Non-intrusive click-through advertisements: A study of perceptions and uses by Internet consumers

The Internet has become a big part of people's everyday lives. With more consumers surfing the World Wide Web these days, it has become increasingly important for advertisers to explore this medium in terms of effectiveness and responsiveness towards marketing online. This study looked at non-intrusive click-through advertisements on the Internet to examine how people perceive these ads. Non-intrusive click-through ads are the advertisements that are part of the webpage that has been opened, such as banner ads, and that do not detract from viewer's experiences like pop-ups or pop-under ads. One hundred twenty college students in six sessions of twenty each were asked to view websites online and take a test to evaluate their experiences and perceptions. Through the study, it was found that participants had a more positive viewing experience on those sites that did not have pop-up ads as part of their site. This study also found that there are no significant differences in male vs. female perceptions of the Internet. Eighmey's Marketing Perceptions scale was used to evaluate the user's experiences and perceptions of the Internet advertisements including attitudes towards click-through ads, likelihood of clicking on advertisements, and motivation for clicking on ads. The functional paradigm and the uses and gratifications theories are used to ground this study.