What consumers think, feel, and do toward digital ads: a multi-phase study

With the wide deployment of digital technologies, come along information artefacts in various forms for various purposes that consumers have to interact with. This paper reports a multi-phase study to address the following questions in the digital advertising context: (1) to what extent did consumers use ads in the past? (2) What are consumers’ perceived values toward ads? (3) What are consumers’ attitudes toward ads? (4) What is the likelihood that consumers will continue to use or recommend ads in the future? And (5) to what extent can we predict consumers’ perceived values, attitudes, and future behavioral intention toward ads? Phase 1 used two focus groups and identified types of ads in three technological platforms. Phase 2 focused on targeted ads in the desktop/web platform and used an online survey with 279 consumers. Phase 3 used another online survey from 218 consumers on two specific types of ads. Collectively, the study provides answers to the questions as well as many other insights for research and practice on digital ads in particular and information artefacts in general.