Web advertisement effectiveness evaluation: Attention and memory

Abstract

Tourist marketers rely heavily on using visual stimuli in their advertising to attract attention and improve awareness and interest of their experience. This study used eye-tracking and self-reported recall methods to investigate online tourism advertisement effectiveness based on the hierarchy of effects model. A within-subjects experimental design ( n = 30) was used to examine mock advertisements (stimuli) containing various combinations of image, text and product price. Results show that the advertisement containing both image and price was least effective, while the stimuli with text and price were most effective in capturing the respondent’s attention. Advertising consisting of image, text and price generated the best recall. There were significant differences in results based on gender, task and experience.