Attention spillovers from news to ads: evidence from an eye-tracking experiment
File(s)Attention_Spillovers.pdf (8.93 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Simonov, Andrey
Valletti, Tommaso
Veiga, Andre
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The authors investigate the impact of online news content on the effectiveness of display advertising. In a randomized online experiment, participants read news articles randomly paired with brand advertisements. Leveraging non-intrusive eye-tracking technology, the authors measure individual attention to both articles and ads. The authors then measure ad recall, and participants make choices between cash and brand-specific vouchers. Heightened attention to articles results in “spillover” attention to ads on the same page which, in turn, increases both brand recall and purchase probability. The authors also consider the effect of news content type, differentiating between “hard” and “soft” news. They find that advertising next to hard news is at least as effective as advertising next to soft news. This provides evidence against the blunt implementation of “block lists” for sensitive news topics by advertisers. The authors discuss the implications of attention spillovers for firms contemplating investments in engaging news content within the digital advertising landscape.
Date Issued
2025-03-14
Date Acceptance
2024-05-07
Citation
Journal of Marketing Research, 2025, 62 (2), pp.294-315
ISSN
0022-2437
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Start Page
294
End Page
315
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Marketing Research
Volume
62
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© American Marketing Association 2024. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-05-11