Comparing Personalization Strategies in Social Network Advertising: The Role of Impression Motivation in Persuasion Outcomes

Personalization is an essential tactic for enhancing social networking advertising (SNA) effectiveness. Brands leverage consumer data using artificial intelligence (AI) to pinpoint target audiences based on distinct behavioral and psychographic traits. This study examines the comparative effectiveness of behavioral and psychographic personalization, with a focus on impression motivation as a key moderator. Results from an online experiment involving 455 Facebook users showed that behavioral personalization significantly increased consumer digital engagement intentions, while psychographic personalization influenced consumers’ attitudes toward SNA and the advertised brands, contingent on the social desirability of the psychographic factors involved. Impression motivation proved to be a crucial factor in determining the success of psychographic personalization. These findings provide valuable insights into SNA personalization and offer practitioners empirical guidance to develop optimal SNA personalization strategies.