"Sponsored links" or "advertisements"?
measuring labeling alternatives in internet search engines
by Benjamin Edelman
In an online experiment, we measure users' interactions with search engines, both in standard configurations and in modified versions with improved labels identifying search engine advertisements. In particular, for a random subset of users, we change "sponsored link" or "ad" labels to instead read "paid advertisement." Relative to users receiving the "sponsored link" or "ad" labels, users receiving the "paid advertisement" label click 23% and 26% fewer advertisements, respectively. Users seeing "paid advertisement" labels also correctly report that they click fewer advertisements, controlling for the number of advertisements they actually click. Results are most pronounced for commercial searches, and for users with low income, low education, and little online experience. We find no evidence that consumers find Google's new "ads" label more informative than the longstanding prior label "sponsored links."
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"Sponsored links" or "advertisements"?: measuring labeling alternatives in internet search engines
2010, Harvard Business School
in English
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"Sponsored links" or "advertisements"?: measuring labeling alternatives in internet search engines
2010, Harvard Business School
in English
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"November 2010, revised January 2011"--Publisher's website.
Includes bibliographical references.
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In an online experiment, we measure users' interactions with search engines, both in standard configurations and in modified versions with improved labels identifying search engine advertisements. In particular, for a random subset of users, we change "sponsored link" labels to instead read "paid advertisement." We find that users receiving the "paid advertisement" label click 25% to 33% fewer advertisements and correctly report that they click fewer advertisements, controlling for the number of advertisements they actually click. Results are most pronounced for commercial searches, and for users with low income, low education, and little online experience.
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