Influence of Social Media Advertisements on Purchasing Intention: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study on the Students of Khulna University, Bangladesh

Advertisers place their advertisements on several social media platforms to market their products and services. These ads may catch consumers' eyes and influence them to select specific products. To persuade the target population, advertisers need to be aware of how well their messages are received. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the influence of social media advertisements on purchasing behavior. A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted among students at Khulna University under the following conditions: participants had to be enrolled at the university at the time of the survey, had internet access, and had active social media profiles. A total of 400 valid responses were retained for this study after using Google Forms to deliver a structured e-questionnaire. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 22. Results indicate that 41.5% of students enjoyed viewing social media advertisements (SMA), with the majority of them favoring the creative and humorous types of advertisements. The majority of consumers looked up items or services online or in physical stores after learning about them from social media ads. After seeing SMA, the majority of consumers bought goods and services and told others about them. Even if SMA had a significant impact on their decisions to purchase, respondents gave traditional media advertisements a higher credibility rating. The biggest factor cited for people's dislike of social media advertisements was their irrelevance. This study is anticipated to assist media marketing specialists and advertisers in creating effective SMA to have compelling, long-lasting, and appealing commercials to influence the purchasing decisions of young customers.