Defining Boundaries of Web Ads' Perceptual Fluency Effect: Cognitive Resources and Presentation Formats

Recent studies have observed the perceptual effect of peripherally displayed web ads on consumers’ online shopping behavior. This study examines how an individual’s disposition in cognitive operations need for cognition (NFC), interacts with web ad presentation formats to influence the functioning of the perceptual fluency effect. It integrates web ad literature with the persuasion knowledge model and proposes that the perceptual fluency effect would be more likely to occur at the unconscious level for high-NFC consumers exposed to low-visibility ad and for low-NFC consumers exposed to high-visibility ad. When high-NFC individuals exposed to high-visibility ad, they would engage in conscious processing of the ad. This would allow them to identify the relationship between the ad and their primary shopping task and infer the potential influence of the web ad on their behavior. They may avoid its influence, leading to attenuated perceptual fluency effect.