FASHION INDUSTRY IN INDIA - Review

CHAPTER-III
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
As stated earlier, the study was motivated by a study on 'Measuring the
effectiveness of online advertising', conducted by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) for
IAB (Interactive Advertising Beaurau) & SRI (Syndicat Des Régies Internet)(PwC
Advisory et al., 2010), where we derived the idea of modelling a framework where the
measurement of the effectiveness of online advertising is studied in context with user-
centric and site-centric specific variables, which help in behaviorally targeting online
customers of the fashion industry.
Therefore, we studied the pertinent literature on the effectiveness of online

advertising and explored the key dimensions which influence online consumer
behaviour with special reference to the fashion industry on three online channels of
search engines, social media, and e-mail to identify the research gap in this area (Section
3.6). The literature on the measurement of the effectiveness of online advertising has
been firstly reviewed (Section 3.2), followed by the review of the literature which
helped in developing the key dimensions of the effectiveness of search engine
advertising [search intent, search behaviour, and search keywords] as well as the
dimensions of consumer behaviour [user satisfaction, user commitment] (Section 3.3).
Similarly, we then reviewed the literature on the key dimensions of the effectiveness of
social media advertising Personalization, consumer engagement, brand awareness,
brand image, brand loyalty, and brand advocacy] (Section 3.4), followed by reviewing
the key dimensions of the effectiveness of e-mail advertising [sign-ups, lead magnets,
personalization, and engagement] (Section 3.5). Lastly, we have illustrated the
summary of all the work of literature pertaining to the selected variables which have
been studied in Appendix II.
3.1. Literature Review Process
Literature was searched from various online research databases like Google
Scholar, Science-Direct, Web of Science, Scopus, and Emerald, amongst others using
the following relevant keywords: effectiveness of online advertising, search engine
Page | 41
Review of Literature
advertising effectiveness, social media adverting effectiveness, and e-mail advertising

effectiveness. 243 research papers, various research articles, theses, books, reports &
blogs related to our study were selected for critically reviewing. Since the effectiveness
of online advertising was the primary focus of our study, and we selected three main
online advertising channels- Search engines, social media, and E-mail, we divided the
study into these three channels. Further, sub-dimensions of each channel were identified,
and the literature was organized accordingly with respect to these three channels of
advertising (Figure 3.1).
Figure 3.1: Organization of the Pertinent Literature.
3.2. Key dimensions of the measurement of Effectiveness of Online Advertising.
Ad Value increases by being Informative & Entertaining: The effectiveness of

advertising is achieved when the consumers value the ads; therefore, the focal point for
developing an effective advertising strategy is where the interests of consumers and
sellers meet. To optimize the value of ads for consumers, advertisers should make them
as informative and entertaining as required. Therefore, (Ducoffe, 1995) suggested ad
value is the key to persuasion, and both the content and the format of the ad are crucial
for the ad effectiveness.
Experiential offerings evoke emotions: According to (Septianto et al., 2021), certain

emotions are incidental in nature, which is difficult to generalize; therefore, the study
suggested selectively using visual elements in ads to evoke these emotions according
to the experiences of the consumers. In tourism, the purchase likelihood can increase if
the emotions eliciting awe can be achieved through ads delivered according to
Page | 42
consumer experiences that communicate at a low certainty level. In contrast, ads that
communicate a high certainty level can increase the purchase likelihood if ad elements
elicit the emotion of contentment.
Mixed emotional appeal & cognitive flexibility make ads effective: Similarly, taking
emotions of the consumers as a base for developing effective advertising strategies, a
study by (Nallaperuma et al., 2021) suggested that to increase the effectiveness of ads
for pro-environmental luxury brands, a mixed emotional appeal should be elicited,
which also makes consumer experience higher cognitive flexibility level.
Original format of banner ads makes an ad effective: Researchers have also

emphasized the format of ads as a factor that impacts advertising effectiveness.
According to (Goldfarb & Tucker, 2015), standard formats commands less attention,
making ads less effective as it is harder to distinguish them from their competitive ads.
The decline in ad effectiveness is lesser if they are more original than regular. The study
suggested that the banner ads format's memorability changed by introducing new
standard formats.
Personality types contributing to increased click-through and conversion rates:

Besides the above-stated dimensions of ads for effective advertising, studies have also
emphasized matching consumer personalities with congruent advertising messages for
effective persuasion to purchase. A study by (Shumanov et al., 2021) analyzed different
personality types' relationship with purchasing behaviour. They used conversions and
click-through rates as a measure of advertising effectiveness. They found that
conversions and click-throughs were highest for consumers with open personality traits
who are broad-minded and open to new experiences. This was followed by extroverted
consumers contributing the highest incremental value from their purchasing behaviour.
The results of this study were consistent for all the personality profiles except for
consumers with neurotic profiles who evaluate perceived risks and look for cues for
social acceptance and goal attainment.
Entertainment, Credibility, Informativeness & Irritation makes an ad effective:

Ducoffe (1996) later mentioned the importance of consumers' attitudes towards web
advertising effectiveness. According to him, the most relevant online ads must be
Page | 43
designed to increase their value as it is essential in targeting viewers' attitudes towards

advertising. For achieving this objective, he employed four antecedents (as an extension
to previous factors) for increasing the ad value: Entertainment, Informativeness,
Irritation, and Credibility, of which credibility and entertainment were the strongest
predictors, followed by informativeness. And irritation reduces the ad effectiveness. In
line with this idea, (Mahatmavidya & Yasa, 2020) suggested that since millennials are
heavy users of the social networking site Instagram, they will tend to respond more to
ads that are credible and enjoyable instead of traditional advertising ads, which also
supports the findings of (Goldfarb & Tucker, 2015), as stated above.
Personalization improves customer experience on digital platforms: Also, as digital

marketing advanced, the need for personalization, driven by data, deepened.
Nesamoney (2015) pointed out that the ad value increases with unique personalized
ads, which enriches customer experience by engaging them timely and in a relevant
way. Also, (Turunen, 2021) mentioned that personalization imparts a feeling of
exclusivity and ownership which can be capitalized to improve customer experience.
Personalized synced advertising increases ad effectiveness: As an extension to the

utility of digital platforms, studies tried to imbibe the knowledge of technological
developments with advertising effectiveness. As mentioned above, that personalization
enriches customer experience, a study by (Segijn & Voorveld, 2021) indicated that
personalization could also be exercised across concurrent media usages in real-time.
They argued that synced advertising increases advertisement effectiveness, resulting in
a more positive brand attitude than non-synced advertising.
Perceived advertising value influences purchase intention: In the extant literature

on advertising effectiveness ( Firat, 2019; Eshra and Beshir, 2019; Kim, 2020, Ying et
al., 2020), researchers have focused on understanding the perceived advertising value's
effect on consumers' behavioural responses to measure the effectiveness. The
demonstration of this effect is very context-specific, which varies with a given change
in context. Similarly, (Nabila and Achyar, 2020; Uparimart, 2018) examined the impact
of perceived advertising value on purchase intentions via attitudes and brand awareness
in a direct and indirect way, respectively. To address this limitation, (Anubha & Shome,
Page | 44
2021) examined the indirect effects of advertising value on purchase intentions

mediated by the attitude in context with YouTube advertising.
Ad type and personalization increase ad effectiveness by reducing the advertising

clutter effects in terms of ad attention and clicks: Advertising literature has
emphasized using strategies that increase consumers' attention and, in turn, impact
behavioural outcomes (Bang and Wojdynski, 2016; Bnaget et al., 2019; Jung, 2017;
Huang, 2018), and according to the hierarchy of effect model, cognitive processing of
the ad is the gateway to consumers' behavioural response through affective association
with the ads (Egan, 2007; Rehmanet et al., 2014). However, in a cluttered web
environment, users' attention spans have reduced drastically; therefore, the element of
personalization acts as an optimal solute. These studies also argued that personally
relevant messages help in generating desired positive outcomes, influencing all the
cognitive, affective, and behavioural dimensions. To understand the impact of ad type
(native or display ads) and personalization on ad attention and ad click, a study by (Jung
& Heo, 2021) examined that high clutter level reduces ad effectiveness. The study
addressed that attention could be a critical measure of social media marketing
effectiveness where the outcome of attention is an ad click. The study pointed out that
a low reactance leads to increased ad effectiveness with a higher attention frame and
positive behavioural responses like the development of purchase intentions or receiving
a click.
Engaging, Informative, and Influential ads effectively impact consumer behaviour

on digital platforms: Perception theory supported the findings of (Munsch, 2021),
where digital marketing communications effectively influence millennial's and
Generation Z behaviour via social media by capturing their attention by using ads that
have music, humour and is short. Similarly, (Song et al., 2021) incorporated two
theories of TAM & AIDA to establish that marketing communications impact consumer
behaviour where 'attention & interest' strongly impact the salient behavioural factors of
TAM (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), and these marketing
communication act as a mediator in adopting new technological digital apps.
Website quality influences consumers affectively (attitude) and behaviourally

(clicks) but not cognitively (brand recall): With only a handful of exceptions
Page | 45
(Andrews et al., 2016; Cho, 2003), most studies use lab experiments that cannot analyze
behavioural advertising metrics such as clicks. Generally, marketers classify campaigns
to create an impact or to improve performance; therefore, the study by (Shehu et al.,
2021) used clicks to measure performance as purchases made as a result of the quality
of the website. The study suggested that website quality influences attitudes towards
the brand by targeting users on affective dimensions and also influences the behavioural
outcomes through clicks but does not impact cognitive consumer response, i.e., brand
recall.
Online channels influence the effectiveness of digital media advertising and build
brand sustainability: The study conducted by (Ahmed et al., 2019) concluded that
different digital channels influence the effectiveness of online digital media advertising
for building brand sustainability, where mobile marketing exerted the strongest
influence, followed by e-mail, SEO and then the website.
AIDA model for ad effectiveness framework: The promotional efforts for renewable
energy technologies were examined by (Sharifi et al., 2019) in context with advertising
effectiveness by employing the neural network analysis method in terms of the AIDA
framework. The study concluded that neural networks predicted the relationship among
advertising effectiveness indices, namely attention, interest, and desire, in RETs setting,
where attention most strongly predicted action, followed by the prediction of interest
and desire.
Transactional metrics as a measure of online advertisement effectiveness: A study

by (Luo et al., 2011) suggested that click-throughs are analogous to coupon redemption
and regarded them as the most significant measure of the effectiveness of online
advertisements by analyzing search ad position, keyword association and search result
quality. Shen (2002) regarded transaction-based metrics, including click-throughs,
registrations & purchases, as a way of evaluating online advertising effectiveness.
However, other researchers have argued that even with the absence of click-throughs,
online advertisements can impact brand dimensions in direct and indirect ways. Yoo
(2008) indicated that direct exposure leads to conscious processing resulting in clicks,
whereas indirect exposure evokes subconscious processing, which implicitly affects
memory and attitudes towards the brand.
Page | 46
Non-transactional metrics as a measure of online advertisement effectiveness: Six

different formats of online ads were considered for examination by Burns and Lutz
(2006), and they found that there was a strong correlation between the attitudes towards
ad formats and attitudes towards the advertisement. Similarly, Yoon & Lee (2007) did
a comparative study between clicked and unclicked banner ads, and they found no
significant difference between their impacts on brand awareness & attitude or implicit
memory. Relying on this approach, (Luo et al., 2011) conducted research on
understanding the non-transactional measure, 'brand attention', as a measure of the
online effectiveness of the search ads to recall and recognize the brands.
3.3. Key dimensions of the Effectiveness of Search Engine Advertising.
Sponsored links are more effective in giving relevant results than the non -
sponsored links: The effectiveness of sponsored links compared to nonsponsored links
was examined in the context of e-commerce, and (Jansen, 2007) concluded that the
relevance ratings were higher for sponsored links based on the user evaluation of the
snippets on search results which consisted of title, URL and the summary. The
researcher argued that sponsored search could be an effective method for providing
relevant results on search engines. However, the results from this study were
contradictory to the findings of (Jansen & Resnick, 2006; Marable 2003), where users
held negative bias concerning sponsored links.
Utility of organic listings increases in the presence of paid listings: Since search
engines display both organic and paid listings, the interrelationship between them was
examined by (Yang & Ghose, 2010) to understand the impact of paid search advertising
on consumers' response in the presence of the organic listings of the same brand. They
used metrics like conversion rates, search volume, cost-per-click, click-through rates,
and keyword ranking to understand this phenomenon. They found a positive
interdependence between click-throughs of organic listings and paid listings and vice-
versa. They also mentioned that the presence of organic listings significantly increased
the utility of the paid listings.
Effectiveness of e-commerce search engines is better in retrieving results: In the

context of e-commerce, (Jansen & Molina, 2006) examined the effectiveness of search
Page | 47
engines in retrieving relevant links for which they selected five search engines. They
evaluated their search results by comparing the quality of e-commerce links using
topical relevance ratings. They found that the quality of results of e-commerce search
engines was comparatively better than other search engines as they specifically cater to
customers than web users in general (Seda, 2004). They supported their findings by
arguing that customers use e-commerce search engines to compare prices and products,
locate stores, avoid risk, compare brand credibility and follow the trends.
Recall & precision indicate the relevancy of an effective search engine: According
to (Gordon & Pathak, 1999), an effective search engine displays legitimate information
relevant to the user's information retrieval needs. They used recall and precision as
indicators for statistical comparisons of the effectiveness of eight search engines and
concluded that precision was significantly important but not recall.
Selecting the type of keywords significantly impacts the effectiveness of search

advertising: Paid advertising is largely dependent upon keyword selection, and
previous studies have emphasized the relationship between the effectiveness of the ad
and the type of keywords selected by the users on search engines. In the same context,
Lu & Zhao (2014) suggested using specific keywords instead of general keywords to
improve sales. Im et al. (2016) mentioned that keywords representing consumers' price
consciousness, such as keywords signifying deals, receive higher click-through and
conversion rates. Similarly, Gong et al. (2018) concluded that ambiguous keywords
receive higher click-throughs on ads positioned at the top but decline if they don't
display on the visible screen. These studies focused on only selecting the type of
keywords, but (Huang & Lin, 2021) focused on devising such keyword advertising
strategy that explained the process of consumers' online purchase behaviour as well and
produced a sequence of stages depending on the type of the product; learn-learn-feel-
do for high involvement thinking products, feel-learn-do for high involvement feeling
product, do-learn-do for low involvement thinking products and lastly, do-feel-do for
low involvement feeling product, suggesting that product types influence purchase
behaviour online.
Non-transactional measures of the effectiveness of search advertising: Certain

studies have focused on using measures other than click-through to evaluate the
Page | 48
effectiveness of search engine advertising. (Luo et al., 2011), Ad placements

significantly impact brand attention by having elements like brand recall and
recognition, establishing interrelationships amongst ad positions, keywords, and the
quality of search links. Top ads secured more attention when compared to side ads.
Another study by (Abou Nabout et al., 2014) analyzed the metrics from the marketer's
perspective, which stated that an increase in search engine advertising expenditure
might increase price-per-click, but that doesn't necessarily imply the effectiveness of
advertising. However, if the same increases the number of clicks, then advertisement
effectiveness increases.
Active tag recommendations and adaptive sessions improves rankings and

increases the ad effectiveness: A recent study by (Ruotsalo et al., 2022) interestingly
concluded that active learning for search support could help users interact with the
search engine system where they use recommended tags instead of writing queries
which improves the search results without compromising the search time. This study
argued that active tag recommendations on search engines help improve the ranking,
increase interaction effectiveness, and even reduce the need for writing queries. The
above study is an extension of the work of (Wicaksono & Moffat, 2021), who proposed a
framework where the adaptive session was used as an effective metric for measuring
the overall utility of the search session where users perform a sequence of queries to
meet their informational needs. This metric provided greater clarity in understanding
the user behaviour in their online search session.
3.3.1. Dimensions of Search Intent
Transactional, Informal & Navigational types of search intent: The search intent
has been broadly classified into three major categories, informational, transactional,
and navigational. These intents help identify buyer personas and the stage at which they
stand in their buying funnel. Broder (2002) identified these intentions where
navigational intent is expressed through queries where the user is searching for a link
to reach a particular website; informational intent reflects the users' need for
information related to a particular topic or a product, and transactional intent expresses
users' need to perform some web related transactions such as availing some service
through links displayed or buying a product.
Page | 49
The interrelationship between keywords and search intent: Generally, queries

involve searching for a particular product to gather information, followed by queries
that express the intent of buying that product. They also may overlap and fall into more
than one category. This argument was supported by the findings of (Jansen, 2007),
which concluded that sponsored search campaigns target users who express broad
informational intent or who conduct search queries with the specific intent of buying.
Therefore, multiple campaigns can be designed by considering the intent expressed
through queries. Similarly, Kang et al. (2003) documented two search activities: ' topic
relevance' in which the user searches for information related to the topic; and 'home-
page finding', where the user searches main pages from many navigational pages. They
used web page content, URLs, and hyperlinks to classify these two categories.
Search behaviour determines search intent: In contrast, the researchers also

attempted to study user intent through users' search behaviour. Agichtein et al. (2006)
tried to elicit and understand user intentions through navigation behaviours. They
analyzed several search activities like clicks, dwell time, and scrolls to predict user
intentions. As an extension to this study, (Caruccio et al., 2015) proposed two features
to understand user intent where they interlinked users' past behaviour to show results to
match their intent and also anchor-link distribution, which reflects target links holding
the same text as was entered in the query.
Search Intent and organic presence both impact the advertising performance: A
similar study (Schultz, 2020a) investigated the impact of intentions of the search query
on search engine advertising performance. The researcher used informational,
navigational and transactional intentions while simultaneously considering the presence
of both organic and paid results on search engines. As indicated by (Yang & Ghose,
2010), organic presence influences search advertising performance indicators; this study
also concluded that both search intentions and organic results impact search advertising
performance.
Informational search queries are placed more than transactional & navigational:
Determining the user intent through search queries is an important aspect of search
engine advertising. (Williamson et al., 2007), examined the importance of search intent
in their study by analyzing five million queries samples from seven transaction logs
Page | 50
across three search engines and concluded that eighty percent of queries are
informational in nature while both transactional and navigational queries accounted for
ten percent each.
Search intentions establish congruence between queries and ad ranks: Also,

various researchers have studied these three types of needs in context with search
engine advertising and have given interesting conclusions about it. Empirically, it has
been supported that click-through rates increase as the advertisement ranks increase.
According to Schultz (2016), specific search intentions help in establishing congruence
between queries and search advertising placements. This denotes that by effectively
using the balance between search queries and ad placements, there are chances of
decreased ad impressions and increased clicks on the advertisements (Schultz, 2020b).
3.3.2. Dimensions of Search Behaviour
Keywords, ad positions and purchase intentions can be used to determine search

behaviour: Understanding search behaviour is critical in search engine advertising as
it reflects users' motivation for engagement and further actions, especially purchase
intention as a response to search ads (H. Y. Chen & Lo, 2019). Understanding search
behaviour has been emphasized by Hochstotter & Koch, (2009), who conducted a study
to define parameters against which search behaviours can be measured and compared
to formulate advertising strategies. Also, (Chan & Park, 2015) demonstrated that the ad
positions could endogenously determine search behaviour. Hence, advertisers should
compete for effective ad positions by understanding how users search for information
to make purchase decisions. Moreover, studies have demonstrated its importance in
strategizing keyword campaigns as search ads are displayed only when users' queries
match advertisers' keywords. Therefore, Kim et al. (2012) suggested that advertisers
should choose keywords that align with the search behaviour by considering their
involvement, prior knowledge and the product type.
Consumer involvement shapes their search behaviour: By involvement level,

Laurent & Kapferer (1985) & Walia et al. (2016) indicated that users could respond
actively or passively to advertisements which can be anchored to limit or extend their
processing. Nilsson et al. (2010) suggested that a high-involvement user spends more
Page | 51
time evaluating alternatives and goes through a complex decision-making process.

They evaluate cognitively more than emotionally and vice-versa for the low-
involvement user.
Cognitive and intrinsic interests can define search behaviour: Search behaviour has
also been analyzed by considering cognitive psychology for retrieving consumer
information to determine their search behaviour. (Luo et al., 2011), have defined search
behaviour in terms of intrinsic interest and long-term involvement when they search
general topics by performing the non- directed search. In contrast, specific searches are
goal-oriented, reflecting the current interest.
Keyword popularity and ad positions influence search behaviour: According to

(Jerath et al., 2012), less popular keywords generate more clicks per search, majorly
from sponsored links. This indicated that in contrast to popular keywords, less popular
keywords are used by those users who invest more effort while searching and are closer
to their purchase point; hence they should be targeted for sponsored search advertising.
In relation to sponsored advertising (Narayanan et al., 2015), the causal effect of
sponsored ad positions on click-throughs and sales was investigated. They concluded
that the position effect is stronger if the advertiser is small and the consumer has little
prior experience with the advertisers' keywords. In contrast, the effect is weaker when
the users use specific keywords containing the brand or product name.
Ad positions determine user's click behaviour: A study from Caphyon (2014)

analyzed click-throughs of 4,65,000 queries, showing that almost two-thirds of clicks
are from the first five positions, and the first result link alone accounted for 31% of the
clicks. This reflects search behaviour as users read from top to bottom; therefore, very
little or no attention is paid to the bottom listings. This is because the user feels that the
top results are more relevant for the search query or that he finds what he was looking
for in the top listings (Lewandowski, 2017).
Search engine fold and design elements also define search behaviour: Another
user's search behaviour is identified in context to the "fold", i.e., the segment of the
SERP that is visible to the user without scrolling. It is found that users focus more on
the results above the fold. It is so because it increases the probability of users clicking
Page | 52
on the links without scrolling (Cutrell & Guan, 2007; Granka, Hembrooke, & Gay,
2006; Joachims et al., 2005). Also, when the results are visible with attractive and large
graphical features or texts, then the possibility of users viewing and clicking on them
becomes higher (Z. Liu, Liu, Zhou, Zhang, & Ma, 2015).
3.3.3. Dimensions of Search Keywords
User involvement influences the type of keywords selected for search: The selection
of keywords is significantly important in search engine advertising as the ads are
displayed as their outcomes, and the effectiveness of ads is indirectly dependent on
search keywords. The optimization is achieved by balancing the users' and sellers'
selection of keywords. Extensive literature exists in the context of keyword selection
or advertising. (Huang & Lin, 2021) mentioned that users consider specific branded
keywords if they have prior knowledge about the products, whereas, for low-
involvement products, users depend upon website-related keywords to gather the
required information.
Other determinants of keyword performance other than consumer involvement:

Consumer involvement has been regarded as a determining factor for keyword
selection. However, (C. Kim et al., 2012) investigated the impact of impressions, CTRs,
conversions, quality of competitors and reviews on individual keyword performance.
They found contradictory results that regardless of consumer involvement, conversions
and quantity of reviews impact keyword performance but not the CTRs; however,
impressions and competitors depend on consumer involvement.
Types of keywords: Previous studies have enlightened multiple dimensions of

keywords. A study by (Rutz et al., 2011) revealed that the indirect effect of paid search
(direct type-in visits to the websites directly after their initial searches) differs across
different keywords. However, this effect is huge enough to significantly minimize paid
search advertising costs by using branded and broader keywords for higher subsequent,
direct type-in visits. Regarding the type of keywords, (Du et al., 2017) suggested using
generic-relevant, competing-brand and focal-brand keywords. Their selection can be
matched with the search queries received, which can be exact, broad or a phrase. The
Page | 53
study precisely examined the process of matching keyword categories and their relevant
match types to impact keyword performance effectively.
Keyword specificity and positions: Keywords have been examined based on match
types for developing advertising strategies using keyword specificity and positions in
the keywords portfolio. A broad match covers the general target audience, whereas a
specific match is done by exact match type. (Yang et al., 2021) investigated the
effectiveness of using keyword match types for increasing the advertising performance
and found that broad match lowers the performance. Moreover, it negatively impacts
CTRs in the case of specific keywords but is comparatively better for conversions and
profits regarding higher positioned keywords.
Search behaviour, choice of keywords & purchase stage: Consumers' search

behaviour is directly related to their choice of competing keywords, which also
represents their purchase stage. Retailers utilize this interrelationship by using multiple
keywords to make keyword advertising effective. (A. J. Kim et al., 2021) concluded
that users' search behaviour is generally consistent with the purchase behaviour funnel,
which could vary across brands and markets, and retailers' bid allocation for keywords
is consistent with the users' click behaviour.
Keyword type & user intention: Search Terms may be generic or specific (branded)
or competing brands depending upon the advertiser's motive and the searcher's
awareness level (Catherine Seda, 2004). It is important to understand the user's
intentions to deliver more specific results than generic ones for increased relevance.
More specificity brings in more relevance, which brings in the concept of Long-Tail
Keywords, which contains a minimum of three- four-word keywords and hence are
specific and have low-volume search queries that are generally ranked higher on the
SERPs. Users who use Long-Tail Keywords are generally closer to the point of
purchase, and hence it helps bring qualified traffic to the well-researched website
containing specific and relevant strong keywords (Ian Donson, 2018). Thus keywords
and search terms are synonymous, and their quality depends on the relevance and
specificity of users' intentions behind their search queries.
Page | 54
3.3.4. Dimensions of User Satisfaction
Website quality & user satisfaction: According to the research study (Dianat et al.,
2019), the web layout and performance are the main indicators of website usability.
Web design attributes like web structure mainly influence user satisfaction. However,
the study did not establish any significant relationship between user satisfaction and
personal attributes like age & gender for using a website. With respect to customer
satisfaction, trust and behaviour, (Rita et al., 2019) found that three e-service
dimensions, namely website design, privacy and fulfilment, affect the quality of e-
service and also established that customer satisfaction leads to the development of
repurchase intention, site revisit and even on word of mouth.
Information quality, responsiveness, website design & e-satisfaction: Wu & Wang

(2006) sustained that the quality of service depends on the predictability of the
information delivered to the user through websites. Information has also been
established as the predictor for e-satisfaction and e-loyalty by Kumar & Balaji (2015).
Other studies established ease of use as the determining factor for establishing user
loyalty and satisfaction in the e-commerce setting (Fan & Kohli, 2002; Thong, Hong
& Tam, 2006), whereas website design (Bauer et al., 2006) and responsiveness (Yang
et al., 2004) has been considered as the most relevant factors for increasing the quality
of online service.
Perceived quality, user satisfaction & user loyalty: Similarly, (Lee et al., 2016)
argued that perceived quality significantly influences customer satisfaction. For
building customer loyalty, customer satisfaction is crucial irrespective of the image of
the satisfied or dissatisfied customers. It is important to characterize and predict user
loyalty and user commitment dimensions associated with user satisfaction based on
prior experience with the search engines. According to the study conducted by
(Sirdeshmukh et al., 2018a), the functional performance of the search engines exerts a
positive influence on user satisfaction which is fully mediated by the effectiveness of
search engines. In contrast, the aesthetic performance did not influence user satisfaction
in the search engine settings. The functional performance that includes relevant and
useful aspects leads to user satisfaction.
Page | 55
3.3.5. Dimensions of User Commitment
User satisfaction, reputation for innovation, and eventually, loyalty intention and
user commitment : Search engine performance was studied in relation to its value, user
satisfaction, its reputation for innovation, and eventually, loyalty intention and user
commitment in the study conducted by (Sirdeshmukh et al., 2018b). the study sustained
that the functional performance of the search engines affects the search engine value,
and the value also fully mediated the relationship between the functional performance
of the search engines and user satisfaction. The full mediation was also established
between functional performance and reputation for innovation. However, the value was
not influenced by the search engine's aesthetic performance, which otherwise did
influence the reputation for innovation. Also, the study concluded that user satisfaction
and reputation for innovation could influence user loyalty and user commitment.
Strategic aspect of search engines & search behaviour: Only a handful of studies
have covered the strategic aspect of search engines regarding user search behaviour
(Vuylsteke et al. 2010), impact on business (Rangaswamy et al. 2009), or brand
positioning (Dou et al., 2010). Regarding user commitment, we only found three
significant studies related to user commitment in the context of search engines. Wu &
Padgett (2004) examined search engine factors from a consumer's perspective, such as
accuracy, layout, ease of use, speed, satisfaction, ease of use and overall satisfaction;
McAlonan (2012) used antecedents like perceived innovativeness, quality & speed for
developing user loyalty and user satisfaction; and lastly, Garnier (2009), established
link between loyalty and commitment and also studied the moderating role of functional
as well as hedonic characteristics between the above two constructs.
3.4. Key dimensions of the Effectiveness of Social Media Advertising.
Social media advertising & branding dimensions: Social media advertising has
gained enormous momentum and is being capitalized on to achieve various marketing
objectives. Social media is mainly used for branding purposes, and in this context,
various studies have been conducted to understand its influence on consumers'
perceptions. Yuksel, Milne & Miller (2016) considered branding constructs; Brodie
et al. (2014) & Richard et al. (2013) considered brand engagement, while others
Page | 56
considered brand trust, brand communities, and brand equity (Laroche et al. 2014,
Heydari et al. 2018, Lawerence et al. 2016).
Informative, attention, credibility, entertainment, and relevant news & social

media advertising effectiveness: These elements were taken as indicators for
measuring the effectiveness of advertisements (Kathiravan, 2019). They found that in
the context of Facebook advertisements, all the indicators were moderately significant;
however, attention and entertainment didn't impact the text-based ads. The researcher
suggested using unique but familiar words to secure more attention.
Engagement & interaction: The importance of the effectiveness of social media

advertising was studied from the managerial perspective (Hollebeek et al., 2011,
Godey et al., 2016). Engagement and interaction have also been considered important
determinants of social media advertising effectiveness and also for strengthening
customer relationships ( Mangold & Faulds, 2009, Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014).
Social media has been widely used to build brands, strengthen relationships between
brands and consumers, and provide information exchange, real-time feedback, and
support (Swani et al., 2017). Also, indicators like brand awareness, reputation, and
loyalty were analyzed for social media advertising performance (Chierici et al., 2018a).
Social media as a promotional tool for marketing mix: Lately, integrated marketing
communications have been redefined with digital advertising channels. Mangold &
Faulds (2009) suggested including social media as a promotional tool while
formulating their marketing mix strategies. As an extension to this study, Bashar et al.
(2012) suggested that social media as a promotional tool can only be effective if it
delivers factual and timely information by bridging the gap between consumers'
expectation and their actual needs.
Consumer interaction & affection: For greater marketing communication

effectiveness, consumers' interaction with the brands via social media can likely
enhance their affection towards the brands (Ganesha K S, 2019). Affection towards the
brand can persuade customers to click social media ads and make subsequent purchases
(Lin et al., 2018).
Page | 57
Attitudnal Behaviour: A study to develop scale items for measuring the attitudinal
behaviour of consumers towards Facebook ads was undertaken by (Shareef et al.,
2018). The findings identified factors like hedonic motivations, source derogation, self-
concepts, the informality of the message, and experiential messages for shaping
consumers' attitudes. The attitude is also based on the information source's credibility,
trust and value (Logan et al., 2012). Viral marketing has also become integral to social
media advertising in shaping attitudes owing to its persuasive content, structure and
organization (Schulze et al., 2014). Indicators like entertainment, informativeness &
irritation have also been identified, which can influence the ad value, which eventually
helps form positive or negative attitudes(Shareef et al., 2019).
Elements of social media influencing Purchase Intention Social media has also been
used to motivate consumers to develop purchase intentions. Performance expectancy,
habits & hedonic motivations, interactivity, informativeness & perceived relevance
were used to examine the impact on the development of purchase intention via social
media ads in a study conducted by (Alalwan, 2018). One of the above indicators,
informativeness, has been sufficiently emphasized in various studies for its role in
determining the effectiveness of ads, which eventually help shape consumer attitudes
(Ducoffe, 1996; Rathore et al., 2016). Derived from informativeness, usefulness is
also a significant dimension in social media literature which helps in personalizing ad
messages (Liang et al., 2012). Also, the personalization and usefulness of ads are
widely accepted factors that help impact users' experience on social media. (Qudah et
al., 2020).
Repetition of ad's negative impact on the social media ad effectiveness: There have
been studies which established a negative relationship between habits of watching
mobile ads and the effectiveness of advertising (Zhou et al., 2014). Even though ad
creativity enhances users' recall capacity when exposed to the ad, the repetition of ads
obstructs smooth recalling and can negatively impact their intention (Carlson et al.,
2013).
Social media as promotional tool to influence consumer behaviour dimensions: In

a review analysis paper, it was found that almost eighty-nine percent of studies have
concluded that social media helps enhance promotional activities for strengthening
Page | 58
consumers' perception of the brand and related brand awareness (Alalwan et al., 2017).
Also, Duffett (2015) discussed that the effectiveness and efficiency of social media
advertising depend on consumers' perceptions and attitudes. To support this positive
development of attitudes, consumers should be influenced through hedonic
motivational factors to deliver a more intimate customer experience (Carrillat et al.,
2014).
3.4.1. Dimensions of Personalization
Relevancy: Personalization offers an effective solution for advertisers to secure greater

consumer attention by delivering personally relevant messages through ads, which
helps expedite decision-making (Matz, 2017). Personally relevant ads generate positive
advertising outcomes by impacting consumers' cognitive, behavioural and affective
dimensions (Bang & Wojdynski, 2016). Personalization can also help shape positive
attitudes towards the ad (Kim & Sundar, 2010). In contrast, a study by Tran, 2017
concluded that personalization might sometimes alleviate negative outcomes like ad
avoidance and scepticism.
Impact of personalization on personality types & engagement: Shanahan et al.

(2019) discussed that perceived personalization positively influences brand
engagement and attachment through social media, which eventually helps in perceiving
quality positively, leading to brand loyalty. Personalization can be exercised with the
help of digital data, which creates psychographic profiles tailored to the needs of
individual customers. (Winter et al., 2021a) concluded that trait-based personalized ads
on social media are more effective than those that are not personalized. They used big
five personality traits in their study, and the findings suggested that matched messages
of ads increase engagement intentions, especially when specific persuasive
susceptibilities were addressed through them. However, the study also stated that
personalized ads could positively influence attitudes towards the ads but not towards
advertised products.
Reduced information overload & perceived usefulness: Personalized ads are tailored
according to the user's age, gender or preferences, and it helps in targeting relevantly.
Studies have suggested that personalization helps reduce information overload on the
Page | 59
internet by making the exact piece of required information easily accessible. Perceived
personalization leads to the perceived usefulness of the ads and thus makes them
relevant and effective (Kim & Han, 2014).
Ad's credibility & personalization: Flanagin & Metzger (2007) inferred that highly
personalized messages make the ad more credible depending on the accuracy and
information quality. Furthermore, Sundar et al., 2017 provided insights on
personalization by suggesting that it can serve as a useful cue by matching the ad's
offerings and the consumer's requirement that triggers cognitive heuristics about the
ad's content which eventually shapes judgement about the content credibility.
Advertising creativity: Advertising creativity calls for the inculcation of original and
unexpected elements and has been widely accepted as a determinant of ad effectiveness
in extant advertising literature (Smith & Yang, 2004). Also, Lee & Hong, 2016
identified divergence and relevance as important creativity factors. However, creativity
is subjective and differs across age, gender, culture, education or interests.
Personalization is therefore considered an optimal solution that satisfies the need for
novelty and relevancy across different groups and can render creativity accordingly.
Entertainment: Divergence can also be associated with entertainment which means

enjoyment or emotional association. Similar to the creativity construct, entertainment
is also subjective, and the purpose of ads to develop entertaining content is catered with
the help of personalization, tailored according to individual customer's tastes and
preferences (Setyani et al., 2019).
3.4.2. Dimensions of Consumer Engagement
Various indicators of Consumer engagement: Consumer engagement is a

behavioural phenomenon which explains consumers' involvement and interaction with
the brand (Javornik & Mandelli, 2012). According to People-Metrics, 2008, consumer
engagement was measured through four metrics: retention, effort, advocacy & passion,
where each construct defined the depth of consumer's involvement with the brand or
product through social media ads. A study by (A. Singh & Kumar, 2010) used four
consumer engagement indicators: involvement, interaction, intimacy and influence (B
Haven, 2007). It concluded that customer association with the brand deepens with
Page | 60
involvement & interaction as reflected through purchases and extends up to affinity and
championing, reflecting the consumer's intimacy and influence.
Different consumer engagement dimensions: Consumer engagement has been

defined along the dimensions of social exchange & reciprocity based on behavioural,
psychological and value-based factors (Kumar et al., 2019). Consumer engagement
happens through interactions between customers and brands (Hollebeek, 2018), and it
is subjective & experiential (Brodie et al., 2013). Another study by Muntinga et al.
(2011) elaborated on three different determinants of consumer engagement:
consumption, creation & contribution, of which creation has been observed as the
strongest form of consumer engagement (Schivinski et al., 2016). The researcher also
stated that engagement occurs when a consumer contributes to one brand while
consuming from another, reflecting the simultaneous operation of all three
determinants. On the other hand, Kumar & Pansari (2016) demonstrated four
completely different consumer engagement dimensions: customer purchase,
knowledge, influence and referral. This specification is significant in consumer
engagement literature as it also involves transaction-based determinants. Similarly,
community engagement and transactional engagement were two types of consumer
engagement factors that impacted social, hedonic and functional benefits on Facebook
in the study of Gummerus et al. (2012).
Loyalty, trust, self-image expression, and emotional connection with the brand &
intimacy: Consumer engagement on social media platforms takes place in the form of
likes, shares, subscribe & comments, elevating brand visibility amongst customers. It
leads to desired outcomes such as loyalty, trust, self-image expression, and emotional
connection with the brand & intimacy (T. Wang & Lee, 2020).
Business performance: From the managerial perspective, very few studies have
demonstrated the impact of consumer engagement in the social media context. Garg et
al. (2020) attempted to study the mediating role of consumer engagement between
social media analytic practices and business performance. The study's findings
confirmed the significant relationship between the two constructs mediated by
consumer engagement.
Page | 61
Motivations of consumer engagement: Cognitive, behavioural and emotional

consumer engagement with the luxury brands was examined to investigate the
motivations behind these engagement activities through social media. The study used
six macro dimensions of motivation: perceived content relevancy, brand-customer
relationship, hedonic, socio-psychological, brand equity, and technology factors (Bazi
et al., 2020a). The study concluded that engagement in this context happens to acquire
updates and information about existing and new products. Also, the desire for
entertainment persuades customers to engage with brands which signify behavioural
engagement. However, the study also found that entertainment can motivate cognitive
and emotional engagement.
3.4.3. Dimensions of Brand Awareness
Impact of brand awareness: Brand Awareness includes recall and recognition

dimensions for any successful social media marketing strategy. The process of recall
and recognition instils a sense of familiarity, which helps build a forum of trust that a
consumer may eventually rely on to consider the brand as his choice at the point of
purchase (Gil, R.B. et al., 2007). Informing and engaging customers with an active
integrated brand's presence on social media helps raise brand awareness, boosting brand
recognition and recall (Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt, & Fuller, 2013; Tsimonis &
Dimitriadis, 2014). Brand awareness derives from anything that makes the consumer
experience the brand, and in this regard, social media certainly aids in boosting brand
awareness (Chierici et al., 2018b). According to David Aaker, brands have high equity
if their brand awareness is high, they have many loyal customers, have a strong
reputation for their perceived quality and strong brand associations like personality
associations (Batra Rajeev, Myers G. John, Aaker A. David, 2017). Consumers are
always inclined towards brands with higher equity as they know the benefits and
satisfaction they will derive from it. This interpretation of the brands commands greater
brand loyalty. According to Kevin Keller (1993), a given brand draws more consumer
attention and preference if the consumers hold brand knowledge which is constituted
by brand awareness and brand image; therefore, familiarity with the brand derives
favourable, congruent, strong, leverageable and unique associations with it. The use of
social media for branding purposes has been extensively researched (Shi et al., 2016,
Page | 62
Harrigan et al., 2016, Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), and it has been mentioned in a
review paper that almost ninety- three percent of such studies concluded the significant
role of social media on branding recognition and identity. For example, Muk & Chung
(2014) empirically proved that hedonic and factional factors are the main motivators
for consumers to associate with brands through social media. Similarly, Christou
(2015) proposed selected characteristics that act as key antecedents for predicting
consumer trust in social media, which positively impacts customer loyalty. A study by
De Vries et al. (2012) discussed that ad's vividness, position and interactivity are key
determinants for gaining acceptance by users. The empirical results from the study of
Kim & Ko (2012) show that social media advertising activities can influence purchase
intentions and loyalty through the mediating role of value & brand equity.
3.4.4. Dimensions of Brand Image
Measurement of Brand Image: Keller (1993) defined brand image as consumers'

perception of their brand association. Aaker (1997) referred to this as an organization
of associations in some meaningful way. Yet there has been a lack of studies which
defines clearly a method of measurement of the brand image where these associations
can be measured separately (Cho and Foire, 2015). The research has instated that since
the brand image is a multi-dimensional construct, a multi-sensory brand approach must
be standardized, which has recently gained acceptance in the fashion and tourism
industry. They developed holistic brand image measurements, which included
cognitive (mystery), sensory (sensuality) and emotional (intimacy) as key dimensions
for strengthening brand image. (Rodrigues & Rodrigues, 2019) have even used the brand
image as a key determinant of brand love for fashion products, leading to purchase
intentions and word of mouth.
Impact of social media on brand dimensions: Social media is used effectively for
branding through its personal, attractive, fun and social elements. The empirical
findings of the study by Dulek & Saydan (2019) discussed the impact of social media
advertising on brand awareness, which sequentially impacts brand image, attitude and
loyalty. According to Schivinski and Dabrowski (2015), social media facilitates
communication which affects brand equity, especially brand awareness, brand loyalty
and perceived quality. Perceived quality is an important component of brand image
Page | 63
which helps in forming positive or negative opinions according to the mark that the
brand leaves on the minds of the consumers
Purchase intentions: Research has shown that social media helps influence the
intention of trust and purchase by pushing the boundaries of time and space with the
help of interactions between the marketers and the potential customers, and this
generates closeness between the brands and the customers (Lu and Hsiao, 2010; Hajli,
2013; Mersey, 2010). In a study by Koivulehto (2017), it was concluded that social
media advertising activities help increase the customers' purchase intention due to the
brand image created through brand awareness. Similarly, the content generated by
consumers and peer-to-peer communication on social media influences consumers'
purchase decisions (Shashi, 2012). Therefore, interactions happening on social media,
either between the marketers and customers or amongst the customers themselves,
influence customers' trust and purchasing intent and develops a positive brand image
(Hajli, 2013; Halligan and Shah, 2009; Fortezza and Pencarelli, 2015).
3.4.5. Dimensions of Brand Loyalty
Purchase Intention & Loyalty: Customer loyalty's positive effect is significant

because the cost of acquiring new customers is higher than retaining existing customers
(Lee et al., 2003, Kumar et al., 2011). Loyalty is the customer's commitment to
continue purchasing a particular brand in the presence of other competitive brands
(Oliver, 1999). The researcher also stated that brand loyalty reflects the behavioural
aspect of consumers willing to recommend the brand to potential customers and
persuade them to buy it. In the same context, Bloemer et al. (1999) discussed the
cognitive aspect of brand loyalty, which makes consumers price tolerant as they think
about the given brand in the first place. While behavioural loyalty direct impact
business income, altitudinal and cognitive loyalty increases the tendency of
recommendations amongst customers (Zhang et al., 2016).
Perceived value & loyalty: The brand's perceived value has been directly linked with
customer loyalty in the marketing literature (Zeithaml, 1988), as a higher perceived
value withholds the customer from switching to other brands (Anderson & Srinivasan,
2003). In the online context, brand trust arising from customer satisfaction has been
identified as the key antecedent for building loyalty due to associated perceived risk of
Page | 64
not physically experiencing the product ( Reichheld et al., 2000). A study by Kim et
al. (2009) listed e-trust, e-quality and e-satisfaction for developing e-loyalty.
Impact of returns on e-loyalty: Also, regarding e-loyalty, returns have been observed
to possess a negative correlation as they signify a missed opportunity to build strong
customer relationships. Customer satisfaction, customer value and related drivers
negatively affect returns in e-commerce settings (Mollenkopf et al., 2011). In contrast,
Griffis et al. (2012) concluded that by employing transactional cost factors and
consumer risk, returns can sometimes also positively influence repurchase behaviour.
Satisfaction & repurchase intentions: Satisfaction and loyalty have widely been
studied in the online retail context, and satisfaction has been regarded as the antecedent
of loyalty, which facilitates repurchase intention (Harris et al., 2004, Kim et al., 2009).
Adjusted expectations (expectations after consuming the product) have been found to
mediate the relationship between shopping satisfaction and online repurchase intention
(Jain Kumar Nikunj, 2015). As seen through repurchase intentions, loyalty has also
been studied in the context of brand credibility. Brand credibility greatly impacts the
repurchase intention, moderated through a strong brand image (X. Wang & Yang, 2010).
3.4.6. Dimensions of Brand Advocacy
Social media & its impact on eWOM: Social media has provided consumers with a
powerful platform to evangelize their experiences amongst other customers. Electronic
word of mouth has a larger reach and influence than traditional word of mouth (Hudson
et al., 2015). e-WOM has been widely studied, and almost ninety-two percent of studies
have reported that social media increase the impact of word of mouth owing to the
elements of interactivity and extensive reach and empowers customers to share their
positive or negative experiences effectively (Priyanka, 2013).
Source, content, and network: were identified by Coulter & Roggeveen (2012)
customer's responses to word of mouth distributed through social media handles. The
size of the brand community and the number of members in the friend list of the
customers also have the power to shape consumer response.
Page | 65
Trust and normative influence: Statistical findings of Chu & Kim (2011) suggested
that both trust and normative influence can act as predictors for consumer engagement
in spreading e-WOM. Customers with a higher willingness to use & join the online
community possess a higher intention to spread word of mouth (Casalóet et al., 2010).
3.5. Key dimensions of the Effectiveness of E-mail Advertising.
Prevalence and frequency: of the e-mails were investigated to examine how legitimate
and solicited e-mails are often regarded as spam (Abrahams et al., 2010). This study
found that healthcare and hotel industries mostly send opt-in newsletters on weekdays,
while this trend was least popular for children and pet product industries. Almost one-
third of e-mails were found to be spammed.
Message design: To evaluate the impact of message design on the effectiveness of e-

mail advertising, forty-three e-mail marketing campaigns were analyzed in a study by
(Nerves de Carvalho, 2014). The statistical findings of this study reflected significant
positive effects of word count and explicit call-to-action links on the click-through
rates. However, this finding contradicts the extant literature on e-mail advertising which
states that additional message deters attention once the mail is opened.
Personalization of e-mails: According to (Sahni et al., 2018b), personalized e-mail ads

which contain consumer-specific information such as the recipient's name in the subject
line increase the effectiveness of advertising. Open rates increased by twenty percent,
leading to a thirty-one percent increase in sales and reduced unsubscription rates by
seventeen percent. The study also concluded that personalization helps in acquiring and
retaining customers.
Subject-lines: Other studies have also shed light on the importance of subject lines
which influences the open rates of e-mails as consumers evaluate the relevancy of e-
mails through their subject line. Balakrishnan & Parekh (2015) used keywords, syntax and
past subject lines to evaluate the effectiveness of subject lines. Their proposed model
showed significant improvement in prediction accuracy of the open rates based on the
selected subject lines, whether new or used ones.
Page | 66
CTRs as a measurement of e-mail advertising effectiveness: In their study,

Mackintosh et al. (2017) mentioned that click-through rates are used to measure the
effectiveness of e-mail advertising in the context of e-mail loyalty campaigns. In e-
mail, CTRs represent the ratio between the e-mails sent and e-mails opened and clicked
on the contained links. This study examined the relationship between the e-mails sent
and e-mails opened, clicked, spammed or unsubscribed. The results indicated that send
rate was 6.4 e-mails per week which increased the open and click rates while reducing
the unsubscription and spamming rate.
Permission e-mail marketing's impact on e-maail effectiveness: Permission e-mail

marketing has been recognized as online platforms' most effective promotional method.
In this context, Reimers et al. (2016) employed the technology acceptance model for
exploring the influence of permission e-mail marketing on the perceived value in an
online shopping setting. The statistical findings of this study indicated that perceived
ease of use, perceived usefulness, and enjoyment of online shopping experience are
positively influenced by permission-based e-mail marketing. Furthermore, it also
reduced the impact of perceived risk. Permission is required for subscribers to receive
e-mails that are relevant and useful for them and not be perceived as spam. The biggest
grievance reported because of spamming is lack of relevance.
Personalization & engagement: Turunen (2021), in his study, examined the relevance
of personalization in improving customer experience and performance by influencing
the overall effectiveness of the Raflaamo newsletter and e-mail marketing. According
to the author, the e-mail channel represents the conversion and engagement stages of
the consumer journey. The findings of this study indicated that personalization
increases the overall customer experience, performance, and effectiveness of e-mail
marketing. Personalization increase both click-to-open rate and conversion rates.
Personalization: E-mail of all online channels provides one-to-one communication

with the customer through which the benefits of personalization can be capitalized by
solving the problem of generic content and inadequate segmentation. In one of the e-
mail advertising studies, G. Singh et al. (2019) employed personalization as the main
determinant to improve open and click rates by selecting keywords tailored to
individual customers' needs. These keywords were used for framing effective subject
Page | 67
lines, and the findings suggested that an effective personalized subject line can
significantly increase both open and click rates.
Brand credibility & purchase intention: In the fashion industry context, a study by
(Chin et al., 2020) used endorser credibility and brand credibility as antecedents of
attitude to understand their influence on purchase intention. The study employed
attitudes toward brand credibility and attitude toward the brand as mediators. The
findings demonstrated that both endorser and brand credibility significantly impact
attitude towards brand credibility, brand and purchase intention.
User-loyalty: The impact of direct e-mail marketing campaigns on user loyalty was
examined in a study done by (Hussain et al., 2019). The campaign was also evaluated
on the grounds of communication and interaction, measured through click-through
activity. The findings revealed a positive correlation between marketing
communication efforts and all the variables of the customer relationship. However, the
response rate was found to be lowest in the youngest age group, and the repeat response
was not evaluated due to the limited time frame of the study. The high frequency of e-
mails and access to click tracking enables monitoring the relationship between the
monetary transactions (conversions) and the interest level of the loyalty stage.
Behaviour-based personalization: The effectiveness of behaviour-based

personalization was studied in relationship with customer engagement and purchase
behaviour in an e-mail advertising context (Hunneman, 2019). The results revealed that
e-mail marketing communication positively impacted customer engagement
irrespective of behaviour-based personalization. The study also confirmed customer
engagement as an important predictor of customer purchases.
3.5.1. Dimensions of Sign-Ups
Perceived usefulness: is defined as the degree to which subscribers perceive a given

technology as useful to meet their desired needs and attain significant value from it
(Olaleye et al., 2018). In the context of TAM, behavioural intention to adopt a
technology benefit is directly related to its perceived usefulness (Gupta & Arora,
2017). Perceived usefulness is an intangible measure of the user's belief that using
Page | 68
technology would help enhance the user's overall experience (Davis, 1989; Davis et
al., 1989).
Generating website traffic, promotion, and customer retention: are the primary
goals of permission-based e-mail marketing. The ability to opt-in and opt-out is the
defining characteristic supporting anti-spam legislation (Kumar et al., 2014). Previous
studies have suggested that certain e-mail characteristics influence the effectiveness of
these e-mail campaigns, such as the subject line, personalization and incentives to
perform an action (DuFrene et al.,2005; Marinova et al., 2002). Similarly, few studies
have studied the direct influence of permission-based e-mails on the consumer's
purchase intention (Kumar et al., 2014). Permission granted for receiving the e-mails
reflects the subscribers' perspective that they are looking forward to receiving
information from the brand they associate themselves with and find relevant. Without
relevancy, subscribers tend to lose interest and withdraw their consent (Micheaux,
2011). The relevancy of e-mails helps influence their perceived usefulness, which
motivates the subscribers to sign up for the newsletters from the given brand. (Lu et al.,
2019) stated that involvement and interactivity lead to perceived usefulness, leading to
customer satisfaction and thus loyalty.
Perceived ease of use: measures the degree to which a user believes a given technology
is easy to use (Veríssimo, 2016). Kim et al. (2016b) argued that acceptance of
technology is because of both perceived extrinsic (perceived usefulness and perceived
ease of use) and intrinsic (hedonic) benefits. Also, it has been stated that attitude defines
the mediating role between TAM primary factors, perceived usefulness and perceived
ease of use, to consequent purchase intention but perceived ease of use has a bigger
impact than the other (Vahdat et al., 2021).
Perceived ease of use: positively correlates with using a technology (Chatterjee &
Kumar Kar, 2020). There can be various facilitating factors which help in aiding the easy
use of e-mail services, such as sign-up forms, a user-friendly interface or a non-intrusive
way of asking for permission. (Reimers et al., 2016) explained that asking permission
from subscribers grants strong perceived ease of use and renders moderate perceived
usefulness. The value lies in providing the users with relevant information to develop a
purchase intention eventually. This proposition has been empirically studied where a
Page | 69
link between ease of use and intention to purchase has been established (Binge- Alcaniz
et al., 2008; Ha & Stoel, 2009, Li & Huang, 2009).
3.5.2. Dimensions of Lead Magnets
Values and attitudes, perceived intrusiveness & impact on consumer behaviour:

A study by Chang et al. (2013) found that values and attitudes regarding e-mail
advertising, as well as the perceived intrusiveness of e-mail advertising, have a
substantial impact on consumers' behavioural dispositions toward e-mail advertising.
Permission-based e-mail proved to be more effective than spam e-mail advertising. The
study stated that consumers felt less intrusive by solicited e-mail advertisements that
included monetary incentives.
Entertainment, informativeness and credibility: Opt-in newsletters also have the

option to opt out if later subscribers withdraw their interest, which facilitates the control
of spam (Marinova et al., 2002). However, findings from (Mahmoud et al., 2019)
extend the validity of unfavorability towards opt-out direct e-mail marketing to its
permission-based version assuming that opt-in direct e-mail marketing would survive
the subscribers' harsh responses. Other factors like entertainment, informativeness and
credibility greatly influence users' attitudes towards e-mail advertising, and irritation
can be controlled by controlling the spam aspect of e-mail advertising (Noprisson et al.,
2017).
Entertainment and informativeness: When sending e-mails to subscribers,

entertainment and informativeness are directly associated with advertising value (Haq,
2009a). According to the study, the informativeness of the advertising message is the
second most powerful influencing element on consumers' perceptions of advertising
value. Still, it has the greatest impact on consumers' attitudes. Information can be in the
form of incentives that a brand offers users to sign-up. The information delivered via
advertising should have qualitative features like accuracy, timeliness and usefulness for
the users (Siau and Shen, 2003).
Obstruction in experiencing e-mail advertising: could be either extensive fields to

fill up, intrusive personal details, or some form of background distractions like
changing images, etc. Users may perceive advertising techniques which annoy or
Page | 70
offend as unwanted and irritating (Ducoffe, 1996). E-mail advertising may lead to
unwanted experiences by the users with an array of unstructured or excess information,
which distracts and overwhelms the recipients (Stewart and Pavlou, 2002). The
privacy element also has a negative but strong relationship with customer attitudes
towards e-mail advertising. More engaging and informative e-mail content with a high
level of privacy attracts more users to e-mail advertising (Jamalzadeh et al., 2012).
3.5.3. Dimensions of Personalization
Personalization drives attention & engagements: Brands use personalization to

compel consumers' attention and active engagements (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick,
2016). Personalization serves as an effective technique to stimulate customer responses
such as brand loyalty and perceived quality (Shanahan et al., 2019b), increased
consumer engagements (Winter et al., 2021b), lead generation quality (Advice, 2019),
and customer satisfaction (Gregg et al., 2016).
Recipient's name as personalization: The most common form of personalization in

e-mail marketing is by addressing the recipient's name in the subject line or in the main
content (Balakrishnan & Parekh, 2015b). This stimulates a sense of receiving an important
message in the minds of recipients. It acts as a cue for them which orients their attention
and may increase elaboration, which helps in influencing lead generations, open rates
and unsubscription rates (Sahni et al., 2018b).
Personalized subject-lines: The open rates of e-mails with personalized subject lines
increased by 32 per cent more than industry standards with generic subject lines (G.
Singh et al., 2019b). However, this practice is highly common, and marketers actively
rely on behavioural data and technological advancements (metadata tagging) to be
relevant, timely and interesting (Hunneman, n.d., 2019; Singh et al., 2019).
Impact on consumer responses: Personalization can also help elicit positive customer
responses through regular follow-up e-mails that enact their pain points based on
behavioural data (Osborne, 2017). It has been observed that personalization also helps
develop purchase intention by engaging customers' attention via e-mails (Hunneman,
n.d., 2019).
Page | 71
3.5.4. Dimensions of Engagement
Drivers of consumer engagement and its impact on consumer response: Consumers

interact or engage with e-mails in the context of a consumer-brand relationship to
improve the efficiency of their decision-making (Siqueira et al., 2020). This can further
be simplified with the help of integration of elements like entertainment, targeting the
right subscribers, nature and the creativity of the offer, e-mail volume, timing &
frequency, e-mail intent, and the device compatibility across different devices (Kumar,
2021b; Sahni et al., 2018a).
Ad value: According to advertising literature, the audience tends to ignore ads that they
perceive as having less or no value in both traditional and online advertising formats.
Bogart (1985) argued that the probability of securing consumers' attention daily from
an extensive list of advertisements they come across gets reduced (Haq, 2009b).
Enjoyment & engagement: During interaction with digital ads, a high degree of
engagement and enjoyment will lead to consistent subjective experiences of positive
affect and mood of the subscribers (Hoffman and Novak, 1996). It is the feeling of
enjoyment of the consumers' regarding an ad that plays a crucial role in establishing
their overall attitudes towards the brands (Shavitt et al., 1998 ).
Links in e-mails and engagement impact: Links in the newsletters provide quick
access to subscribers for further information, and their placement should be appropriate
as it determines the click-through rates Kumar and Salo (2016). These links are
essential 'design' elements of personalized mail and help co-create values via feedback
and survey (Grant et al. 2010). This helps develop the trust between the subscribers
and the brand because their expectations match (Kumar, 2021b), which acts as a
physical marker of the interaction between the brand and the subscriber (Stewart and
Zhang 2003). These intentions are reflected in subscribers' purchase intentions
(Jarvenpaa et al. 2000 ).
3.5.5. Dimensions of Brand Credibility

Trust & credibility: Advertising credibility has been defined as the degree to which
the consumer considers the message in the advertising to be believable and is largely
guided by the consumer's trust in the source of the specific advertising (MacKenzie
Page | 72
and Lutz, 1989; Zimand-Sheiner et al., 2019). It includes subjective components of

consumers' beliefs that form their attitude towards a brand (Yakoop et al., 2013), which
may either boost their confidence or fail to persuade their purchase intentions (Moore
and Rodgers, 2005; Indu and Raj, 2012).
Reputation & purchase intention: Brand credibility is based on 'brand signalling

theory', where the brand collectively signals its reputation based on all the efforts
(Herbig &Milewicz, 1995). E-mail marketing campaigns can help to focus on
signalling its brand's core values and resonate with consumers' demands. Also,
Goldsmith et al. (2000) stated that purchase intentions are higher for credible brands
than for brands with lower credibility.
3.5.6. Dimensions of Purchase Intention.
Brand credibility's impact on purchase intention: Perceived credibility entails a high

level of expertise, attractiveness and trustworthiness which persuades consumers to
positively evaluate the brand or its products. Brand credibility reflects better quality,
and greater value and also justifies the worth of the product which helps in developing
favourable intentions towards the brand (X. Wang & Yang, 2010). Researchers have also
stated that it increases the probability of the brand being included in consumers' choice
sets (Chin et al., 2020). In the context of fashion products which are high-involvement
products, it reflects intrinsically on consumers' self-image, status and overall
belongingness with that product (Bazi et al., 2020b; Cheah et al., 2015; Han et al.,
2010). However, only a handful of studies have considered studying the relationship
between brand credibility and purchase intention (Bismo et al., 2019; Hanna, 2019;
Hunneman, n.d.; Kumar, 2021a, 2021b; Natasha et al., 2021).
Page | 73
3.6. Research Gap Analysis
Mediating/
S.No. Author Independent Variable Dependent Variable Impact
Moderating Variable
Measurement of the Effectiveness of Online Advertising
Informative -
1 Ducoffe, 1995 Ad Value Increases
Entertaining -
Low- Certainty level
Awe eliciting emotions Increases
(Septianto et al., CX ad
2 Purchase Likelihood
2021) High-Certainty level
Contentment Emotion Increases
CX ad
Cognitive
(Nallaperuma et Mixed Emotional Increases/Decreases-
3 - Flexibility Ad Effectiveness
al., 2021) appeal Context specific
level
(Goldfarb & Standard ad format Decreases
4 Attention Ad Effectiveness
Tucker, 2015) Original ad format Increases
(Shumanov et Big five personality Purchase
5 Congruent advertising Clicks Conversions Increases
al., 2021) types Behaviour
6 Ducoffe, 1996 Entertainment * Increases
Credibility* Increases
(Mahatmavidya & - Ad Effectiveness
7 Informativeness Increases
Yasa, 2020)*
Irritation Decreases
Nesamoney
8
(2015) Personalized Ads - Ad Value Increases
9 (Turunen, 2021)
(Segijn &
10 Personalization Synced Advertising Ad Effectiveness Increases
Voorveld, 2021)
11 Firat, 2019 -
Page | 74
Eshra and
12 Ad Effectiveness is measured
Beshir, 2019 Increases/Decreases-
through consumer behavioural
13 Kim, 2020 Context specific
responses
14 Ying et al., 2020
Perceived advertising
Nabila and
16 value Brand
Achyar, 2020 Attitude
Awareness Increases/Decreases-
Uparimart, 2018 Purchase Intentions
Context specific
Anubha &
17 Attitude
Shome, 2021
Bang and
18
Wojdynski, 2016
Bnaget et al.,
19 Attention -
2019
Increases/Decreases-
20 Jung, 2017 Consumer behavioural responses
Context specific
21 Huang, 2018
22 Egan, 2007
Rehmanet et al., Cognitive processing Affective association
23
2014
Jung & Heo, Ad
24 Personalization Ad attention Ad effectiveness-click Increases
2021 type
Humour
25 (Munsch, 2021) Music - Attention-effectiveness measure Increases
Short
(Song et al., Attention Marketing Perceived usefulness
26 Increases
2021) Interest communications Perceived ease of use
Andrews et al., Affective dimensions -
27 Website quality Performance measured as purchases Increases
2016 attitude
Page | 75
28 Cho, 2003 Clicks Increases

(Shehu et al.,
29 Cognitive response-Recall Neutral
2021)
Moderating-
Innovation
(Ahmed et al., Significant positive
30 Online channels Mediating- Adv Impact on advertising
2019) impact
characteristic &
Consumer attitude
Attention
(Sharifi et al.,
31 Interest Promotional efforts Action Increases
2019)
Desire
Search ad position
(Luo et al., Recall & recognition as the ad Increases/Decreases-
32 Keyword association Attention
2011) effectiveness measure Context specific
Search result quality
Clicks
Increases/Decreases-
33 Shen (2002) Ad Content Registrations Ad effectiveness
Context specific
Purchases
Direct Exposure Conscious processing Clicks
34 Yoo (2008) Subconscious Increases
Indirect Exposure Memory Attitudes
processing
Burns and Lutz Attitude towards ad
35 Attitude towards advertisements
(2006) formats
Clicked Brand awareness
Yoon & Lee No significant
36 Banner ads Attitude
(2007) Unclicked difference
Implicit Memory
Table 3.1. Summary of Literature on the Measurement of the Effectiveness of Online Advertising
Page | 76
In the previous chapter, we discussed the study's motivation, which mentioned

a gap where site-centric variables have not been studied in the context of the ad
effectiveness, whose impact has been examined on user-centric variables. This
motivated us to review the literature available on the measurement of the effectiveness
of online advertising to understand the existing knowledge, focusing on the
measurement dimension. We also tried to select reviewing studies that discussed site-
centric variables, ad effectiveness and user-centric variables.
As reflected in Table 3.1, the empirical findings in context with the

effectiveness of online advertising have primarily focused on understanding the
relationship between the dimensions of the type of ads and the derived ad value. Various
dimensions of advertisements like AIDA indices- attention, interest, desire and action
have also been identified in the context of ad value. The other relevant studies have
employed emotions as indicators for developing purchase intentions to determine ad
effectiveness. Researchers have mainly recognized the act of persuasion as a reflection
of the ad effectiveness, as originally explained by Ducoffe (1995), by intensely
focusing on the non-transactional way of measuring ad effectiveness. Since marketing
effectiveness is the return on marketing investment in relation to a set of predetermined
goals, transactional measures would provide a more feasible solution.
To the best of our knowledge, we have not come across a study that has
considered measuring ad effectiveness through the customer's lens where their
involvement with site-centric variables has been studied in the online advertisement
context. Also, no research has taken channel-specific dimensions from the consumer's
perspective for measuring the ad effectiveness on three main online channels, namely
Search Engines, Social Media and E-mail. Customers are exposed to advertising on the
online platform at multiple touchpoints on their journey. Consumer's motivation to
interact with these touchpoints has not been covered in the context of understanding its
impact on effectiveness. Also, there is a gap concerning a clear definition of the
measurement metric of ad effectiveness. Even though only a handful of studies have
taken up CTRs, registrations and conversions as the measurement metric (Table 3.1),
the studies did not explain the impact of these metrics on consumer behavioural
responses. In contrast, if the behavioural responses were examined, their respective
Page | 77
antecedents were measured on non-transactional measures such as attention, attitude,

AIDA, informativeness, entertainment, credibility or irritation. Therefore, we observed
that the combined effect of transactional and non-transactional measures of
effectiveness had not been studied until now. Although the transactional nature of clicks
can be quantified to precisely measure the effectiveness, it is still bound by its limitation
to examine the non-transactional measures of the effectiveness. Thus, on further review,
we found that no study has been conducted where transactional measures have
evaluated the effectiveness of online advertising as a result of non-transactional
determinants specific to each online channel which motivate customers to interact with
the ads. The impact of site-centric-channel specific variables as antecedents of the
effectiveness of online advertising on consumer behaviour has also not been examined.
Review analysis has revealed that each channel has different objectives; hence,
considering the broader objectives of advertising on online platforms is redundant and
ineffective. This stimulates the idea of combining the channel-specific site-centric
variables with the channel-specific advertising objective, which could impact the user-
centric behavioural variables. In this context, a previous study (PwC Advisory et al.
2010) discussed the reasons for choosing different metrics for evaluating 'performance'
and 'impact' of advertising separately. In view of this, there was a gap in choosing CTRs
as a measurement metric of ad effectiveness for evaluating the 'impact' on consumers'
behaviour with respect to each online advertising channel.
Therefore, after precisely evaluating these limitations, we concluded to work on

the given research gap:
"To study the non-transactional site-centric determinants as motivation

antecedents of the effectiveness of online advertising, measured through
transactional metrics, CTRs to examine their impact on user-centric behavioural
variables, concerning each online channel."
Page | 78
In order to support the above idea, we further reviewed the extant body of
literature on three online channels of Search engines, Social Media and E-mail, and to
identify site-centric & user-centric variables for each channel. Table 3.2 illustrates the
variables considered for each channel which have never been previously studied in the
setting mentioned above. The highlighted cells represent those constructs that have not
been considered before to examine their relationship in this context. Also, the bottom
highlighted cell represents the transactional measure (CTR), whereas the constructs
mentioned in the column against their respective online channel are the non-
transactional determinants. We develop the conceptual framework and hypotheses in
the following chapter based on the above research gap.
Page | 79
Independent
Search Engine Advertising E-mail Advertising Social Media Advertising
Variable
Search Search Search Sign- Lead- Consumer

Personalization Engagement Personalization
Dependent Intent Behavior keywords ups Magnets Engagement
Variable
User Satisfaction • •
User Commitment
Brand Awareness •
Brand Image • •
Brand Loyalty •
Brand Advocacy
Brand Credibility • •
Purchase Intention • •
CTR (CLICK-THROUGH RATE)
Table 3.2: Research Gap
Page | 80

FASHION INDUSTRY IN INDIA - Review

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

FASHION INDUSTRY IN INDIA - Review

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CHAPTER-III

Therefore, we studied the pertinent literature on the effectiveness of online

3.1. Literature Review Process

advertising effectiveness, social media adverting effectiveness, and e-mail advertising

Figure 3.1: Organization of the Pertinent Literature.

3.2. Key dimensions of the measurement of Effectiveness of Online Advertising.

Ad Value increases by being Informative & Entertaining: The effectiveness of

Experiential offerings evoke emotions: According to (Septianto et al., 2021), certain

Original format of banner ads makes an ad effective: Researchers have also

Personality types contributing to increased click-through and conversion rates:

Entertainment, Credibility, Informativeness & Irritation makes an ad effective:

designed to increase their value as it is essential in targeting viewers' attitudes towards

Personalization improves customer experience on digital platforms: Also, as digital

Personalized synced advertising increases ad effectiveness: As an extension to the

Perceived advertising value influences purchase intention: In the extant literature

2021) examined the indirect effects of advertising value on purchase intentions

Ad type and personalization increase ad effectiveness by reducing the advertising

Engaging, Informative, and Influential ads effectively impact consumer behaviour

Website quality influences consumers affectively (attitude) and behaviourally

Transactional metrics as a measure of online advertisement effectiveness: A study

Non-transactional metrics as a measure of online advertisement effectiveness: Six

3.3. Key dimensions of the Effectiveness of Search Engine Advertising.

Effectiveness of e-commerce search engines is better in retrieving results: In the

Selecting the type of keywords significantly impacts the effectiveness of search

Non-transactional measures of the effectiveness of search advertising: Certain

effectiveness of search engine advertising. (Luo et al., 2011), Ad placements

Active tag recommendations and adaptive sessions improves rankings and

3.3.1. Dimensions of Search Intent

The interrelationship between keywords and search intent: Generally, queries

Search behaviour determines search intent: In contrast, the researchers also

Search intentions establish congruence between queries and ad ranks: Also,

3.3.2. Dimensions of Search Behaviour

Keywords, ad positions and purchase intentions can be used to determine search

Consumer involvement shapes their search behaviour: By involvement level,

time evaluating alternatives and goes through a complex decision-making process.

Keyword popularity and ad positions influence search behaviour: According to

Ad positions determine user's click behaviour: A study from Caphyon (2014)

3.3.3. Dimensions of Search Keywords

Other determinants of keyword performance other than consumer involvement:

Types of keywords: Previous studies have enlightened multiple dimensions of

Search behaviour, choice of keywords & purchase stage: Consumers' search

3.3.4. Dimensions of User Satisfaction

Information quality, responsiveness, website design & e-satisfaction: Wu & Wang

3.3.5. Dimensions of User Commitment

3.4. Key dimensions of the Effectiveness of Social Media Advertising.

Informative, attention, credibility, entertainment, and relevant news & social

Engagement & interaction: The importance of the effectiveness of social media

Consumer interaction & affection: For greater marketing communication

Social media as promotional tool to influence consumer behaviour dimensions: In

3.4.1. Dimensions of Personalization

Relevancy: Personalization offers an effective solution for advertisers to secure greater

Impact of personalization on personality types & engagement: Shanahan et al.

Entertainment: Divergence can also be associated with entertainment which means

3.4.2. Dimensions of Consumer Engagement

Various indicators of Consumer engagement: Consumer engagement is a

Different consumer engagement dimensions: Consumer engagement has been

Motivations of consumer engagement: Cognitive, behavioural and emotional

3.4.3. Dimensions of Brand Awareness

Impact of brand awareness: Brand Awareness includes recall and recognition

3.4.4. Dimensions of Brand Image

Measurement of Brand Image: Keller (1993) defined brand image as consumers'

3.4.5. Dimensions of Brand Loyalty