Decoding the Social Media Advertising Influence on Consumer Attitude and Intention

The evolution of social media as an interactive technology has gathered wide acknowledgement in our daily lives. With the increasing number of active users and ease of use, marketing practitioners have been constantly using Web 2.0 based social media applications to advertise their products and conduct various marketing activities. The fundamental purpose of the study is to discover the antecedents that lead to the acceptance of social media as an effective advertising vehicle. Thus, the current study is the first to employ the technology acceptance model (TAM) to cognize consumers’ behavioural intention in the social media advertising context. The responses were acquired from 348 respondents deploying a self-administered questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was employed using AMOS 22.0 to test the conceptual model fitness. The outcome of the study illustrates that all the predictors (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, privacy concerns and peer influence) are valid antecedents that influence consumers’ attitude towards social media ads and impact their purchase intention. The study, thus, offers a comprehensive framework and practical recommendations to marketing practitioners to design rewarding social media marketing campaigns.