Native advertising on mobile applications: using eye tracking to investigate the effects of advertising format, user motivation, and advertising disclosure on advertising effects

Abstract

Although native advertising has become the primary advertising type in the mobile application context, few studies have focused on its influential factors. This study uses eye-tracking technology to examine the impacts of ad format, user motivation, and ad disclosure on advertising effects in the Chinese context. Respondents (N = 422) were recruited to participate in a 2 (ad format: statics vs. dynamics) × 2 (user motivation: information-seeking vs. entertainment-seeking) × 2 (ad disclosure: non-disclosed vs. disclosed) between-subjects experiment. The results showed that users with an entertainment-seeking motivation paid greater attention and showed less attitudinal responses to dynamic (vs. static) ads. While no differences were observed in attention duration and attitudinal responses to disclosed dynamic and static ads for users with an information-seeking motivation, these users perceived undisclosed dynamic (vs. static) ads as more intrusive. These findings extend the literature on native advertising to the Chinese mobile media context and offer practical implications for native advertising designs.