行为定向广告透明度对广告效果的影响

The Effect of Behaviorally Targeted Ad Transparency on Ad Effectiveness

作为在线广告领域当前普遍采用的一种重要营销技术,行为定向广告在创造价值的同时,也由于海量用户数据的收集而给用户隐私带来了巨大威胁。相应地,行业监管部门和消费者都希望企业增加行为定向广告的透明度——披露企业是如何搜集和使用用户个人数据的,但是披露行为可能会破坏在线广告的效果。因此,企业面临着披露还是隐匿相关信息的决策难题。本文基于精细加工可能性模型理论,通过两个实验考察了行为定向广告透明度对广告效果影响的内在机制以及边界条件。研究结果表明:(1)行为定向广告透明度可以增加个体对广告信息加工的深度,进而提高个体的产品态度和购买意愿;(2)行为定向广告透明度通过信息加工的深度影响产品态度和购买意愿的中介过程受到广告诉求的调节。对于理性诉求的广告,行为定向广告透明度会增加信息加工的深度,进而提高消费者的产品态度和购买意愿;对于感性诉求的广告,行为定向广告透明度会减弱信息加工的深度,进而降低消费者的产品态度和购买意愿。本研究补充和完善了行为定向广告研究的理论体系,拓展了精细加工可能性模型在行为定向广告研究领域的应用,同时也为企业更好地实施行为定向广告策略提供了重要的实践启示。

As an important marketing tactic,behaviorally targeted advertising has been widely used in the online advertising.Although it can significantly improve advertising efficiency and increase company profit,it threats customer privacy due to the collection of massive customer data.Accordingly,industry regulators and consumers expect companies to increase the transparency of behaviorally targeted ads to disclose how the data were collected and how the collected personal data was used for the behaviorally targeted ads.In other word,companies ought to explain why consumers see the targeted advertisement.However,such disclosing behavior may undermine the effectiveness of personalized ads.Thus,companies have to carefully consider and decide whether to disclose the relevant information or not.Building on Elaboration Likelihood Model,this research examines how behaviorally targeted ad transparency impacts ad effectiveness as well as the boundary conditions of these effects through two experiments.Specifically,this research seeks to address the following research questions:(1)Will behaviorally targeted ad transparency influence product attitude and purchase intention through the depth of information processing?(2)Whether the process of behaviorally targeted ad transparency influencing product attitude and purchase intention through the depth of information processing will be moderated by advertising appeal(rational vs.emotional)We conducted two experiments to test our predictions in the context of Sina Weibo.Study 1 found that ad transparency can increase the depth of information processing,which in turn had a positive effect on the product attitude and purchase intention.Study 2 showed the moderating effect of advertising appeal:for the advertisement with rational appeal,the effects found in study 1 hold;conversely,for the advertisement with emotional appeal,ad transparency decreased the depth of information processing,which in turn had a negative effect on the product attitude and purchase intention.This research makes several importance theoretical contributions.First,this research proposes that depth of information processing plays a mediating role in the relationship between behaviorally targeted ad transparency and ad effectiveness,thus providing a new explanation mechanism on how behaviorally targeted ad transparency impacts ad effectiveness.Secondly,this research investigates the moderating role of advertising appeal,identifying a practical and actional boundary condition for the effect of behaviorally targeted ad transparency on ad effectiveness.Finally,this research extends the application of Elaboration Likelihood Model in the field of behaviorally targeted advertising.The findings of this research not only deepen our understanding on the effect of ad targeting strategy,but also provide important practical implications for marketers and policy-makers to effectively implement behaviorally targeted ad strategy.