Predicting positive user responses to social media advertising: The roles of emotional appeal, informativeness, and creativity

This research conceptualizes SNS ad effectiveness as a concept encompassing emotional appeal, informativeness and creativity that all have a potential to contribute to a positive online behavior. It empirically investigates the antecedents of positive user behavior for a SNS ad based on the theory of reasoned action, the social influence theory, and a persuasion theory.

International Journal of Information Management36 (2016) 360–373
Contentslists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Information Management
j o u r n a lh om e p ag e: w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / lo c a t e / i j i n f o m g t
Predicting positive user responsesto social media advertising: The
roles of emotional appeal,informativeness,and creativity
Jieun Lee, Ilyoo B. Hong∗
Collegeof Businessand Economics,Chung-AngUniversity,Republicof Korea
a r t i c l e i n f o
Articlehistory:
Received8 May 2015
Receivedin revised form 8 December2015
Accepted6 January 2016
Available online 21 January 2016
Keywords:
Social media advertising
Social networking site
Empathy
Social influence
Viral behavior
a b s t r a c t
As social network services become more pervasive,social media advertising emerges as an attractive
vehicle for augmenting advertising effectiveness.To leveragethis new means of marketing, one must
understandwhat engagesSNS users in a favorableonline behavior(i.e.,overtly indicating personalinter-
est in, or support for, the exposed messageby clicking the Like or Share button in Facebook),thereby
resulting in an effective advertising campaign. This research conceptualizesSNS ad effectivenessas a
conceptencompassingemotional appeal,informativenessand creativity that all have a potential to con-
tribute to a positive online behavior.It empirically investigatesthe antecedentsof positive user behavior
for a SNS ad based on the theory of reasonedaction, the social influence theory, and a persuasion the-
ory. It proposesand tests a conceptualmodel of the formation of online user’sbehavioralresponseswith
regardsto SNS advertising.The results of our empirical testsof the model revealthat informativenessand
advertisingcreativitywere key drivers of favorablebehavioralresponsesto an SNS ad and that intention
to engagein favorableuser responseswas positively associatedwith purchaseintention. Basedon these
findings, the paper suggestsfurther research directions and offers implications for harnessing the full
potential of the new SNS advertisingplatform.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In recent years, the increasingly widespread use of social
networking sites (SNS) has gradually shifted the advertisement
platform used by business firms from traditional media to social
media. Strong growth in mobile advertising is expectedto increase
the use of digital ads, which represented up to 30%of all U.S. ad
spending in 2014 (eMarketer.com,2014). Social media marketing
enables word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising campaigns, inducing
brand awareness and increasing sales revenue (Godes & Mayzlin,
2009; Kumar & Mirchandani, 2012),and also promotes a firm’s rela-
tionships with prospects,which makes it easy to accuratelytarget
consumers.Social media marketing has thus attractedmuch atten-
tion from businessesseekingto generateincreasedconsumption of
their commercial offerings (Wikipedia.org, 2015b).
One challengefacing marketing professionalsconsidering cam-
paigns on SNS is ensuring that the social network ad in question
serves its goals effectively. Many marketing professionals find it
difficult to measure the effectivenessof social media campaigns
∗ Corresponding author at: Bubhakkwan Bldg., Rm. 1404, 221 Heuksuk-dong,
Dongjak-ku, Seoul 156-756,Republic of Korea. Fax: [phone].
E-mail addresses:[e-mail](J. Lee),[e-mail](I.B. Hong).
because tracking their outcomes is hard. However, the extent to
which a social media advertisementis producing the intended ben-
efits can be gaugedby examining the interactions (e.g.,the number
of “Likes” or “Shares”)among social network users to assesstheir
perceptions of the ad (Burg, 2013). The bottom line is that in order
for a SNS ad to be considered effective,it should be able to lead a
user to favorablyrespond to the ad (e.g.,publicly expressinghis/her
support for the ideasconveyedby, or for the mood generatedby, the
ad). User’s positive responseson a social network are likely to help
spread the advertisementmessageamong the users, contributing
to the increased awareness of the featured brand. According to a
related research report (Gustin, 2012; Lipsman, Aquino, & Kemp,
2012), not only ‘exposedfans’ but also ‘friends of fans’ were found
to spend more after viewing ads on Facebook.Presumably,ads that
can induce positive perceptions and responses among social net-
work users would likely create the WOM effect, and thus result in
greater sales yielding high return on investment in SNS ad cam-
paigns.
In this regard, present research has been motivated by two
researchquestions(RQ): what are the qualities of a SNS ad that help
producepositive user responses(RQ1),and is positive user behavior
with regards to a SNS ad a predictor of positive purchase behav-
ior (RQ2)? Extant researchhas not systematicallyaddressedthese
issues.Researchidentifying desirablequalities of a SNS ad will pro-
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2016.01.001
0268-4012/©2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

J. Lee,I.B. Hong / InternationalJournal of InformationManagement36 (2016)360–373 361
vide useful implications for producing positive user responses,and
hence intended business benefitsof the ad. A few studies (Ducoffe,
1996; Gao & Koufaris, 2006; Logan,Bright, & Grngadharbatla,2012;
Taylor, Lewin, & Strutton, 2011) have examined the predictors of
user attitudes to SNS advertising, but they offer little assistance
in predicting attitudes to the positive user responses that help
improve the brand awarenesson a social network. It is imperative
to understand what drives users’ favorable online behavior (e.g.,
clicking the Like or Sharebutton for a SNS ad) if a firm is to increase
the potential effectivenessof an ad campaign.In this research,we
use the term ‘positive user behavior’ to refer to a user’s behav-
ioral responsesassociatedwith disclosing and spreadingthe user’s
personal interest in, and/or support for, a SNS ad.
The main purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedentsof
the behavioral intention to engagein positive user behavior for an
SNS advertisementand propose a conceptual model of how posi-
tive user responsesto an advertisementare formed on a SNS. The
conceptual model is built around the theory of reasoned action,
the social influence theory, and a persuasion theory. We thus
gain insight into the predictors of viral behavioral intention with
respect to SNS advertisement and the impact of these predictors
(e.g., attitude, subjective norm, herd behavior, privacy concerns,
etc.)on consumers’behavioralresponsesincluding purchaseinten-
tion. Predictors believed to play a sizable role in forming users’
behavioral responseswill be drawn from the related literature. The
findings of this researchwill offer useful implications for firms seek-
ing a favorable return on investments from their SNS campaigns.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. First, we review
the related literature to gain a basic understanding of underly-
ing concepts that will be used to construct a theoretical model
and hypotheses.The literature on empathy expression, advertis-
ing effectiveness,social influences, and privacy concerns would
provide insights into potential antecedentsto the viral behavioral
intention. Next, we introduce the data collection method, sample,
and measuresused to test the model. Then, we present the results
and discuss the key findings of the study. Finally, we provide impli-
cations as well as limitations and future researchdirections.
2. Theoretical background and hypotheses
One theoretical backbonethat underlies the present researchis
the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). The the-
ory of reasonedaction (TRA) posits that an individual’s behavior is
conceptualized as a consequenceof the behavioral intention that
is affected by both the individual’s attitude concerning the behav-
ior and the subjectivenorm concerning it (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).
Over the last decade,numerous studies have modeled user behav-
ior on SNS based on the TRA. However, these studies have focused
on either SNS use (Kwon & Wen, 2010; Pelling & White, 2009;
Sledgianowski& Kulviwat, 2008) or continued SNS use (Choi, 2013)
with little attention paid to user behavior concerning SNS ads. In
our research, we use the TRA to model the user’s online behav-
ior associatedwith a SNS ad. The TRA provides a powerful model
to predict consumer’svolitional behavior and intentions based on
salient information and beliefs about the likelihood that perform-
ing a particular behavior will lead to a specific outcome (Madden,
Ellen, & Ajzen, 1992). And user’s online behavior including reveal-
ing personal reaction to a SNS ad is regardedas a type of volitional
behaviorthat can be adequatelymodeledand predictedusing infor-
mation and beliefs about the use of a SNS. Specifically, a positive
user responseto a SNS ad is viewed as a behavioral outcome jointly
formed by the user’sattitude toward the user responseand the sub-
jective norm about that user response.It is presumed further that
the user’s attitude is determined by beliefs a consumer may have
as to the effectivenessof a SNS ad, such as emotional appeal.
Meanwhile, user behavior associatedwith SNS ads may also be
explained from the perspectiveof the social influence theory. SNS
advertising differs from conventional advertising in the way the
advertising content spreadsamong the individuals whom the ad is
targeted at. Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) enabled by a SNS
acceleratesthe dissemination of the advertising message over a
social network. Interpersonal influence that exists in a SNS serves
as a driving force for users’engagementin eWOM so that SNS users’
online dissemination behavior including opinion giving, opinion
seeking and pass-along responses tend to be driven by the acts
of peer users (Chu, 2009). While the TRA includes a social influ-
ence construct called subjective norm that denotes an individual’s
perception of the pressureto conform to the expectationsof impor-
tant others, the theory is not extensive enough to incorporate the
bandwagoneffectthat refers to the tendencythat the probability of
individual adoption increasing with respectto the proportion who
have already done so (Colman, 2014; p. 77). It is important that
both dimensions be taken into consideration to assess the social
influence.
In summary, the TRA and the social influence theory rep-
resent two prime theories used in this research to predict the
user’s positive responses to a SNS ad. The theoretical framework
underpinning the present researchencompassesboth internal and
external drivers of the behavioral intention to express empathy
(e.g.,to click the Like or Share button) with regards to a SNS ad.
Internal drivers are a user’s own evaluations of the outcome of a
given behavior, while external drivers are the user’s perceptions
of other people’s behavior or evaluations such as social pressures
inducing the user to perform that behavior. The TRA provides both
an internal driver (i.e., attitude) and an external driver (i.e., sub-
jective norms). However, the external driver incorporated into the
TRA is not comprehensivein that it only includes normative social
pressurewithout paying attention to informational social pressure.
Thus, we combined the TRA with the social influence theory so
as to include both informational and normative social influences.
The resulting research model now incorporates relevant internal
and external drivers that are likely to influence the intention about
empathy expression.
In addition to the two theories mentioned above,this research
employs a theory of persuasioncalled elaboration likelihood model
(ELM) to illuminate the influence of emotion on attitude change.
Petty and Cacioppo (1986) view persuasion as a process in which
the success of influence depends chiefly on the way the receiver
makes sense of the message.They state that ELM introduces two
distinct pathways that one can use when trying to persuadeothers.
Central route is associated with cognitive processing of the mes-
sagecontent,while peripheral route relies more on peripheral cues
(e.g., speech tones, credibility of the persuader, etc.) for a short
cut than on the content itself. The ELM theorizes that peripheral
messagesappealing to a given peripheral cue can enable powerful
influence especially when message receivers are either uninter-
estedin, or unable to process,the content (Petty & Cacioppo,1986).
Given peripheral route processing,emotional appeals may make a
positive impact. Thus, the ELM will provide a theoretical guideline
in hypothesizing the relationship between emotional appeal and
attitude toward empathy expression.
Given the aforementionedresearchaim, it was imperative that
we identify key constructs that play a role in leading to a positive
user evaluation of the empathy expression behavior. A review of
the literature resulted in the researchmodel shown in Fig. 1, which
outlines the antecedentsand their impact on behavioral intention
to express empathy about the given ad. Hypotheses H1, H6, H7
and H9 involve the relationships between the behavioral inten-
tion to expressempathy and its antecedents.As the TRA posits, the
behavioral intention is influenced by attitude and subjectivenorm.
The model incorporates the positive impact of social influences

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