Dating apps as advertising channels: how matching outcomes influence user responses to in-app advertising

This study examines how matching outcomes on dating apps shape users’ responses to in-app advertisements, focusing on the moderating role of product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and the mediating role of mood. A 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Users who received matches evaluated hedonic product advertisements more favourably, whereas those who did not receive matches responded more favourably to utilitarian product advertisements. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed that mood states induced by matching outcomes interacted with product type to shape ad evaluations. Notably, mood played an asymmetric mediating role: the positive mood elicited by matching more strongly influenced evaluations of hedonic products than of utilitarian ones, suggesting that mood serves as especially diagnostic information when evaluating affect-rich hedonic products.