Kiana Manon

Date of Award

Spring 2017

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Advisor(s)

Mohammad Nejad

Abstract

Social media has become such an influential force in our day-to-day lives. It has quickly developed into more than just a platform for the creation and exchange of user content – it has also become a place where consumers get information and knowledge about brands, products, services and companies. Advertisers have used these platforms as leverage to access consumers as they consult social media as a part of their purchase decision process. This thesis will explore different types of advertisements across several social media platforms and the effectiveness of advertisements within those platforms. Through a content analysis on advertisements on selected social media platforms, I came up with differentiating criteria within the advertisements and defined key criteria and moderating factors I wanted to test. Specifically, I want to see if the placement of advertisements within social media platforms and the wording used to disclose the advertisement to the user influence users’ attitude, interest, trust, and possible purchase intent toward the advertisement. These hypotheses have been tested through a survey with mock advertisements using varied combinations of the two independent variables, as well as a series of other relevant questions, that was distributed to approximately 300 respondents. Analysis of this data proves that the independent variables do impact trust, attitude, interest and possible purchase intent in relation to advertisements on social media platforms. Overall, I believe the results obtained from this study will provide key insights for advertisers and marketers on how to use key criteria in their advertisements to better effectively target social media users.

Download

Share

COinS