Title: Consumers' attitude toward Facebook advertising

Authors: Fátima Ferreira; Belem Barbosa

Addresses: University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal ' GOVCOPP Research Unit and ISCA-UA Institute of Accounting and Administration, University of Aveiro, Rua Associação Humanitária dos Bombeiros Voluntários de Aveiro, 3810-500 Aveiro, Portugal

Abstract: This paper aims to provide a closer look at consumers' attitude toward Facebook advertising by providing a comparison between attitude toward brand posts and ads, a topic that has been disregarded in the extant literature. It also considers the relationship with the users' ad avoidance and electronic word-of-mouth communication. An exploratory quantitative analysis was performed by means of a structured self-administered questionnaire. 385 individuals aged between 18 and 44 participated in the study. The results include evidence on respondents' more favourable attitude toward brand posts than toward Facebook ads. Moreover, ads are considered more annoying by those who spend more time on Facebook. These results help shed the light on how Facebook users handle ads and brand posts, offering some clues for a more effective social media marketing strategy.

Keywords: attitude toward advertising; SNS advertising; Facebook advertising; ad avoidance; electronic word-of-mouth communication.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2017.083552

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2017 Vol.8 No.1, pp.45 - 57

Received: 18 Feb 2016
Accepted: 05 Jun 2016
Published online: 10 Apr 2017 *

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