Mobile Advertisers' Strategies to Maintain User Engagement and Minimize Video Ad Blocks
In a groundbreaking study, researchers have uncovered significant insights into the factors that contribute to a positive user experience with advertisements on mobile devices. The study, which focused on real-time assessment of users' attention, engagement, and affect towards advertisements, did not consider the role of sound or audio in the user experience, nor did it delve into the ethical implications of incentivizing users to view advertisements.
The research team collected data streams from the brain and body, including visual fixations, heart rate, electroencephalography, skin conductance, and facial affect, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the mobile user's experience. However, they did not find any significant relationship between heart rate, electroencephalography, skin conductance, or facial affect with user experience towards advertisements.
Despite the absence of direct correlations, the study did find a positive correlation between user volition to engage with advertisements and a positive user experience. Intriguingly, it was also discovered that incentivizing users to view advertisements improved the user experience, a finding that could have significant implications for the future of mobile advertising.
The study did not investigate the impact of different types of content on user experience with advertisements. However, it did find that advertisements that are less disruptive to the user's experience contribute to a positive user experience.
Based on the findings, key practices for improving positive user experience with advertisements on mobile devices focus on optimizing interactivity, minimizing user frustration, and tailoring ad formats effectively. These include the use of interactive ad formats like playable ads, limiting ad frequency and refreshing creatives, incorporating micro-interactions and subtle animations, simplifying navigation and optimizing button design, applying consistent and minimalist design, using responsive designs suited to various screen sizes, leveraging user feedback for iterative improvement, and tailoring ad formats by audience segments.
The study's findings provide a valuable foundation for advertising researchers who are now exploring the impact of different advertisement placement and delivery vehicles on mobile user's experience. While the long-term effects of advertisement placement and delivery vehicles on user experience were not examined in this study, the focus on making ads interactive but unobtrusive, clear but engaging, and tested continuously for improvement offers a promising direction for future research.
Technology such as facial coding and media analytics were instrumental in data collection, providing insights into users' emotional responses towards advertisements on mobile devices. This information, combined with the study's findings on user volition, incentivization, and key practices for improving user experience, could potentially shape the future direction of mobile advertising technology.
