Discussion
Here we will discuss the implications of the results found. [ view references ]
The expected results were that both the inexperienced group and experienced group would notice the pop-up that had appeared on their screen, and the results did indicate that the majority of both groups remembered seeing the pop-up advertisement. Although both groups remember seeing the pop-up, the majority of both groups did not remember the actual product being advertised. However, approximately half of both groups did retain some information from the advertisement. The results found that there was no significant difference in the memory retention of the pop-up advertisement between the two groups.
Both groups were questioned on whether their past experiences with pop-ups had been positive. It was expected that the experienced group would have less positive experiences with pop-ups, however, the results indicate that the majority of both groups have had no positive past experiences with pop-up advertisements. There was no significant difference found between the two groups' past experiences.
Both groups were questioned on whether they use pop-up blocking software. It was expected that a larger proportion of the experienced group would answer “Yes” to this question. The results indicate that a large majority of the experienced group use pop-up blocking software and that a large majority of the inexperienced group did not use pop-up blocking software or were unsure to whether they did or not. The results indicated that there is a relationship between how experienced a user is and how likely they are to use pop-up blocking software.
Additional Findings
Only a third of participants believed that pop-ups were effective as advertising tools, and a small minority had purchased a product after clicking on a pop-up advertisement, this minority were in the inexperienced group only.
Over half of the participants had previously visited a website after clicking on a pop-up advertisement; however, only a third of this group had clicked on this pop-up on purpose. A higher number of participants in the experienced group (when compared to the inexperienced group) had visited a website after clicking on a pop-up, and the results indicated that there is a relationship between experience, and how likely the Internet user is to have ever clicked on a pop-up advertisement. However, there was no relationship found between experience and how likely the Internet user is to have clicked this pop-up advertisement on purpose or not.
Research Questions
Primary Hypothesis: The memory recall of pop-up advertisements is higher in inexperienced Internet users when compared to experienced Internet users.
The primary hypothesis was not supported. The results indicated no difference in the memory recall between the two groups, but the results did indicate low memory recall in both groups.
Secondary Hypothesis: Experienced Internet users are more likely to use pop-up blocking software.
The secondary hypothesis was supported. The results indicated a relationship between how experienced a user is and how likely they are to use pop-up blocking software.
Tertiary Hypothesis: Experienced Internet users are more likely to have had negative past experiences with pop-ups.
The tertiary hypothesis was not supported. The results indicated that there was no significant difference found between the two groups' past experiences. However, the majority of both groups were found to have had no positive past experiences with pop-up advertisements.
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The implications of these findings suggests that both inexperienced users of the Internet and experienced users of the Internet notice pop-ups online, but do not fully attend to the information contained within them. These findings support the studies by McCoy et al (2004) that found that retention of advertisement content was higher when pop-up advertisements were not used, and by Diao and Sundar (2002) that found that participants exhibited orienting responses with the sudden onset of a pop-up window. This study and the studies by McCoy et al (2004) and Diao and Sundar (2002) indicate that although Internet users may respond to a pop-up window, they do not remember their content. These findings suggest that pop-ups are ineffective tools for advertising online.
The results of this study also indicates that no matter how experienced a user is online they have a familiarity with pop-up advertisements and have had no positive experiences with them. These findings are similar to those by Safran (2001) who found that a small minority of respondents had positive feelings towards intrusive advertising formats like pop-ups. However, this study is dissimilar to the study by Previte and Forrest (1998) that found differences between new and experienced users on issues concerning Internet advertising.
The results of this study indicate that there is a relationship between how experienced a user is online, and how likely they are to have clicked on a pop-up advertisement. The results also suggest that experienced users use pop-up blocking software, therefore, as a user becomes more experienced online (and more experienced with actually clicking on pop-up advertisements) the more likely they are to start using pop-up blocking software. Statements such as “Many users have learned to ignore these ads” (Garcia, 2003; Goldhaber 1997; Kahng 2001; Lee & Benbasat, 2003; Moe, 2003) should perhaps be replaced by a statement such as the following: “Many users have learned to install pop-up blocking software.”
The implications of these findings suggest that both inexperienced users of the Internet and experienced users of the Internet notice pop-ups online, but do not fully attend to the information contained within them. Approximately half of the participants in each group remembered only partial content from the pop-up. For instance, some participants were able to correctly state the price of the product but were unable to remember the actual product being advertised. Other participants were able to recall the word “Diet” or that the product was in some way related to “Dieting”. This suggests partial memory recall of the pop-up. This indicates that the memory recall of a product being advertised in a pop-up advertisement may be higher if a minimum amount of information is contained within the pop-up. Users may recall the product being advertised if the name of the product is the only information being given to them.
However, if an experienced user of the Internet is being targeted by advertisers using pop-ups it is less likely that this demographic will even see the pop-up. The experienced group was questioned on whether they use pop-up blocking software, and a large majority answered “Yes”. This may be due to the fact that the majority of this group indicated that they have had no positive past experiences with pop-up advertisements. These findings suggest that experienced Internet users actively attempt to remove pop-ups from their Online experience due to past negative experiences with pop-up advertisements online.
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This study was interested in users with long term experience using the Internet. A flaw in the design of the research was separating the participants into only two groups. The groups could have been separated into three groups: beginners, novice and advanced. This would have compensated for the users that had a high skill level but had been using the Internet for three years or less. These users may have been novice users, rather than actually inexperienced users of the Internet. The results may have been affected by this as some participants placed in the inexperienced group may have been highly skilled users of the Internet. Separating the participants into beginners, novice and advanced would have allowed for a comparison across three groups, although, a significantly larger sample size would have been needed.
In order to group individuals based on their level of experience online a more accurate assessment than a self-assessment is needed to be developed. There are obvious flaws with regards to participants self-assessing their own level of ability, for example, in the online questionnaire participants were asked to place themselves in either the inexperienced group or experienced group. However, a large majority of participants initially placed themselves in the experienced group, even participants that had scored 2 or less (self assessed on the Likert scale) on their skill level online. Thus, this self-assessment question was disregarded during the analysis of the raw data.
The experiment that was conducted introduced the participant to an online environment in which they had a goal, so they were orientated towards achieving that goal, thus, their attention was focused on their task. A more realistic environment would have had the switching between being goal-orientated and browsing. For a more accurate assessment of the participants memory recall they should have been tested under these two conditions, rather than just one.
Follow up research must be conducted to achieve a more accurate assessment, in which participants must be tested under two conditions, as it is naive to assume that Internet users are continually goal-orientated when online. This follow-up research would form a more accurate assessment of an Internet users memory recall of pop-up advertisements.
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Future Research
Originally the online survey was designed to capture demographic information and to test the amount of time it took for a participant to close the pop-up window. However, the timer was unable to supply the time it took for the participant to remove the pop-up window by simply clicking on the main survey window (instead of closing it by clicking the X in the upper right hand corner). The data that was collected on how long it took for the participant to close the window was disregarded because of this, however, given more time the web designer/developer would have been able to compensate for this flaw in the online survey design. Future research could investigate how quickly a user closes the pop-up and what variables are involved in speeding up or slowing down this process.
Future research could involve testing a participant’s memory retention of pop-ups while browsing the Internet and then comparing their memory retention while they are goal orientated. This study could also involve using multiple pop-up advertisements. A study such as this could also test a participants stress levels while browsing the Internet under two conditions: with a pop-up blocker, and without a pop-up blocker.
Other future research should investigate what variables contribute to an Internet user installing pop-up blocking software on their computer.
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The results of this study suggest that both inexperienced users of the Internet and experienced users of the Internet notice pop-ups online, but do not fully attend to the information contained within them. The findings of this study suggest that users do not learn to ignore pop-ups, but that they learn to install pop-up blocking software. This research suggests that pop-up advertisements are not effective upon users that are goal-orientated. Future research needs to investigate users when they are browsing the Internet without a specific goal.
The overall conclusion of this study is that pop-ups are unnecessary cognitive and psychologically damaging distractions to Internet users and are ineffective as advertising tools online, and that online advertisers should focus on alternative and more effective forms of advertising.
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