Consumer response toward native advertising on social media: the roles of source type and content type

Abstract

Purpose Drawing upon attribution theory, this study aims to examine how different types of product information sources (mainstream celebrities vs micro-celebrities) interact with content type (experiential vs promotional) to influence consumer response toward native posts on social media (causal attributions and click intention). Design/methodology/approach A total of 134 adult Twitter users participated in a 2 (source type: mainstream celebrity vs micro-celebrity) x 2 (content type: experiential vs promotional) between-subjects online experimental design. Findings Results showed that for experiential native advertising, messages from a micro-celebrity generated more information-sharing attributions and less monetary gain attributions than those from a mainstream celebrity on social media. Moreover, the experiential native ads from a micro-celebrity elicited greater intention to click the URL than those from a mainstream celebrity. However, consumer response was similar for promotional native advertising regardless of message source. This study demonstrates that information-sharing attributions mediate the interaction effects of source type and content types on click intention. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on native advertising by providing empirical evidence to highlight the effect of message source and content type on consumer response. This study shows that the success of native advertising depends on how consumers perceive the messages and content creators' intention to communicate.