Understanding User Attention and Engagement in Digital Marketing: An Eye-Tracking Analysis of Native Advertisements

This study investigates the effectiveness of various types of native ads in terms of capturing users' attention and engagement using eye-tracking data to analyze user interactions. To this end, 47 participants compared four types of native ads with two traditional banner ads embedded within a website designed specifically for the needs of the study. Results confirm that native ads, and particularly content integrated ones like recommendation widgets and native ads in-feed, attract higher levels of attention compared to traditional banner ads. These ads maintain high deception rates, with users mostly failing to recognize them, a fact that raises questions about users' trust and annoyance. The variation that creates the highest click-through rate is the promoted listing, while typical banner advertisements attracted limited engagement suffering from banner blindness. This study highlights the delicate balance between effective ad placement and ethical transparency by advertisers, emphasizing the need for clear labelling to maintain user trust. These findings present useful insights for marketers and interface designers, with guidance on creating effective yet usable ad designs in digital spaces.