Paid media and measurement · Online field experiments with a memory-based response model
Effect of Temporal Spacing Between Advertising Exposures: Evidence from Online Field Experiments
Sahni, N. S. (2015). Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 13, 203–247.
Plain-English take
Ads increased purchase likelihood and effects carried over to later purchase occasions. For your marketing: This may be useful when testing retargeting frequency and lifecycle messaging cadence.
How much weight to give this
3.5/5 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.
An experiment is useful for causal evidence, but the accessible profile does not establish random assignment.
A usable sample size is not stated in the profile's accessible source.
Experimental comparison is described; randomization or control details need checking 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
Does spacing repeated ad exposures change purchase likelihood compared with bunching exposures together?
Design
Online field experiments created exogenous variation in individual ad exposure and timing; a memory-based model was compared with canonical advertising models.
Sample and setting
Online consumers exposed to digital advertising; detailed sample counts are not reported in the retrieved abstract.
Reported result
What the study found
Ads increased purchase likelihood and effects carried over to later purchase occasions. Spacing exposures apart increased purchase likelihood relative to bunching them, even when some exposures moved away from the purchase occasion.
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
The publisher abstract does not give sample size or industry details. The estimated response patterns may depend on campaign cadence, product category, and the historical online ad environment.
Possible founder application
Useful when testing retargeting frequency and lifecycle messaging cadence. Randomize timing, not only total impressions, and track downstream purchases over a sufficient window.
Evidence access
Publisher abstract; full text access may vary
Springer publisher abstract retrieved with Firecrawl; experimental variation and main findings were checked on the page.
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.