pavlou and Stewart, 2000). However the effectiveness of online advertising needs to be
studied from a new paradigm that measures not only the response to the information
but also interaction with it, given that the individual plays an active role in this new
environment (Pavlou and Stewart, 2000). Lavrakas et al. (2010) state that traditional
measurements such as unaided recall, aided recall, brand exposure, brand image,
purchase intention, propensity to purchase brand and actual brand purchases, are
important in internet advertising effectiveness research, and current studies should
routinely include such variables. Researchers who investigated online advertising
effectiveness generally used either direct response measurements such as CTR or the
more traditional brand measurements such as advertising recall, attitude toward the
ad, or attitude toward the brand (Yaveroglu and Donthu, 2008).
Memory-based techniques are the most widely used cognitive measurements, such
as unaided recall, aided recall and recognition. Hupfer and Grey (2005) show that
traditional memory-based measurements provide valuable information on the effects
of interactive advertising that cannot be detected using CTR. Unlike CTR, recall
measurements are characterised by sensitivity for capturing the effects of advertising
on internet users. Measuring advertising effectiveness by means of brand recall relies
on the general assumption that people who recall a certain brand or product are more
likely to buy it (Wakolbinger et al., 2009).
Attitude-based measurements used to determine online advertising effectiveness
are similar to those applied in the conventional media: liking, attitude to the ad and
attitude to the brand.
CTR is the most widely-used conative measurement of online effectiveness.
According to the meta-analysis by Hollis (2005, p. 266), “click-through is a behavioural
response indicative of a desire to check out claims made in the advertising to ascertain
their relevance and veracity”. Whether or not CTR is a good measure of effectiveness is
subject to debate, as some authors believe it ignores the effects that take place before
 OIR and after clicking (Chtourou and Chandon, 2000). Chandon et al. (2003) consider that
36,3 the main advantages of the CTR are that it measures the voluntary and deliberate
action of the person who is looking for supplementary information, and that it is a
relatively reliable indicator for which data is easily gathered, because it is counted
automatically and users are not required to fill in a survey. According to Chandon et al.
(2003) the main disadvantages of CTR are that it:
424 .
fails to measure all aspects of advertising effectiveness or to cover all the
objectives an advertiser may assign to the web advertisement;
.
only measures short-term effects; and
.
assumes that the ad has an impact on the individual only if a click occurs
immediately after exposure to the ad, without considering that the user may
remain connected to the website for some time after initial exposure.
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Drèze and Hussherr (2003) do not consider CTR a reliable measurement of success as
users avoid online advertising during their visit; they believe advertisers should rely
more on traditional brand equity measurements such as brand awareness and
advertising recall rather than CTR.
In recent years the CTR has fallen considerably, from 7 per cent in 1996 to 0.25-0.7
per cent in 2005 (Hupfer and Grey, 2005). This downward trend continues, as the
comScore studies referenced in Fulgoni and Morn’s paper (2009) show. Average click
rates for display advertisements fell even further in 2008, to less than 0.1 per cent. This
constant decrease in average CTR has led to internet advertising effectiveness being
questioned (Yaveroglu and Donthu, 2008). However this downward trend should not be
viewed as a reason to reduce investment in the internet as banners can have a positive
impact on brand attitude even if the consumers do not click on the advertisement.
Banners can produce long-term effects such as aiding brand-building, increasing brand
knowledge and preference and creating purchase intention (Briggs and Hollis, 1997;
Cho, 2003; Drèze and Hussherr, 2003; Hollis, 2005). A low level of clicks does not mean
that online display advertising is having no effect (Fulgoni and Morn, 2009). These
results suggest that agencies’ reliance on CTR as the sole measure of effectiveness may
be inadequate (Yaveroglu and Donthu, 2008; Fulgoni and Morn, 2009). In fact
Manchanda et al. (2006) show that banners have an influence on purchase intention and
that CTR is a poor indicator of banner exposure effect on sales. Yaveroglu and Donthu
(2008) state that several researchers have shown that banner ads also have an impact
on consumers’ attitude toward a brand independent of CTR. Understanding the effects
of banner advertising on multiple advertising outcomes is important, given the size
and constant growth of the banner advertising market (Goodrich, 2010). In fact recent
studies suggest that online advertising generates prior click-through behaviour (Burns
and Lutz, 2006). Moreover Wakolbinger et al. (2009) state that subjects often process
banners at a preattentive level without always looking at them consciously, which
supports the use of exposure-based measurements such as brand recall and
recognition.
A further conative measurement is purchase intention, which calculates the
probability of an individual buying or trying the product in the near future as a result
of exposure to the advertisement. In the case of the internet George (2002) showed that
the purchase decision depends on confidentiality, trust in the security of the
transactions and experience as an internet user.
 Controversy about the use of CTR as a measure of effectiveness makes it necessary Effectiveness of
to complement results obtained by CTR with those obtained using the other web ads
measurements available. Following the recommendations of Lohtia et al. (2003),
Chandon and Chtourou (2005) and Pfeiffer and Zinnbauer (2010), this study compares
CTR with traditional cognitive, affective and conative measurements based on
surveys. To that end the following is hypothesised:
H1. In online advertisements CTR shows a statistically significant, positive
425
relationship with traditional measurements of advertising effectiveness in
cognitive, affective and conative terms.
The literature includes several factors related to banner and website design that affect
online advertising effectiveness. There are also other factors which affect effectiveness,
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such as the degree of involvement with the products advertised and the duration of the
visit to the website.
Regarding banner design many studies have shown that location, repetition,
contrast, form, interactivity, colour and animation influence banner success (Baltas,
2003; Lohtia et al., 2003; Chandon and Chtourou, 2005; Hupfer and Grey, 2005;
Robinson et al., 2007; Yaveroglu and Donthu, 2008). Unlike what occurs in conventional
media, the effect of the banner size is not conclusive since there are studies with
conflicting results (Baltas, 2003; Chandon and Chtourou, 2005; Cho, 2003; Drèze and
Hussherr, 2003; Hupfer and Grey, 2005; Robinson et al., 2007). Attitude to the ad format
has a strong influence on CTR, since various formats are perceived as irritating,
entertaining, or informative (Burns and Lutz, 2006).
Due to the lack of studies based on measurements other than CTR for comparing the
effectiveness of the banner types under study (rectangle versus contextual), it is
impossible to say whether one format is more effective than the other. However the
work of Danaher et al. (2006), which was undertaken in the context of webpages such
as institutional advertising, shows that the duration of the visit to a website, regarded
as a conative measurement of effectiveness, is negatively influenced by a greater
presence of text content and positively influenced by more pictorial content. On the
basis of this, and by extrapolating these findings to the present study, in which the
rectangle ad is a format combining text and images as opposed to the text-only
contextual ad, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H2. The rectangle ad format provides better advertising effectiveness results than
the contextual format in cognitive, affective and conative terms.
With regard to website content and design, some studies have been based on the
elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of Petty and Cacioppo (1986). Using ELM
terminology web content can be related to central arguments, as more in-depth thought
processes are required for web content. Peripheral cues differ from message arguments
because they are more closely related to affective emotions experienced by individuals.
When people possess relatively high motivation or ability to process a persuasive
message, they employ the central processing route and engage in high elaboration.
When blog readers are motivated and able to take the central route, their brand
attitudes shift as a result of a thoughtful process, in which the blog readers pay close
attention to the brand-related information presented on the blogs (Chu and Kamal,
2008). San José Cabezudo et al. (2009), based on ELM, consider that on the internet a
 OIR distinction can be made between the perceived information and entertainment values
36,3 of webpages. The perception of the internet as an informative and entertaining medium
allows two website formats to be identified. These are the high-involvement format,
which is characterised by a high proportion of text and targets individuals seeking
information, and the low-involvement format, which is characterised by videos and
photos and targets individuals seeking entertainment.
426 Website characteristics and content are likely to have a strong impact on the
thought processes associated with banners (Lee and Thorson, 2009). As in the
conventional media, a specific online ad with a particular target audience can generate
different effects when it appears in different environments. This is due to aspects such
as credibility or reputation of the website where the ad is inserted. The features of the
website may lead the user to make inferences about the advertisements. For example
Stevenson et al. (2000) show that simplicity, as opposed to complexity, has a positive
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effect on attitudes to the ad and the brand, on purchase intention and on attitude to the
website. Regarding recall measurements, neither recall nor recognition is affected by
the complexity of content (Danaher and Mullarkey, 2003). Therefore, if the content and
design of a website targeting high-involvement audiences are considered to be notably
different from those of a website targeting low-involvement audiences, the
effectiveness of the ads placed in both types of website is expected to differ, as the
environment into which the ads are inserted is expected to influence the results.
Therefore the following is hypothesised:
H3. Rectangle and contextual formats achieve better advertising effectiveness
results in high-involvement websites than in low-involvement websites in
cognitive, affective and conative terms.
Research on consumer behaviour has paid special attention to attitude towards the
product, the brand, the advertisement, etc. (Castañeda et al., 2009). With the internet
new constructs are appearing that are specific to the electronic market, such as attitude
towards the internet and attitude towards the website (Bruner and Kumar, 2002). Since
attitude is crucial for predicting future purchase behaviour, the first step in studying
the advertising effectiveness of blogs should be to understand blog readers and their
attitudinal dispositions in relation to blogs and the perceived credibility of bloggers
(Chu and Kamal, 2008). Bruner and Kumar (2002) define attitude as a person’s
predisposition to respond to a website in a consistent manner. The literature contains
evidence that attitude to the website has a positive influence on attitudes to the ad and
the brand and on purchase intention (Bruner and Kumar, 2000; Stevenson et al., 2000;
Poh and Adam, 2002; Castañeda et al., 2009). Moreover Goldsmith and Lafferty (2002)
show that consumers who respond favourably to the website are more likely to
remember online advertised brands than those who do not. Likewise Cho (2003)
showed that individuals with a more favourable attitude toward the website click on
the banner with greater frequency. Therefore the following hypotheses are proposed:
H4. Attitude to the website differs depending on whether involvement with the
website environment is high or low.
H5. There is a significant positive relationship between attitude towards the
website and cognitive, affective and conative measurements of the
effectiveness.
 The marketing literature has shown that product involvement influences advertising Effectiveness of
effectiveness. Product involvement has been defined as the degree of personal
relevance of an object, product or service to a customer based on inherent needs, values
web ads
and interests (Zaichkowsky, 1985). Te’eni-Harari et al. (2009) state that the involvement
serves as a mediating variable in determining the degree of the advertisement’s
influence on the viewer. Previous research has reported that more involved consumers
show higher levels of decision making and information processing and also have high 427
levels of intention to collect related information online (Aldás-Manzano et al., 2009).
Taylor (2009) argues that consumers are more likely to be receptive to responding to
digital ads for products that are relevant to them. Within the internet context Chtourou
et al. (2001) and Pieters and Wedel (2004) affirm that the internet users’ involvement
with the advertised products, as well as their familiarity with the advertised brands,
stimulates them to pay greater attention to the ads and their elements. Moreover Cho
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(2003) shows that individuals who are more involved with the product advertised in the
banner tend to click in greater proportions than those who are not. Therefore the
following is hypothesised:
H6. There is a positive relationship between a visitor’s level of involvement with
the advertised product and the cognitive, affective and conative
measurements of advertising effectiveness.
Finally the duration of the visit to the website is another factor to be considered in
the effectiveness of online advertising since, the longer that duration is, the likelier
it is that the internet users are exposed to the advertisements inserted in the website
(Danaher and Mullarkey, 2003). These authors show that the longer the visit, the
greater the level of unaided recall of the ad placed on the page. In fact they quantify
that durations of 20, 40 and 60 seconds result in recall levels of 26, 43 and 50 per
cent, respectively. Bhatnagar and Ghose (2004) and Danaher et al. (2006) also
reported that longer visit duration helps increase the CTR for advertisements.
However, despite the positive effect that the duration of the visit has on advertising
effectiveness, Danaher et al. (2006) show that the higher the level of advertising on a
website is, the shorter the visit: thus, just as in the conventional media, advertising
saturation is an element that distorts the effectiveness of online advertisements.
These authors reach the conclusion that websites with six or more ads per page
generate an escape effect in their visitors although it depends on the user’s age.
Therefore the final hypothesis is the following:
H7. There is a significant positive relationship between the duration of the visit to
the website and cognitive, affective and conative measurements of
advertising effectiveness.

Method
Procedure
The methodological procedure was based on a 2 £ 2 experiment design combining two
blogs targeting two audiences of different levels of involvement (high/low) and two
online advertisement formats (rectangle and contextual). To this end four blogs related
to technological products were designed. The choice of the blog context was based on
the fact that one of the most representative phenomena of Web 2.0 is the rise of the blog
and very few studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of advertisements
 OIR inserted into this environment. Participants were randomly assigned one of the blogs
and browsed at leisure for as long as they thought appropriate. After browsing they
36,3 filled in a questionnaire. The instructions given to the participants are provided in the
Appendix.

Sample
428 The sample comprised 868 internet users aged 14 years and over. Sample selection
took place in the individuals’ homes and used convenience sampling, given that very
close collaboration was required from the participants, who had to use their own
computers to browse the test blog. Proportional affixation quotas of gender and age
were also applied. Table I shows the participants’ characteristics.
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Characteristics No. %

Gender
Male 480 55.3
Female 388 44.7
Age
14-19 88 10.1
20-24 184 21.2
25-35 319 36.8
35-44 108 12.4
45-54 128 14.7
55-64 34 3.9
Over 64 6 0.7
Education
No studies 7 0.8
Primary school 164 18.9
Secondary school 361 41.6
Bachelors degree 162 18.7
Higher university degree 174 20.0
Social class
Upper 57 6.6
Upper middle 165 19.0
Middle 366 42.2
Lower middle 219 25.2
Lower 42 4.8
Frequency of internet access
Never or almost never 85 9.8
Once or twice a month 102 11.8
Several times a week 138 15.9
Every or almost every day 240 27.6
Several times a day 303 34.9
Frequency of blog visits
Never or almost never 366 42.2
Less than once a month 95 10.9
Once or several times a month 144 16.6
Table I. Once or several times a week 165 19.0
Participants’ profile Almost every day 97 11.2
 Research context Effectiveness of
The medium chosen was the blog, in view of its high impact on the internet in recent web ads
years and the lack of studies of advertising effectiveness in this format. The server
[Link] was used to design two blogs related to new technological gadgets.
The first was aimed at high-involvement audiences and included a high proportion of
text, and the second was aimed at low-involvement audiences and was based on
dynamic content such as videos and photos. A screenshot of each blog is shown in 429
Figure 1.
Two types of advertising formats were used: rectangle and contextual. This choice
was made in order to evaluate the effectiveness of less common ad formats and to
determine the interaction between these formats and web page type (Goodrich, 2010).
The advertisements were designed in Flash technology and had the same size and
location in each blog. A special offer was included as a curiosity-arousing element.
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Both formats advertised the same product and fictitious brand and had the same
design (Figure 2). The advertised product was a digital photo frame with the fictitious
brand of PhotoTek, as it was consistent with the blogs’ topic.

Measurements (Table II)

.
Unaided recall of the product category, brand and advertisement characteristics,
using open-ended questions. From the information obtained, a new variable was
created, labelled “intensity of unaided recall”.
.
Aided recall of the brand and advertisement characteristics, with the prompt of
product category, using open-ended questions. Similarly a new variable was
created, labelled “intensity of aided recall”.
.
Recognition of the brand and the advertisement, using a forced choice
recognition test (one real and three fictitious).
.
Attitude to the advertisement, attitude to the brand, attitude to the blog and
purchase intention were measured using seven-point Likert scales. The items
measuring the attitude to the blog were adopted from Newman et al. (2004).
Purchase intention measured the degree to which the individual intended to buy
the advertised product in the next purchase.
.
Click, by means of a dichotomous variable that took the value of 1 if a click was
made on the ad and 0 if not. This information was obtained via the server, using
information on the IPs connected to the blogs.
.
Involvement with the product: a seven-point, single item Likert scale.
.
The duration of the visit to the blog: an ordinal scale whose categories are 5
minutes or less, between 6 and 10 minutes and 11 minutes or more.

Results
To analyse the validity and reliability of the scales, confirmatory factor analyses, the
composite reliability and the extracted variance were used. As shown in Table III the
scales are reliable. Moreover the results show that attitude to the ad and attitude to the
brand are one-dimensional and that attitude to the blog is two-dimensional
(informative and organisational).
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blogs
36,3
OIR

430

Figure 1.
High and low-involvement
 Effectiveness of
web ads

431
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Figure 2.
Advertisements used in
the experimental design

The first hypothesis was tested using an ANOVA analysis between the dichotomous
variable that determines whether or not individuals click and each of the measurements
of effectiveness. Only 21 of the 868 participants (2.4 per cent) clicked on the ad. The
results show a significant relation between the CTR and the measurements of
effectiveness except attitude to the brand (Table IV). H1 is therefore accepted.
Another ANOVA analysis was conducted between the measurements of
effectiveness and format type. The results revealed that the rectangle format is more
effective and that formats combining text and images give rise to a higher level of
recognition, better identification of the brand and the advertisement, and more positive
attitudes to the ad and the brand (see Table IV). H2 is therefore supported.
Except for intensity of aided recall, no significant differences were observed in the
effectiveness of either format, irrespective of whether the ads were inserted into a high-
or low-involvement blog (Table V). H3 is therefore rejected.
An ANOVA analysis was conducted to determine whether there were significant
differences in either of the dimensions comprising attitude to the blog (informative and
organisational). As shown in Table VI in high-involvement environments users
perceive they are browsing in a more informative, practical and useful environment,
which, despite its highly informative nature, cannot be classified as more confusing,
disordered or irritating than an environment in which images predominate over text.
These results support H4.
 OIR
Intensity of unaided recall
36,3 1 I cannot recall anything
2 I can only recall the product category or brand
3 I can recall the product category and can give a general or detailed description of the
message or the design of the ad
4 I can recall the product category and brand
432 Intensity of aided recall
1 I cannot recall any ad for the product suggested
2 I can give a general or detailed description of the message or the design of the ad
3 I can recall the brand advertised
Recognition
1 I recognise neither the brand nor ad among the alternatives shown
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2 I recognise the brand or ad among the alternatives shown

3 I recognise the brand and ad among the alternatives shown
Attitude to the advertisement
AAD1 It is an attractive advertisement
AAD2 It is an interesting advertisement
AAD3 It is a believable advertisement
AAD4 This advertisement attracts attention
Attitude to the brand
ABR1 It is a good brand
ABR2 It is a brand that I like
ABR3 My opinion of this brand is favourable
ABR4 It is a brand to be considered
Attitude to the blog
ABLOG1 It is informative
ABLOG2 It is practical
ABLOG3 It is useful
ABLOG4 It is confusing
Table II. ABLOG5 It is disorganised
Scales ABLOG6 It is irritating

Table VII shows that when individuals perceive they are in a more informative,
practical and useful environment, ads achieve better results in terms of attitude to the
ad, attitude to the brand and purchase intention. However there is no significant
relation between clicks and the environment when it is perceived as informative.
Moreover when the environment is perceived as more confusing, disordered or
irritating, affective measurements are more poorly evaluated, whereas purchase
intention and clicks are not affected. H5 is therefore accepted.
Moreover the individual’s level of involvement with the advertised product
influences effectiveness (Table VII). Thus when an individual displays a higher level of
involvement, the ad is remembered better, evaluated more highly and generates a more
positive attitude toward the brand and even leads to a greater purchase intention and
to more clicks. Therefore H6 is accepted.
Finally the results revealed that 35.8 per cent of the respondents spent less than 6
minutes in the blog, 46 per cent between 6 and 10 and 18.2 per cent more than 10.
Moreover the results show that the intensity of aided recall and recognition display
significant differences in that, the longer the visit, the greater the cognitive effect of the
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Construct Item Standardised estimators CR Goodness of fit Composite reliability Extracted variance

Attitude to advertisement AAD1 0.837 CMIN ¼ 5.860 (p ¼ 0.053) 0.752 0.456

AAD2 0.646 17.406 * * * CFI ¼ 0.996
AAD3 0.299 8.039 * * * NFI ¼ 0.994
AAD4 0.786 19.287 * * * RMSEA ¼ 0.047
Attitude to brand ABR1 0.815 CMIN ¼ 10.206 (p ¼ 0.006) 0.890 0.670
ABR2 0.899 28.220 * * * CFI ¼ 0.995
ABR3 0.860 26.960 * * * NFI ¼ 0.994
ABR4 0.685 20.209 * * * RMSEA ¼ 0.069
Attitude to blog ABLOG1-I 0.741 24.789 * * * CMIN ¼ 8.789 (p ¼ 0.360) 0.892 0.585
ABLOG2-I 0.897 29.432 * * * CFI ¼ 1.000
ABLOG3-I 0.870 NFI ¼ 0.996
ABLOG4-O 0.717 RMSEA ¼ 0.011
ABLOG5-O 0.757 13.417 * * *
ABLOG6-O 0.561 12.805 * * *
Note: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01, * * *p , 0.001

Measurement models
Table III.
433
web ads
Effectiveness of
 OIR adverts on the individuals (Table VIII). That same effect is also seen in attitude toward
36,3 the brand, which demonstrates that, to be able to make an evaluation of a brand, the
individual must interact with the messages of the brand. Similarly the longer the visit
to the blog the greater the possibility of individuals clicking on the advertisements. H7
is therefore partially accepted.

434 Click Formats

Yes No Rectangle Contextual
Measurements Mean Mean F Mean Mean F

Intensity of unaided recall 1.758 1.368 4.384 * 1.429 1.335 2.740

Intensity of aided recall 1.757 1.428 5.634 * 1.434 1.436 0.001
Recognition 2.668 2.237 6.184 * 2.325 2.178 7.897 * * *
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Table IV. Attitude to advert 3.809 3.253 3.436 3.763 2.753 138.394 * * *
Relationship between Attitude to brand 3.566 3.031 2.577 3.252 2.855 16.085 * * *
clicks and advertising Purchase intention 3.476 2.748 4.360 * 2.810 2.720 0.707
formats, and CTR – x 2 ¼ 0.084
measurements of
effectiveness Note: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01; * * *p , 0.001

Formats
Rectangle Contextual
Measurements Involvement Mean F Mean F

Intensity of unaided recall High 1.417 0.092 1.279 2.205

Low 1.442 1.395
Intensity of aided recall High 1.381 3.173 1.369 4.817 *
Low 1.488 1.507
Recognition High 2.341 0.221 2.153 0.421
Low 2.309 2.205
Attitude to advert High 3.814 0.674 2.768 0.079
Low 3.711 2.736
Attitude to brand High 3.325 0.912 2.833 0.120
Low 3.182 2.879
Purchase intention High 2.840 0.156 2.800 1.290
Table V. Low 2.780 2.630
Influence of the CTR x 2 ¼ 0.467 x 2 ¼ 0.193
involvement level of the
blog on effectiveness Note: *p ,0.05; * *p , 0.01; * * *p , 0.001

Informative Organisational
Involvement with blog Mean F Mean F

High 4.437 142.951 * * * 2.526 10.806 * * *

Table VI. Low 3.325 2.841
Attitude to the type
of blog Note: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01, * * *p , 0.001
 Discussion Effectiveness of
The results show first that CTR is a good indicator of ad effectiveness in conative web ads
terms and has a significant relationship with cognitive and affective measurements.
Therefore the use of CTR should be complemented by cognitive and affective
measurements to enable evaluation of the different phases of the response produced by
any advertisement, except when the sole purpose of the ad is to produce a short-term
online response. In fact the internet has opened up new opportunities for companies to 435
raise awareness and relevance among target groups (Pfeiffer and Zinnbauer, 2010).
Second the rectangle format is more effective than the contextual format in cognitive

Attitude to type of blog

Informative Organisational Involvement
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Measurements r r r

Intensity of unaided recall 0.018 20.013 0.134 * * *

Intensity of aided recall 20.037 0.010 0.066
Recognition 20.033 20.022 0.043
Attitude to advert 0.321 * * * 20.104 * * 0.304 * * *
Attitude to brand 0.349 * * * 20.114 * * 0.373 * * * Table VII.
Purchase intention 0.287 * * * 20.040 0.572 * * * Influence of attitude to
CTR F ¼ 0.092 F ¼ 0.818 F ¼ 5.203 * * the blog and level of
involvement on
Note: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01, * * *p , 0.001 effectiveness

Measurements Duration Mean F

Intensity of unaided recall Long 1.392 1.479

Medium 1.429
Short 1.319
Intensity of aided recall Long 1.557 3.649 * *
Medium 1.419
Short 1.394
Recognition Long 2.291 3.411 * *
Medium 2.308
Short 2.161
Attitude to advert Long 3.353 0.444
Medium 3.264
Short 3.227
Attitude to brand Long 3.324 5.902 * * *
Medium 3.072
Short 2.836
Purchase intention Long 2.911 0.967
Medium 2.767
Short 2.697
CTR x 2 ¼ 7.416 * * Table VIII.
Influence of the visit
Note: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01, * * *p , 0.001 duration on effectiveness
 OIR and affective terms, although the purchase intentions they produce do not differ. This
36,3 study therefore provides empirical evidence that formats combining text and images
lead to higher recall and more positive attitudes to the ad and the brand. This could be
due to the fact that a higher text content shortens the duration of the visit to a website
(Danaher et al., 2006).
The study also shows that blogs targeting high-involvement audiences are
436 perceived as more informative, practical and useful, whereas those targeting
low-involvement audiences generate a more negative attitude. This is due to the active
role of internet users in websites of this type, which leads them to regard the blog as a
source of practical and useful information. User attitude to the blog influences both
attitude towards the ad and purchase intention. Therefore when the blog is perceived
as informative, advertisements produce better results in terms of attitude towards the
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ad, attitude towards the brand and even purchase intention. In line with other studies
(e.g. Chtourou et al., 2001; Cho, 2003; Pieters and Wedel, 2004), involvement with the
product is perhaps the variable that exercises the most influence on online advertising
effectiveness since the more involved with the advertised product the internet user is,
the greater the recall, the better the evaluation and even the greater the purchase
intention and CTR. Finally and according to several investigations (e.g. Danaher and
Mullarkey, 2003; Bhatnagar and Ghose, 2004; Danaher et al., 2006) the duration of the
visit to the blog is a factor that affects the effectiveness of advertisements inserted in
blogs.
The main practical implications of this study centre on the design of online
advertisements in the context of blogs. Using advertisement formats with a
combination of text and images is advisable, as these are more effective than text-only
ads. However images should be limited to images of the product, since this study
confirms that internet users value informative content. Similarly inserting ads into
blogs characterised by high text content targeting high-involvement audiences is
preferable to placing them in blogs based on dynamic content, such as videos and
photos targeting low-involvement audiences, as attitude to the blog influences attitude
to the advertisement. Managers should therefore pay particular attention to ad content,
given that what the ad says is more important than how it is said. The added value of
the internet lies in the content, which means that managers must not be afraid to use
lengthy messages, especially in the case of products where the individual’s decision to
purchase entails a major effort to find information. It is also important to choose the
blog in which to insert the advert in accordance with the target audience since
involvement with the product is perhaps the variable that most influences the
effectiveness of advertisements. It is also recommended that the blog includes elements
that increase the individual’s level of interaction with it in order to extend the duration
of the visit, since this is a factor that has a positive influence on the cognitive success of
advertisements. Furthermore if we consider that attitude to the website affects ads’
effectiveness, it is important for advertisers to place their ads in websites that internet
users like and find entertaining, useful and practical, with valuable, interesting
information. This idea is in agreement with Wang and Lin (2011) who conclude that
providing various visually appealing or interactive blog functions could help catch the
eye of blog readers who are the potential audience of blog advertisements. In the digital
context evidence shows that including mini-movies increases purchase intention and
leads to a more positive attitude towards the ad (Choi et al., 2008; Okazaki, 2008). Given
 that, and as web portals are not only tools to enhance work/learning performance, but Effectiveness of
also venues for entertainment, portal marketers must provide an attractive and playful web ads
website because this will stimulate users’ curiosity and increase their enjoyment of
browsing the website (Liao et al., 2011). Moreover the important antecedent role played
by attitude towards the blog on attitude towards the brand suggests other business
implications. In line with Castañeda et al. (2009) a website that is valued by the
customer is not only capable of generating direct benefits for the company (advertising, 437
e-commerce, loyalty, etc.), but also has an indirect utility through positive impact on
the attitude towards the brand of those visiting the site. This result is particularly
important in the current situation in which internet businesses are experiencing severe
difficulties due to the weak development of e-commerce and the nil (direct) profitability
of the websites.
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Lastly managers in this industry should not measure the effectiveness of their
online campaigns using CTR only, since this is not capable of capturing the positive
effect of the advertisement on attitude towards the brand. CTR should be
complemented by a further series of measurements that allow advertisers to
improve allocation of advertising budgets. This is particularly important nowadays, as
CTR is falling because of strong competition, increased investment in this medium and
the improved ability of internet users to ignore advertisements. Therefore longitudinal
comparisons of CTR, commonly used to measure effectiveness in the sector of
interactive advertising, should be taken with caution. Moreover in accordance with
Chandon and Chtourou (2005) the use of CTR as the sole measure of banner advertising
effectiveness ignores the ability of banners to provide information; similarly the
interactive capability of the internet as a communication medium and its ability to
achieve an immediate response are overrated.
The findings of this study show some potential areas of improvement regarding the
generalisation of the results. First the results may be biased due to the self-selected
nature of the sample. Second this study does not include all the relevant variables.
Therefore it is suggested that future research incorporates other variables for better
understanding the factors that influence online advertising effectiveness. Third the
experimental design is focused on two types of advertisement formats, which makes it
advisable to extend this line of research to other formats. Fourth it should be noted that
only one product was used for the present study. Finally there are many different kinds
of websites. The results of the study may not apply to other kinds of websites. Future
research could be conducted to investigate the phenomenon in other kinds of online ad
formats, of websites and of products.

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Appendix. Instructions for participants

We have created a website with a blog format on the world of technology and electronic devices.
We would like you to give us your opinion on the content. A collaborator will help us gather your
opinion. Please follow these steps:
.
Open the browser.
.
Access the blog using this link: [Link]
.
Browse the web and look at the content. Take as long as you wish.
.
Close the browser when you finish.
.
Call a collaborator.
 Lastly we would like you to answer a questionnaire. Thank you for your contribution. Effectiveness of
Your opinion will help us improve our website.
web ads

About the authors

Josefa D. Martı́n-Santana is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria. She specialises in promotion, advertising, and the effectiveness of advertising and 441
tourism marketing. Josefa D. Martı́n-Santana is the corresponding author and can be contacted
at: jmartin@[Link]
Asunción Beerli-Palacio is a Professor of Marketing at the same university and researches in
the same fields.
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