Attention Spillovers from News to Ads: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Experiment

The authors investigate the impact of online news content on the effectiveness of display advertising. In a randomized online experiment, participants read news articles randomly paired with brand advertisements. Leveraging nonintrusive eye-tracking technology, the authors measure individual attention to both articles and ads. The authors then measure ad recall, and participants choose between cash and brand-specific vouchers. Heightened attention to articles results in “spillover” attention to ads on the same page, which, in turn, increases both brand recall and purchase probability. The authors also consider the effect of news content type, differentiating between “hard” and “soft” news. They find that advertising next to hard news is at least as effective as advertising next to soft news. This provides evidence against the blunt implementation of “block lists” for sensitive news topics by advertisers. The authors discuss the implications of attention spillovers for firms contemplating investments in engaging news content within the digital advertising landscape.