Abstract
As media viewers shift expectations toward content and ads, advertisers are increasingly exploring micro ads. Yet, limited research has examined micro ads, especially on TV. This article uses a multimethod approach to investigate micro ad effectiveness on behavioral outcomes and, more broadly, provide insights into the relationship between ad length and ad effectiveness in the current media landscape. Analyzing observational data on retailers’ TV advertising, web traffic, and online sales, the authors find that micro ads spur more immediate web traffic than longer ads. Micro and nonmicro ads exhibit similar direct impacts on online sales, but micro ads can indirectly increase online sales more by driving increased traffic. Results from a field experiment using social media ads corroborate these findings, showing that micro ads outperform nonmicro ads in driving web traffic and social media engagement. The analyses suggest that viewer impatience for longer ads may be a plausible mechanism that explains why micro ads are more effective. The findings offer timely insights for advertisers and ad platforms seeking economical, attractive ad inventory.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
