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Key words
Online Advertising, behavioural targeting mechanism and consumer perception.
Abstract
This study aims to examine the effectiveness of online behavioural advertising in four dimensions that are perception, privacy concerns, targeted visible ads and advertisement characteristics. The results from a survey of 141 university students, which consist of students from two different regions, Europe and Asia, found that, overall, consumers have positive perceptions towards online behavioural targeting. This research found that privacy concerns are still salient issues in online behavioural targeting. European and Asian consumers have the same concerns about invasion of their privacy in relation to targeted ads. The model in this research shows that privacy concerns, targeted visible ads and advertisement characteristics factors have a significant effect on the perception of online behavioural targeting. In order to raise the positive perception of behavioural targeting, advertisement characteristics can be improved to be more attractive with relevant content and improved ads credibility. This research suggests that advertisers need to control the features of the advertisements to be more valuable for consumers. Thus, the more positive perceptions consumers have toward online advertising, the less concerns about privacy invasion there will be. Further, online behavioural targeting advertisements are more effective than normal visible ads without targeting. However, online behavioural targeting advertisements enforce firms to control and provide the privacy policy in order to decrease the consumer privacy concerns.
1 Introduction
Nowadays, advanced technology allows for the tracking of customer's shopping behaviour in browsing websites by using 'cookies' on a shopper's computer or recording a visiting shopper's computer IP address (Alreck et al. 2007). Then the advertisement of the products or services that users had browsed will be displayed on other websites. This advertising method is called online behavioural targeting.
Online behavioural targeting advertising enables the company to deliver the advertising to the specific group and help firms to get better information on consumer preference. However, targeting is viewed as an invasion of people's privacy. There are also some privacy concerns in the context of behavioural targeted advertising (Alreck et al. 2007; Goldfarb & Tucker 2011).
This research aims to examine the effectiveness of targeting consumers through online behavioural targeting. This study focuses on how privacy concerns, visible ads with targeted behaviour and advertisement characteristics effect the...