Effect of appeal orientation in sponsored ad forwarding on a microblog platform

Abstract

Purpose

This study identifies a new type of advertising, sponsored ad forwarding, in microblog contexts. It tests the effectiveness of designs of a message with an ad with regard to receivers who are purely online friends or offline friends.

Design/methodology/approach

In the main experiment, a three-by-two experimental design was employed. By random assignment, message senders forwarded an ad with either an other-oriented or a self-oriented message to a group of offline friends or purely online friends. In the control group, there was no message accompanying the ad. The data of 218 effective sender-receiver dyads were collected and compared.

Findings

The results show that a message with an other-oriented appeal is more effective than one with a self-oriented appeal for dyads with an offline relationship, and a message with a self-oriented appeal is more effective than one with an other-oriented appeal for dyads with a purely online relationship. Overall, the use of appeals significantly boosts ad effectiveness.

Originality/value

This study identifies a new type of marketing practice in social media, namely sponsored ad forwarding. It also proposes appeal orientation as a novel type of message content design. It shows how to apply the right appeal orientation to the right receiver groups, that is, offline or purely online friends.

Citation

Gu, C., Xu, Y.C. and Yao, M. (2020), "Effect of appeal orientation in sponsored ad forwarding on a microblog platform", Internet Research, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 1835-1856. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-06-2019-0251