"Ads are chasing me!" : Applying the advertising value model and the theory of planned behaviour to retargeted advertisements

Abstract

With the rapid advent of Al-driven retargeting strategies, customers are exposed to aggressive repeated advertisements. Concurrently, the usage of social media platforms has become pervasive, particularly among young people. Personalisation around interest and affinity, among others, might boost the effectiveness of Al-driven advertisement targeting even further. Our study explores the fusion of two models: advertising value model (AVM) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB). We seek to understand how advertising factors influence young people's attitude towards retargeted advertising and, eventually, their intention to purchase, and how fear of missing out (FoMO) might be associated with this mix. Background: When individuals browse retailer websites or search for a product website, they will be exposed to advertisements containing the searched product, featuring on different webpages and social media platforms thereafter (Goldfarb, 2013). These advertisements are called retargeted advertisements. Cookie-based technology is utilised to track individuals covertly after searching or landing on a particular website. Moreover, there are instances when retargeted advertisements carry scarcity (limited-quantity) or urgency (limit~d-time) messages (Jang et al., 2015), prompting an externally initiating FoMO (Hodkinson, 2019). Advertising: value is defined as a general depiction of the relative worth of advertising to consumers (Ducoffe, 1996). Ducoffe models advertising value by depicting three perceptual antecedents: entertainment, informativeness, and irritation. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to better understand the most significant factors studied over 25 years. Bar the three factors tested by Ducoffe, we derived three other factors: credibility, personalisation, and interactivity (De Battista et al., 2021). Initially, Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) proposed the theory of reasoned action, which then evolved into TPB by Ajzen (1991). TPB comprises three antecedents of a consumer's purchase intent: attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Attitude refers to one's favourable or unfavourable reactions towards an object. Subjective norms refer to the notion that most peers agree or disagree with one's behaviour. Perceived behavioural control relates to one's sense of ease or difficulty to perform the desired activity. Finally, the intent will shift into one's actual behaviour. Proposed Model: We aim to connect AVM and TPB and include the FoMO construct as a moderator. First, we intend to understand if the six factors derived from the SLR formulate the retargeted advertising value and if this value predicts the young people's attitude towards retargeted advertising. We propose that the FoMO construct moderates the advertising value and the attitude towards retargeted advertising. Attitude is the crucial link between AVM and TPB. With TPB, we propose that the more positive the young individuals' attitude towards retargeted advertising is, the more their peers approve of their behaviour, and the more the young individuals' perception is optimistic about their liberty to engage or not engage with retargeted advertisements, the stronger young people intend to purchase a product or a service using retargeted advertisements. Conclusion: The findings of this study are expected to aid in understanding the influence of retargeted advertising when applying AVM and TPB while also investigating how externally initiated FoMO appeals may contribute to this combination.