Countering Search Ad Avoidance: How Political Orientation Affects Trust in Search Advertising

Abstract

Search advertising involves the purchasing of an ad’s position at the top of a search engine results page and accounts for more than 40% of all digital ad spending in the United States. Nevertheless, consumers are more likely to click on organic links found below search ads—a phenomenon referred to as the search ad avoidance effect. Combining system justification and construal level theory, a politically identifiable segment of consumers is argued to counter this effect. Because individuals with a conservative (vs. liberal) political orientation tend to justify systemic processes, they are more likely to trust sponsored versus organic marketing communications. Across four studies (secondary data, surveys, online field experiment), conservatives (vs. liberals) are more likely to click on search ads because they perceive them as more trustworthy. This relationship is most prevalent when consumers conduct broad searches, activating an abstract search construal that relies on a thinking style consistent with one’s core ideological beliefs and values. However, both conservatives and liberals are equally likely to click on search ads when they conduct more specific searches, activating a concrete search construal that enables a thinking style that is context-dependent and therefore diverges from one’s core beliefs and values.