Advertising on Facebook fan pages : the influence of self-referencing appeals and ad types on consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] As a vehicle for promotional messages, Facebook fan pages have become widely used by an increasing number of companies and organizations. It is necessary to study how advertisers can use this platform effectively. The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of two common message features used by commercial brands in Facebook fan pages - ad type (corporate vs. product ad) and self-referencing text (second person wording vs. third person wording) - on consumers' attitudes toward the ad, the brand and the product, as well as purchase intentions. A 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 between-subjects factorial experiment was conducted. There were two replication variables to enhance the study's ability to draw conclusions from multiple stimuli. The results indicated that neither self-referencing text nor ad type generated predicted effects on consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions. The findings mainly suggested two theoretical implications. First, traditional advertising features might not be applicable to Facebook fan pages or similar social media networks. Second, on Facebook fan pages, the effectiveness of using common message features to achieve the goals like building brand awareness and promoting positive attitudes towards the products is lower than expected. Practical implications and limitations were discussed in the research.