When less is more: the impact of macro and micro social media influencers’ disclosure
Open accessAbstract
There are growing discussions of social media influencers and their effectiveness in endorsing products. Further, recent policy regulations are requiring social media influencers to disclose sponsored content when using a form of native advertising. This research examined the effect of macro-influencers (high likes) and micro-influencers (low likes) and their disclosure of native advertising sponsorship on consumer evaluations of products. Results from a 2 × 2 experiment first show that consumers exposed to the micro-influencer condition report higher levels of product knowledge, and consumers exposed to the disclosure condition reported the products endorsed by social media influencers to be more attractive. The results also show that when exposed to micro-influencers who disclose, consumers have higher levels of purchase intentions than when exposed to macro-influencers who do not disclose, as well as higher purchase intentions than for posts where sponsorship is not disclosed by influencers. The important findings of this research for theory, practice and policy are discussed.
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Influencers' social media posts with more Likes result in consumers' higher purchase intention toward the endorsed products.
“Kay et al. [133] suggested that influencers’ social media posts with more Likes will result in consumers’ higher purchase intention toward the endorsed products.”
From Consumers purchase intention in live-streaming e-commerce: A consumption value perspective and the role of streamer popularity (2024) · cites this paper as [133]
Cites
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The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts
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“…explanation for micro-influencers having greater influence than their macro-influencer counterparts is through the Persuasion Knowledge Model, which suggests consumers try to resist or ignore marketing and advertising content which attempts to be more persuasive (Friestad & Wright, 1994).”
BackgroundInfluentialHughes, C., Swaminathan, V., & Brooks, G. (2019) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1177/0022242919854374 · Cited by 789 · cited 2× · see citing works
“For example, Hughes et al.’s (2019) review suggests that consumers’ perceptions of the traits of influencers (or bloggers), such as their source credibility, is one of the most commonly investigated factors. Other such studies include Schouten et al. (2019) and Lou and Yuan (2019), which both investigate the source cr…”
BackgroundOnline personal branding: Processes, challenges, and implications
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Zhou, S., Blazquez, M., McCormick, H., & Barnes, L. (2021) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.05.011 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
Disability in influencer marketing: a complex model of disability representation
Södergren, J., & Vallström, N. (2023) · Journal of Marketing Management · doi:10.1080/0267257x.2022.2144418 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
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“Kay et al. [133] suggested that influencers’ social media posts with more Likes will result in consumers’ higher purchase intention toward the endorsed products.”
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“…perceived homophily of the SMIs (Ladhari, Massa, and Skandrani 2020), the size of their social media audience (De Veirman, Cauberghe, and Hudders 2017), and the engagement SMIs generate (Kay, Mulcahy, and Parkinson 2020) play a relevant role for the effectiveness of the sponsored content they post.”
- Authors
- Kay, S., Mulcahy, R., & Parkinson, J.
- Affiliations
- University of the Sunshine Coast (AU)
- Griffith University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Mulcahy, Rory
- Venue
- Journal of Marketing Management
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2020-01-31
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 3-4
- Pages
- 248-278
- ISSN
- 0267-257X (ISSN-L)
- 1472-1376
- OpenAlex
- W3004003200
- Cited by
- 508
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 54 · 2025: 104 · 2024: 110 · 2023: 110 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 79.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Marketing Management (publishedVersion)
- Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior and Marketing Influence
- Keywords
- social media influencers, macro-influencers, micro-influencers, native advertising, influencer marketing, product knowledge, purchase intention, product attractiveness, influencer endorsement, disclosure policy
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