Exploring readers’ evaluations of native advertisements in a mobile news app

ABSTRACT

Mobile news consumption is rising quickly, just as the appearance of native advertisements on mobile news platforms, yet little is known about readers’ mobile native advertising recognition and perceptions. This qualitative study, therefore, explores how readers recognise and perceive in-feed native advertisements in a mobile news app. Usability tests combined with interviews with 24 users of a national news app showed that in the mobile environment, readers are generally able to recognise native advertisements. The findings suggest four key factors that influence readers’ evaluations: (1) perceived utility, (2) source credibility of the advertiser, (3) perceived control, and (4) recognisability. The results suggest that besides readers’ advertising recognition, the advertisements’ content and context play an important role in explaining readers’ perceptions of native advertising.

KEYWORDS:

• Native advertising
• online news
• mobile advertising
• online advertising

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [11A6718N].

Notes on contributors

Simone Krouwer

Simone Krouwer works as a PhD researcher at the Department of Communication Studies of the University of Antwerp. She is a member of the MIOS research group (Media & ICT in Organizations & Society). Her research focuses on native advertising.

Karolien Poels

Karolien Poels is a full Professor in Strategic Communication at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium. She is a member of the research group MIOS (Media & ICT in Organizations & Society). Her research topics include: 1) advertising and consumer psychology and 2) digital games and social media. She also serves as one of the board members of the Persuasive Communication division of the Netherlands-Flanders Communication Association (NeFCA).

Steve Paulussen

Steve Paulussen is an associate professor in media and journalism studies at the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Antwerp. He is member of the research group Media, Policy and Culture (MPC). Most of his publications focus on different aspects of online journalism, participatory journalism, the professional profile of journalists, new media consumption and newsroom convergence. Paulussen is co-author of the book Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) and member of the editorial board of the new journal Digital Journalism.