This document describes a study that analyzed characteristics of website advertisements on the Pittsburgh Magazine website to determine what factors influence users' attention. The study manipulated six variables: placement of ads, content congruency between ads and webpage, ad background color, font color, contrast between ad elements, and contrast between ad and webpage colors. Ten participants underwent usability testing involving tasks like free recall and recognition tests. Results found that content congruency had the most significant effect on attracting attention, while contrast between ad and webpage colors and placement also influenced attention. The implications are that website advertisers should focus on making ad content congruent with the site to draw viewers' attention.

1. Methods
 Control Variable Technology
 We generate six variables to measure:
 Placement (banner/right-side)
 Content congruency with ad and webpage
(congruent / moderately congruent /
incongruent)
 Advertisement's background color
(warm/cool)
 Advertisement's font color (black/white)
 Contrast between advertisement’s
background color and font color (high/low)
 Contrast between ad’s background color
and website environment color (high/low)
Tools
Efficiency of Website Advertisements
A Website Browser Based Approach
Lin Gu, Ke Xu
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
Lin Gu, Ke Xu – 2016 3rd Graduate Student Research Symposium of Duquesne University
Pittsburgh Magazine Website Advertisements Characteristic Analysis
Apendix1-1
Abstract
Research Background
Literature Cited
Disclosure
Authors of this presentation have the following to disclose
concerning possible financial or personal relationships with
commercial entities that may have a direct or indirect interest in
the subject matter of this presentation:
Lin Gu: M.A Integrated Marketing Communication
Ke Xu: M.S Multimedia Arts and Technology
Pittsburgh Magazine Website Advertisements Characteristic Analysis
Apendix1-2
Usability Testing
1. Instruction to participants
2. General behavior
examination
3. Purpose-oriented behavior
examination
4. Questionnaire
(1) Free recall Test
(2) Text Recognition Test
(3) Image Recognition Test
Results
In question 1, one participant wrote down “Grove
City”, and another participant wrote down “Eat in
street”. In question 2, All participants circled
“Pittsburgh magazine”. “Allegheny Health
Network”, “The Waterfront” and “Eat Street” all
have circled by four participants. In question 3, six
participants selected ad No. 1 &5, five participants
selected ad No. 6 and four participants selected
ad No. 13.
Conclusion
 Firstly, our results pointed out the significant
effect of congruency on attracting browsers’
attention.
 Secondly, neither did we find main effect of
advertisement’s background color on
browsers’ attention toward advertisements,
nor about the effect of ad’s text color.
 Thirdly, we found a weak effect of contrast
between advertisement’s background color
and text color on browsers’ attention toward
advertisement’s
 Fourthly, we found that the contrast between
ad’s background color and website
environment color and placement of ads both
have influences on browsers’ attention, while
content congruency plays a more vital role in
this issue.
Implications
Our research purpose is discovering
elements which could influence
effectiveness of website advertisements,
especially in browsers’ attention and
attitude toward them. The research
articulates the impacts of the congruity
between product identity of advertisements
and the website per se, the placement of
advertisements on website, and the
contrast between advertisements’
background color, font color and
environment color, respectively.
We selected user testing along with control
variable technology as our methodology
and tested ten participants. Analytical
results we gain from our experiments
offered a relative significant main effect of
content congruency on attention toward
ads.
This paper comes from a practical
environment which internet advertising is
becoming increasingly significant in leading
the traffic to companies’ official website.
Since internet ad revenue growth is being
driven further than ever before, as
advertisers are more committed to invest in
new ways to connect with audiences on
digital screens, it would be necessary to
understand how internet ads characteristics
affect web viewers’ attention toward
advertisements.
Hoque, A. Y., & Lohse, G. L.(1999). An information
search cost perspective for designing interfaces for
electronic commerce. Journal of Marketing Research,
387-394.Moore, R. S., Stammerjohan, C. A., & Coulter,
R. A. (2005). Banner advertiser-web site context
congruity and color effects on attention and attitudes.
Journal of advertising, 34(2), 71-84.
1. Concentrating on content congruency
Internet advertisers place those
advertisement content congruent with
website to address browsers’ attention to
those advertisements.
2. Utilizing “rule of thirds” principal. Rule of
thirds means an image should be
imagined as divided into nine equal parts
by two equally spaced horizontal lines and
two equally spaced vertical lines, and that
important compositional elements should
be placed along these lines or their
intersections.