Personalized advertisements with integration of names and photographs: An eye-tracking experiment

This article examines the influence of a job recruitment advertisement personalized with a recipient's name and photograph on the visual attention to the advertisement, the attitudes toward the advertisement and, ultimately, job-pursuit intentions. Perceived ad intrusiveness and attitudinal persuasion knowledge may function as parallel mediators of visual attention and attitude toward the advertisement, with personal privacy concerns as a moderator of this relationship. In a between-subjects eye-tracking experiment, 72 participants view an advertisement on LinkedIn that is either personalized or not personalized. Although the participants fixate on the personalized advertisement more frequently and view it longer, they do not notice it faster or return to it more frequently. Furthermore, enhanced visual attention augments perceived intrusiveness, regardless of participants' levels of privacy concern, and decreases attitudinal persuasion knowledge for those who are less concerned about privacy.