The Effect of Social Media Advertisement Features on the Online Purchase Intention: A Case Study in Sri Lanka

With the development of technology, most people got the chance to engage in digital marketing activities. Online shopping is a trending facility that improves day by day and social media advertisements play a major role in customers’ online purchase intention. The purpose of this study was to observe how the features of social media advertisements affect the online purchase intention of customers in Sri Lanka when purchasing products including agricultural products. The social media advertisement features that affect online purchase intention (creativity, customer feedback, entertainment and information in advertisements) were considered in this study. A google form questionnaire was used to gather data and 312 responses were collected. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were used for the data analysis. After analyzing the gathered data, it was found that informative advertisements and creative advertisements on social media platforms have a direct impact on online purchasing intention. Also, the results indicated that customer feedback affects purchase intention through information. Entertaining online advertisements have an impact on purchase intention through their creativity. This study focused on only four features in social media advertisements. Therefore, future researchers should address the other advertisement features as well. The findings of this research can be used to make advertisements more useful and profitable for advertisers as well as sellers.