The Impact of Targeted Online Advertising's Pushing Time on Consumers' Browsing Intention: A Study Based on Regret Theory

The development of digital technology enables advertising information to be pushed precisely to suitable consumers, thus achieving advertising targeting. Ad push timing can significantly impact ad click-through rates when advertisers push targeted ads based on consumers' online behavioral data. By conducting two studies, the authors found that pushing targeted ads before a consumer's purchase resulted in higher browsing intention than after purchase. This process is mediated in parallel by the perceived usefulness of ad information and anticipated regret after browsing the ad. When the purchase decision is irreversible (vs. reversible), or the repeatability of a purchase decision is low (vs. high), the impact of pushing time on consumers' advertising browsing intention will increase. In addition, the cost of decision reversal affects consumers' intention to browse ads. Consumers' intention to browse targeted ads is lower when the cost of decision reversal is high. Consumers' anticipated regret can effectively explain the aforementioned influence and moderating effects.