**Shiow-Luan Wang \*, Yung-Tsung Hou and Sarawut Kankham**

Department of Information Management, National Formosa University, Yunlin 632, Taiwan **\*** Correspondence: slwang@nfu.edu.tw; Tel.: +886-933-173-886

Received: 17 July 2019; Accepted: 29 July 2019; Published: 2 August 2019

**Abstract:** The proliferation of Internet technology and balance of composition in major feature of many visual products have been advantageous for businesses and changed the distribution channels through which industries reach their consumers. The intensive development of Internet technology and the increasing popularity of online shopping have further changed customers' purchasing behaviors and the methods by which companies disseminate their video advertisements. The main research question that this study intends to answer is, "What do users do when a YouTube advertisement appears? Do they avoid or confront them?" The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions and related behaviors of international purchasing and consumers' trust of YouTube advertisements. Statistical analyses focus on the demographics of a sample population in Thailand. The findings are based on data obtained by a questionnaire, the results of which were analyzed by *t*-test and multiple regression. The results indicate that YouTube advertising has a significant effect on behavioral trends. Moreover, the subjects in the sample reported that they are more likely to avoid YouTube ads than confront them. The study subjects have low satisfaction with YouTube advertising, and males have significantly lower satisfaction than females. This study also analyzes the reliability of trust perception toward purchasing. The results indicate that the reliability is greater than 90% at an α level of 5% and a 95% confidence interval.

**Keywords:** YouTube advertising; uses and gratifications approach; demographic characteristics; behavioral modality; reliability

### **1. Introduction**

Since its appearance, the Internet has become increasingly influential by facilitating the connection of people all over the world. In particular, the introduction of the World Wide Web (www) has allowed people to easily discover information about any topic by simply searching and clicking. Symmetry's expertise in connecting engineers to the technology allows consumers to save time and money by getting their design products of complex interactions among various stimuli and perceptions. The Internet revolution has led to the advancement of online business all over the world [1]. Users rely on websites to serve their practical demands, such as finding entertainment, enjoying social media, making or chatting with friends, watching movies, doing business, receiving news updates, reading articles, checking on product stock in stores, and so on.

Nevertheless, nothing in this world is free, including the Internet. Users generally pay monthly fees for Internet access through their smartphones or computers. Many highly popular websites are free to users but include many advertisements. By profiting from advertisers who purchase ad space on these websites, website creators are able to maintain the quality of their websites while keeping them up to date. The development of computer technology has accelerated economic development while

creating new opportunities and sectors of activity amidst an increasingly competitive environment and easily accessible information could greatly affect the online consumption decision [2,3].

Im2market [4] explained that advertisers focus on providing information that generates or encourages customers' enjoyment. Advertising media can be a tool that promotes a company's product to customers and target groups, and its success is dependent on the chosen media type.

The Digital Advertising Association in Thailand (DAAT) [5] has shown that Facebook (www. facebook.com) has continued to be a predominant platform preferred by companies for advertising and communicating their brand to customers. Advertising on Facebook was valued at 4084 million baht (Thai monetary unit) or one third of digital media advertising revenue in 2017. YouTube (www.youtube.com) was in second place in advertising revenue, which amounted to 2105 million baht, and the third highest was attributed to the display of advertising banners or website banners, with a value of 1340 million baht.

YouTube is a website for watching videos that users can easily upload and share with people around the world. The website is a collection of countless video types of different topics and various content. Globally, more than 1000 million people per day watch videos on YouTube, with hundreds of millions of hours watched per day [6].

Marketers insert advertising into regular media in an attempt to deploy attention-grabbing facts about their goods or services. Consequently, customers are increasingly shunning such advertising. Customers can avoid advertisements on television using a range of actions, such as changing channels or muting the TV when advertising appears. Internet users tend to avoid advertisements in online media as well; for example, users can close banners and pop-up ads that appear on websites by clicking the window cross-box.

In this study, we concentrate on the behavioral trends of Thai individuals to investigate the effects of YouTube advertising, with a particular focus on the "uses and gratifications" approach and the demographic characteristics of Thai people. We used these methods to determine whether the behavioral trend of Thai Internet users is toward avoiding or confronting YouTube advertisements.

#### **2. Literature Review**

#### *2.1. YouTube Website*

Sanook [7] suggested that YouTube could serve as an effective video-sharing website on which users upload videos, view existing videos, and share videos. These videos are available free of charge to anybody on the YouTube website, although much of the content includes advertising. The types of video content include short film clips, TV shows, music videos, video blogs, and so on. Videos on YouTube are mostly short clips with a duration that ranges from about one minute to more than one hour, and they are recorded by the people in the general public or content creators. The videos are sorted by the website under categories such as recent videos, most viewed videos, most liked videos, and so on. YouTube is available on various platforms: such as a website on PCs or as an application on smartphones, smart TVs, and tablets. In this study, we focus on the PC platform because YouTube started as a website that is accessible through browsers, such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and so on.

#### *2.2. Types of Advertising on the Desktop Version of YouTube*

Nuttaputch [8] explained that the desktop version of YouTube has six types of advertisements.

(1) Mastheads (Scheme 1) are oversized banners that appear at the top of YouTube's homepage. The standard banner size is 970 × 250 pixels or 970 × 500 pixels as an expandable size. It has multiple formats (schemes or video advertising) and is a fixed banner that is viewed multiple times every day.

**Scheme 1.** Mastheads.

(2) Display ads (Scheme 2) are banner ads that are displayed as slides or animated gifs. They are typically 300 × 250 pixels and appear on the right side of the playing video.

**Scheme 2.** Display ads.

(3) Overlay-in-video ads (Scheme 3) are banner ads beneath the video content to discourage the audience from hiding it.

**Scheme 3.** Overlay-in-video ads

The next two types of ads are forms of TrueView advertising. TrueView is advertising for which YouTube can only charge the advertiser who placed the ad once users view the ad. TrueView advertisements can automatically find their target audiences through the system.

(4) TrueView in-stream ads (Scheme 4) are video ads that play before the main video that the user intends to watch. The cost of advertising to the ad owner depends on whether the video is watched until the end without the user skipping it. However, users who want to skip it can only do so five seconds after the advertisement appears.

**Scheme 4.** TrueView in-stream ads.

(5) TrueView in-search ads (Scheme 5) are recommended video clips at the top of YouTube's search results. The ad owner is charged once a link is clicked to view the ad.

**Scheme 5.** TrueView in-search ads.

(6) Non-skippable in-stream ads (Scheme 6) are also called reserve videos. They are mostly video clips similar to TrueView in-stream ads, but this type of ad forces the user to view the video until the end before they can access the main video. The video ad is no longer than 20 s. The ad owner is only charged per 1000 views.

**Scheme 6.** Non-skippable in-stream ads.

#### *2.3. Demographic Characteristics*

Bryant, and Oliver, [9] indicated that because of the influential role the mass media play in society, understanding the psychosocial mechanisms through which symbolic communication influences human thought, affect, and action is of considerable import. To disseminate information (such as news, advertising, and so on), advertisers apply market segmentation to define their target market using demographic characteristics such as gender, age, occupation, social and economic status, education, and so on.

#### *2.4. Uses and Gratifications Approach*

When mass society theory was first proposed, it claimed that humanity is the victim of influential media. Later, the credibility of this theory decreased as a result of social studies and observations that illustrated that advertising media do not have a direct effect on everybody or affect everyone in the same way.

Pira Jirasopon [10] recommended the "uses and gratifications theory" as a potential social and psychological theory that views human communication activities as being driven by wants and motivations. By this theory, the receiver looks for specific media and content to satisfy their wants and motivations to obtain self-satisfaction.

Dainton and Zelley [11] asserted that communication constitutes giving and receiving meaning and includes the concept of interaction followed by sharing with others. The media are considered to play a role in the production and dissemination of content that corresponds to the wants of the receiver.

Hence, the uses and gratification approach is based on the view that receivers are enthusiastically active rather than passive in their search for media that is in line with their wants and needs.

#### *2.5. Exit-Voice*

As described by Albert O. Hirschman [12], Exit-Voice Theory pertains to the response of customers to the product or service of a company when they feel dissatisfied with that product or service. For instance, dissatisfaction can arise if a product's quality deteriorates but still sells at its original price or if the quality of the item does not match what is advertised. Consumers react to this situation in two major ways:


In cases of the voice option, consumers are likely to spend time or money to express their dissatisfaction to others, such as the time spent writing e-mails to complain to the company. Therefore, the exit option is often a simpler and more convenient expression of dissatisfaction than the voice option.

The theoretical exit-voice concepts are applied to this research to study the behavioral trends of Thai people in response to YouTube advertising. Their possible responses are divided into two types of expression:

