A large portion of ad performance on e-commerce sites is uncharted territory. Therefore, EyeSee’s team conducted a behavioral study to understand the impact of ads on product list pages on purchase decisions and browsing patterns. Only a small fraction of people end up clicking on the ad itself (2%), so is it worth placing an advertisement on PLP pages? Are the ads actually seen or is there banner blindness? What is the impact of the position of the ad?

We tested 4 different categories (Cereal, Chocolate, Cleaning products, and Coffee) on Amazon Fresh. 520 respondents were recruited and completed a test remotely using eye tracking and virtual shopping. We had 2 cells of respondents, with exactly the same testing protocol with one difference: One cell of respondents was exposed to PLPs with ads, the other without. Two of the categories had ads on top, two on the side. Two of the categories had the advertised SKUs included on the list, the other two had some other SKU of the advertised brand included.

1. Ads do make a difference in purchase interest but not necessarily how you’d expect

Only a few people end up clicking on the ad itself (2%), so do not expect your revenue to increase from ad conversion. The way the ads influence the shoppers is that they subconsciously drive interest in the advertised product, which then gets purchased on its primary position i.e. the list.

However, this does not work for all products and all categories equally. An uplift in brand purchase can be as high as 40% for different categories, but as low as non-existent for others.

It found that if the SKU/product shown in the ad is also available on the list, shoppers are significantly more likely to buy it.

If the communicated SKU is not available on the list (but other representatives of the brand are) the purchase interest might not be affected. The strategy of buying ads to eventually hit the first page of the online shop might not work.

2. Ad creative has a strong impact on attention time

E-marketers are aware of the importance of ad positioning by now; it can bring a five-fold increase in ad visibility! However, for ads with the same positioning, the content can make or break the game. Attention to the ad varies by a factor of 3; this can be a world of difference in the amount of information you can get across to consumers. Ads at the top of the pages were seen on average 3.9 seconds while ads on the side positions are seen 1.3 seconds.

Ads work positively for product lists overall:

• Lists with ads are browsed 20% longer
• Online shoppers see 10% more products overall
• As a result, there is a 14% increase in product purchase interest

3. Exploring e-commerce ads further

The study sparked the following questions as well:

• Where in the shopper journey should you place ads? On the homepage, to increase interest or closer to the decision point (in the category)?
• Should you have ads in related categories (build a combination of compatible categories such as e.g. beer and chip)?
• What works best for what goal: when to use hard selling, when to opt for emotional messaging?
• Should you have more exposures of the same ad/message? What is the optimal solution to drive purchase but not to become annoying?

The truth is, testing e-commerce by using behavioral insights is highly accessible. What’s more, many e-marketers have yet to commit more resources to study the impact of ads on the constantly evolving field of e-commerce, which gives you a chance to pioneer the best practices and profit from understanding e-shopper behavior further.

Did you find this study interesting? Find out more about online advertising in the related blog about what makes a good social media test or case study about effective online pack shots.