Motivations to use social media: effects on the perceived informativeness, entertainment, and intrusiveness of paid mobile advertising

ABSTRACT

By looking at specific motivations for social media use as general action or inaction goals, this research provides a cognitive account of their effects on perceptions of paid advertising on smartphones. Results across two studies show that specific motivations with an overarching action goal (i.e. seeking information, seeking excitement, and seeking emotional support) relate positively to perceptions of advertising entertainment, while those with an overarching inaction goal (i.e. seeking relaxation) relate negatively to perceptions of advertising entertainment. In addition, the motivation to seek information from social media relates positively to perceptions of advertising informativeness. Perceptions of both advertising informativeness and advertising entertainment relate negatively to perceptions of advertising intrusiveness, leading to indirect effects of specific motivations on intrusiveness. Direct effects of specific motivations on intrusiveness are minimal.

KEYWORDS:

• Ad intrusiveness
• ad informativeness
• ad entertainment
• paid mobile advertising
• motivation
• general action/inaction goals

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Graham Massey, François Carrillat, Hillbun Ho, Paul Wang, and Leona Tam for feedback provided on ealier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

We declare that no financial interest or benefit has arisen to us from the direct application of this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Technology Sydney [Department Grant].