Social Advertising Effectiveness in Driving Action: A Study of Positive, Negative and Coactive Appeals on Social Media

Murooj Yousef, Timo Dietrich and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
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Murooj Yousef: Social Marketing @ Griffith, Nathan Campus, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
Timo Dietrich: Social Marketing @ Griffith, Nathan Campus, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
Sharyn Rundle-Thiele: Social Marketing @ Griffith, Nathan Campus, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: Background: Social media offers a cost-effective and wide-reaching advertising platform for marketers. Objectively testing the effectiveness of social media advertising remains difficult due to a lack of guiding frameworks and applicable behavioral measures. This study examines advertising appeals’ effectiveness in driving engagement and actions on and beyond social media platforms. Method: In an experiment, positive, negative and coactive ads were shared on social media and promoted for a week. The three ads were controlled in an A/B testing experiment to ensure applicable comparison. Measures used included impressions, likes, shares and clicks following the multi-actor social media engagement framework. Data were extracted using Facebook ads manager and website data. Significance was tested through a series of chi-square tests. Results: The promoted ads reached over 21,000 users. Significant effect was found for appeal type on engagement and behavioral actions. The findings support the use of negative advertising appeals over positive and coactive appeals. Conclusion: Practically, in the charity and environment context, advertisers aiming to drive engagement on social media as well as behavioral actions beyond social media should consider negative advertising appeals. Theoretically, this study demonstrates the value of using the multi-actor social media engagement framework to test advertising appeal effectiveness. Further, this study proposes an extension to evaluate behavioral outcomes.

Keywords: emotional appeals; social advertising; behavior change; social media; advertising effectiveness; charity advertising; environmental advertising (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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