How users' knowledge of advertisements influences their viewing and selection behavior in search engines

Abstract

According to recent studies, search engine users have little knowledge of Google's business model. In addition, users cannot sufficiently distinguish organic results from advertisements, resulting in result selections under false assumptions. Following on from that, this study examines how users' understanding of search-based advertising influences their viewing and selection behavior on desktop computer and smartphone. To investigate this, we used a mixed methods approach (n = 100) consisting of a pre-study interview, an eyetracking experiment, and a post-study questionnaire. We show that participants with a low level of knowledge on search advertising are more likely to click on ads than subjects with a high level of knowledge. Moreover, subjects with little knowledge show less willingness to scroll down to organic results. Regarding the device, there are significant differences in viewing behavior. These can be attributed to the influence of the direct visibility of search results on both devices tested: Ads that were ranked on top received significantly more visual attention on the small screen than the top ranked ads on the large screen. The results call for a clearer labeling of advertisements and for the promotion of users' information literacy. Future studies should investigate the motivations of searchers when clicking on ads. Search engines like Google predominantly make money through search-based advertising, that is, advertisements shown in response to users' queries. These "sponsored results" are usually shown on the search engine results pages (SERPs) at the top and before the not paid for, so-called organic results. The question arises in how far users are aware of this distinction between paid-for and not paid-for results, and whether this knowledge influences their choice of results on the SERPs. Distinguishing between organic results and advertisements has probably become more difficult over the years, as the snippets on the SERPs for these two result types look very similar (cf. Lewandowski, Kerkmann, Rümmele, & Sünkler, 2018). In addition, search engines seem to further blur the lines between organic results and advertisements through changes in labeling. 1 As Ginny Marvin writing in industry newsletter Search Engine Land put it, "text ads have never looked more native." (Search Engine Land, 28.5.2019). Prior research had found that the information literacy of search engine users is rather low, for example, when it comes to formulating precise questions (Stark, Magin, & Jürgens, 2014) or solving complex tasks (Singer, Norbisrath, & Lewandowski, 2012). This low level of information literacy was also observed regarding advertisements. Users are hardly able to distinguish between ads and organic results on search

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