The impacts of banner format and animation speed on banner effectiveness: Evidence from eye movements

Given that banner ad investment is huge and keeps increasing, the effectiveness of banners is important for advertising practitioners and is worth attention from academics. Banner properties (e.g. format and animation) may influence the overall effectiveness of banners. However, research on how banner formats (e.g. location and orientation) affect banner effectiveness is still in its early stage and studies on how animation influences banner effectiveness have also found controversial results. By conducting an experiment using eye-tracking technology, this study investigated the impacts of banner properties, especially animation speed and format, on users' attention, recall, and attitudes towards banners. In terms of attention, both the main effects and the interaction effect were significant and the patterns varied across time. However, no significant effects were found on recall and attitudes.