The effect of different configurations of mobile advertisement components to the advertisement performance. Case: Dairy Foods

Abstract

This study aims to identify the configurations of mobile advertisement components that lead to high performance in terms of commonly used digital marketing metrics. The effectiveness of advertisement is measured by click-through-rate (CTR) and cost-per-click (eCPC)-values. The case company is a global dairy supplier called Dairy Foods. The data is gathered from the company's mobile campaign reports conducted by a third party - the company's media agency Digi Media. The data comprises only advertisements that are produced and displayed in Finnish markets.

The academic research of the field of mobile marketing has been accumulating rapidly in recent years. However the main focus has been on examining consumer attitudes and acceptance towards mobile marketing, and there is an obvious lack of studies of the effectiveness of the mobile advertising campaigns. Thus, this thesis focuses on exploring the factors that have found to have an effect on consumer attitudes towards mobile advertising and examine if these factors have an influence on the measurable outcomes of the advertisements.

The objectives of this research are both managerial and methodological. A novel research approach called fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is applied in this study as an approach and a methodology (Ragin, 2000; Rihoux & Ragin, 2009). Most marketing research is focusing on measuring linear causality, even though marketing performance is rarely resulting because of a single factor. Instead, commonly marketing performance is an outcome of multiple different factors occurring simultaneously. The QCA technique enables to uncover different configurations of the selected conditions that lead to high or low performance outcomes - this can yield managerially relevant information that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to interpret. Hence, the secondary aim of the study is to illustrate the benefits of the configurational analysis in studying the effectiveness of digital advertising.

The results of this thesis suggest that there cannot be found a direct and simple answer to the research question. The most important contribution of the study is that there can be found several factors explaining the success of the mobile advertisement. Content of the advertisement seems to be the main determinant of the success of the advertisement. Different combinations of advertisement components work better with different products - the main reason behind this might be the target audience of the advertised products and the differing behavior in mobile environment. Also, the study reaffirms the suitability of fsQCA in marketing research.