Paid media and measurement · Randomized field experiment with purchase-funnel model
Effects of Internet Display Advertising in the Purchase Funnel: Model-Based Insights from a Randomized Field Experiment
Hoban, P. R., & Bucklin, R. E. (2015). Journal of Marketing Research, 52(3), 375–386.
Plain-English take
The paper uses randomized exposure data to estimate how display advertising affects multiple purchase-funnel outcomes rather than relying only on last-click attribution. For your marketing: Measure how campaigns affect more than the final conversion event, while preserving the experimental control that supports causal estimates.
How much weight to give this
4.0/5 Useful evidence with meaningful caveats
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Random assignment provides a strong comparison for effects in the tested setting.
A usable sample size is not stated in the profile's accessible source.
Randomized comparison; confirm the control condition and analysis in the paper.
This profile could be checked against an abstract or metadata, not the full paper.
Double-blind? Blinding is not reported in the source reviewed; that does not establish whether blinding was or was not used.
Research question
What the authors investigated
How does Internet display advertising affect consumer movement through the purchase funnel?
Design
The authors use cookie-level data from a randomized field experiment at a financial-tools provider and fit a model of consumer behavior through funnel stages.
Sample and setting
Online visitors to one financial-tools provider who were included in the display-ad experiment; the publisher preview does not report sample size.
Reported result
What the study found
The paper uses randomized exposure data to estimate how display advertising affects multiple purchase-funnel outcomes rather than relying only on last-click attribution.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
One provider and advertiser setting; the accessible abstract result does not report effect sizes or full funnel estimates. Cookie-based measurement and tracking conditions have changed since publication.
Possible founder application
Measure how campaigns affect more than the final conversion event, while preserving the experimental control that supports causal estimates. Check the paper's full results before mapping its model to a SaaS funnel.
Evidence access
Publisher abstract; full text access may vary
Journal of Marketing Research publisher record and abstract; profile avoids reporting numeric effects not visible in the inspected abstract.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.