Chatbot advertising effectiveness: When does the message get through?

Chatbots on social networking sites are a recent innovation in computer-mediated marketing communication. In this study, 245 Facebook users between 18 and 35 years of age (Mage = 25.97, SD = 4.92) were asked to order tickets for the movies through Cinebot, a Facebook chatbot specifically built for t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computers in human behavior Vol. 98; pp. 150 - 157
Main Authors: Van den Broeck, Evert, Zarouali, Brahim, Poels, Karolien
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elmsford Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2019
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:
Advertising
Advertising effectiveness
Chatbot
Chatbot advertising
Chatbots
Innovations
Social media advertising
Social networking sites
Social networks
Social research
Social media advertising
Social networking sites
Chatbot
Advertising effectiveness
Chatbot advertising
ISSN:0747-5632, 1873-7692
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Chatbots on social networking sites are a recent innovation in computer-mediated marketing communication. In this study, 245 Facebook users between 18 and 35 years of age (Mage = 25.97, SD = 4.92) were asked to order tickets for the movies through Cinebot, a Facebook chatbot specifically built for the study. Afterwards, they were asked to evaluate their experiences via an online survey. The first purpose of this article was to investigate whether and how perceived helpfulness and usefulness of a chatbot consulted on the Facebook Messenger platform affected perceived intrusiveness of chatbot-initiated advertising in a later stage. In a second analysis, the relation between perceived intrusiveness and patronage intentions (i.e. purchase and recommendation intention of the product) was investigated. In addition, the role of message acceptance as a mediator and perceived message relevance as a moderator in this latter model were explored. As, to the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate chatbot advertising, our research findings may hold important managerial implications. •Chatbots' helpfulness and usefulness negatively affect intrusiveness of chatbot ads.•In turn, Facebook chatbot ads' perceived intrusiveness predict patronage intentions.•However, message acceptance and product involvement explain this relationship\.
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ISSN:0747-5632
1873-7692
DOI:10.1016/j.chb.2019.04.009