Investigating the reasons of annoyance in online ads

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Τριανταφύλλη, Αγγελική
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Triantafilli, Aggeliki
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2023
• Θέματα: Online advertising; Annoying ads; User experience; Διαδικτυακές διαφημίσεις; Ενοχλητικές διαφημίσεις; Eμπειρία χρήστη

The analysis and research of online advertising has been an extremely and widely discussed topic over the past few decades. The intense and rapid growth of online advertising due to the covid pandemic creates an even bigger incentive to research and therefore understand what contributes to the better user perception and experience towards ads. Researchers focus on understanding and identifying the elements that generate annoyance, with the aim of minimizing fatigue, increasing engagement and user acceptance that will lead to more responsive and profitable results. Furthermore, the broader understanding of user behavior in the digital advertising landscape will also lead to higher user satisfaction and less ignorance towards advertising. Variables, which are presented in this thesis and are also usually analyzed when trying to get a better overview of the advertising challenges are the existence of intense graphics and formats, unpredictable and abrupt interruptions of a process and excessive frequency. This thesis aims to investigate user reactions towards online ads as well as presenting the reasons behind user’s annoyance. That happens by presenting the relevant research of previous years while also analyzing data from a questionnaire filled in by universitystudents on the annoyance created from online ads. The questionnaire included a total of 109 participants, consisting of 76 males and 33 females, all within the age range of 20-24. Participants were asked to watch annoying ads and then to fill in the questionnaire. Each participant completed 3-4 questionnaires, corresponding to the number of the ads they watched, resulted in a total of 349 data points. Our objective with this questionnaire was to analyze the following factors: the ability and ease of closing the ad, coverage of page contents, coverage of browser window, ad expansion, automatic ad activation, video/animation, sound, and ad targeting based on recent browsing history. Based on our data analysis, we reached the conclusion that higher levels of annoyance are created from ads that are triggered automatically as well as from ads with the automatic start of sound and dynamic expansion. The ad’s overlay to part or the whole browser’s page also creates high levels of annoyance along with the inclusion of video. The thesis begins with the objective and significance of online advertising. It resumes with the literature review, the display of different methods and types of online advertising, while also exploring the consumer attitude. In Chapter 2 the available ad avoidance techniques are presented along with factors that contribute and enhance it. In Chapter 3 the research methodology, research questions and method of data collection are presented and analyzed. Continuing in Chapter 4 the statistical analysis of the survey results is thoroughly explained along with the conclusions that are combined with the previously presented bibliography. The last chapter, Chapter 5, focuses on the main conclusions, limitations and proposals for future work.