Fixation and Recall of Youtube Ad Banners: An Eye-Tracking Study

Abstract

Attaching an ad banner on a clip in a video-sharing website such as YouTube has become common although eye-tracking studies have concluded that this fails to secure visitors' attention. To date, there have been no studies verifying whether ad banners on a video clip can ensure eye fixation from viewers. Through eye-tracking, this study investigates whether YouTube visitors fixate on ad banners, what the correlations between fixation duration on banners and overall fixation counts are, and the extent to which site visitors are able to recall details of ad banners and of the clip viewed. Using a Miramatrix eye-tracker to record YouTube viewers' eye movements, this study showed that nearly all fixated at least once on an ad banner in a clip. However, less than 10% were able to correctly recall the ad content viewed. Nevertheless, about half of viewers were able to correctly recall clip details. Fixation duration on the banner and fixation counts on the clip are negatively correlated, but the relationship between fixation duration and counts on the banner was insignificant. This study sheds new light on YouTube advertising through the use of eye-tracking and advises advertisers to be attentive in selecting clips on which ad banners will appear.

Ceguera Al Patrocinador: Aplicación a Carteles De Eventos Deportivos

“…Conversely, recall data were obtained using a poststimulus question, without the assistance of the brand. Only 8-10% of the subjects were able to remember two of the three brands shown in the experiment and this is a relatively low percentage (Tangmanee, 2016), but in agreement with previous studies in online environments (Hamborg, Bruns, Ollermann, & Kaspar, 2012). This comparison should be made with caution, as the methods, environments, and areas are different.…”

“…These results are further supported by an analysis of the heat maps and the scan path, in which we observe that the subjects dedicate short periods of time to the processing of the sponsor. This lack of attention could be due to the overload of information present in the poster (Tangmanee, 2016). These results can be seen by the placement of the sponsor in the lower part of the poster as well.…”

Using Eye-Tracking to Measure the Influence of Banner Ads’ Browsing Behavior and Attitude on Host Websites

“…This study used an eye-tracking device to record and analyze participants' eye movement data. Many scholars have already used this device to examine Internet scanning behavior (Harrar, Le Trung, Malienko, & Khan, 2018;Lee & Ahn, 2012;Tangmanee, 2016), evidence that it is an effective method. All participants joined the experiment and signed a form indicating that they permitted the eye movement data collected.…”

Investigating the Influence of Ads on User Search Performance, Behaviour, and Experience during Information Seeking

“…Alternatively, although some users continue to experience webpages with ads included, they report mentally skipping or filtering out the ads themselves -often resulting in a phenomenon dubbed banner blindness [17] or ad avoidance [42] -where ads are seemingly ignored, at least, from the advertiser's point of view. However eye-tracking studies have shown that users often continue to fixate on ads [62], and even without direct gaze ads would still lie in a user's peripheral vision, which may result in being implicitly processed [64]. Consequently, this paper aims to investigate whether so-called banner blindness is truly blind, and explores the main research questions of: How do ads affect: (1) user search performance; (2) search behaviours; and (3) user experiences, given an everyday search task.…”