How customers respond to social media advertising

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effects of customer engagement on the relationships between customer's perceived values of social media advertising (SMA) and customer response, as well as the moderated mediating effect of media involvement.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was drawn from integrated resort tourists who use WeChat to browse advertisements of Macau integrated resorts. A total of 221 valid questionnaires were collected after three weeks of data collection.FindingsResults showed that the hedonic value and utilitarian value of SMA have a significant positive impact on customer response through customer engagement with SMA respectively and media involvement moderates the mediating effect of customer engagement on SMA.Originality/valueThis study reveals the influence mechanism of social media advertising value on consumer response and pioneering attempts to highlight the moderated mediating effect of media involvement.