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

International Journal of Information Management 36 (2016) 360–373
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International Journal of Information Management
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / i j i n f o m g t Predicting positive user responses to social media advertising: Theroles of emotional appeal, informativeness, and creativityJieun Lee, Ilyoo B. Hong ∗College of Business and Economics, Chung-Ang University, Republic of Koreaa r t i c l e i n f oArticle history:Received 8 May 2015Received in revised form 8 December 2015Accepted 6 January 2016Available online 21 January 2016Keywords:Social media advertisingSocial networking siteEmpathySocial influenceViral behaviora b s t r a c tAs social network services become more pervasive, social media advertising emerges as an attractivevehicle for augmenting advertising effectiveness. To leverage this new means of marketing, one mustunderstand what engages SNS users in a favorable online behavior (i.e., overtly indicating personal inter-est in, or support for, the exposed message by clicking the Like or Share button in Facebook), therebyresulting in an effective advertising campaign. This research conceptualizes SNS ad effectiveness as aconcept encompassing emotional appeal, informativeness and creativity that all have a potential to con-tribute to a positive online behavior. It empirically investigates the antecedents of positive user behaviorfor a SNS ad based on the theory of reasoned action, the social influence theory, and a persuasion the-ory. It proposes and tests a conceptual model of the formation of online user’s behavioral responses withregards to SNS advertising. The results of our empirical tests of the model reveal that informativeness andadvertising creativity were key drivers of favorable behavioral responses to an SNS ad and that intentionto engage in favorable user responses was positively associated with purchase intention. Based on thesefindings, the paper suggests further research directions and offers implications for harnessing the fullpotential of the new SNS advertising platform.© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.1. IntroductionIn recent years, the increasingly widespread use of socialnetworking sites (SNS) has gradually shifted the advertisementplatform used by business firms from traditional media to socialmedia. Strong growth in mobile advertising is expected to increasethe use of digital ads, which represented up to 30% of all U.S. adspending in 2014 (eMarketer.com, 2014). Social media marketingenables word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising campaigns, inducingbrand 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 accurately targetconsumers. Social media marketing has thus attracted much atten-tion from businesses seeking to generate increased consumption oftheir commercial offerings (Wikipedia.org, 2015b).One challenge facing marketing professionals considering cam-paigns on SNS is ensuring that the social network ad in questionserves its goals effectively. Many marketing professionals find itdifficult to measure the effectiveness of 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 towhich a social media advertisement is producing the intended ben-efits can be gauged by examining the interactions (e.g., the numberof “Likes” or “Shares”) among social network users to assess theirperceptions of the ad (Burg, 2013). The bottom line is that in orderfor a SNS ad to be considered effective, it should be able to lead auser to favorably respond to the ad (e.g., publicly expressing his/hersupport for the ideas conveyed by, or for the mood generated by, thead). User’s positive responses on a social network are likely to helpspread the advertisement message among the users, contributingto the increased awareness of the featured brand. According to arelated research report (Gustin, 2012; Lipsman, Aquino, & Kemp,2012), not only ‘exposed fans’ but also ‘friends of fans’ were foundto spend more after viewing ads on Facebook. Presumably, ads thatcan induce positive perceptions and responses among social net-work users would likely create the WOM effect, and thus result ingreater sales yielding high return on investment in SNS ad cam-paigns.In this regard, present research has been motivated by tworesearch questions (RQ): what are the qualities of a SNS ad that helpproduce positive user responses (RQ1), and is positive user behaviorwith regards to a SNS ad a predictor of positive purchase behav-ior (RQ2)? Extant research has not systematically addressed theseissues. Research identifying desirable qualities 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.