Social media advertising
: targeting mobile vs computer users

  • Miguel Porto Dordio da Cruz Moreira (Student)

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

Mobile Advertising is no longer a topic of the future, but rather from the present. The exponential development of the smartphone industry and rapid growth of mobile penetration rates throughout the world significantly impacted people’s lives. New technologies, particularly social media, changed lifestyles, forcing the advertising industry to redesign itself. This study examined the performance of online campaigns targeted to mobile vs computer users, as well as the moderating effects of offer characteristics (i.e., their hedonic vs utilitarian character), using data both secondary – 88 observations from two Social Media campaigns ran for three weeks by a digital marketing agency for one client - and primary, gathered through a survey with 360 valid responses, from 433 overall. Social media ads targeting mobile users generated higher Click-Through Rates (CTR), confirming previous findings. However, computer users generated higher Conversion Rates (CR), indicating that these devices may be associated with more well-thought decisions. From a management perspective, results suggest that while Facebook’s algorithm favours investments in mobile-targeted campaigns, which deliver higher CTR, computer-targeted campaigns are actually more profitable to both agencies and advertising brands. Regarding offer characteristics, it seems that offers with a more utilitarian nature still edge their hedonic counterparts in terms of online advertising, registering higher levels of purchase intentions, confirming Bart et al. 2014’s conclusions. Finally, individual-level variables like gender, nationality or lifestyle habits proved to significantly affect ad performance. Overall, the findings of this dissertation may help companies and agencies make better decisions when investing in social media ad campaigns.
Date of Award14 Feb 2017
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Universidade Católica Portuguesa
SupervisorAna Isabel de Almeida Costa (Supervisor)

Designation

  • Mestrado em Gestão: Programa Internacional

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