Mobile Advert's Contextual Consistency

Abstract

How adverts can be better displayed to attract more click-throughs has been enduringly debated, and mixed findings have been reported regarding the effectiveness of contextual consistency. This study reconciles prior debates by anchoring on the load theory of selective attention to propose that user response to contextually consistent adverts is dependent on their intra-page and inter-page positional display. In collaboration with a European mobile application company, adverts were randomly displayed in its location-based mobile social networking application. The follow-up think-aloud protocol analysis, conducted to collect qualitative feedback from users, validates the theoretical assumptions. The findings reveal that high click-through could be obtained when contextually consistent adverts are displayed at the top positions or the front page of the mobile application. These findings address an enduringly debated issue of how to leverage on new technology, such as mobile device, to display commercial information most effectively.