Measuring Web advertising effectiveness in China: An empirical investigation

This research examines whether exposure to banner advertising on the Web can produce short-term effects on such dimensions as ad and brand awareness, brand perceptions and purchase intent among Chinese Web users by using survey and the quasiexperimental design. In particular, the research investigates the short-term effects of one additional banner exposure. Intervening variables such as one's general attitude toward Web advertising and product involvement are also tested to determine their impact on the outcome measures.; The research objectives are fulfilled by executing a carefully controlled two-wave survey conducted in a real-world setting with three real brands on one real media site with the real audience of consumers naturally accessing the research site. The survey was fielded from March 3, 2000 to April 15, 2000. Over the course of the first wave, demographic information was collected. One control and three test banners were served individually to users—this assignment was invisible to the respondents. Users were randomly assigned to be part of either the test or the control cells. The second wave was conducted over a time period ranging from one day to one week after ad exposure. There are 1259 respondents participating in the first wave survey, of which 502 came back for the second survey—a substantial test sample.; Data were analyzed using independent samples t-test, Chi-square test, multiple regression and logit analysis. Results indicated that even one additional banner exposure could improve users' recall of the banner, change their attitude toward the brand and increase their purchase consideration. Clickthrough was found to be a significant predictor for ad recall. But no evidence of the effect of clickthrough on brand recall, attitude toward the brand or purchase consideration was observed. Findings also suggested that users' general attitude toward Web advertising and product involvement would influence most of outcome measures. Interestingly, most of the findings in this study are congruent with what have been reported in the 1997 IAB Online Advertising Effectiveness Study.