The Impact of Online Advertising Exposure on Buying Decisions in Facebook Marketplace among Postgraduate Students: A Case Study of UiTM’s Mass Communication Students

Abstract

Online advertising is becoming more important in marketing due to platforms like Facebook Marketplace that facilitate interaction between businesses and customers. Focusing on postgraduate Mass Communication students at Malaysia's Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), this study contributes significant theoretical and practical insights of online advertising on the tendency of customers to make purchases. This study investigates how online advertising may impact the purchase behavior of these students at a time when social media plays an increasingly important role in product discovery and transactions. The study used a quantitative technique and surveyed 170 postgraduate students from UiTM's Shah Alam campus. Ad recall, and attitudes toward online advertisements are important elements affecting purchase decisions. The results show that these parameters are positively correlated with purchase intentions, which means that students' interaction with Facebook Marketplace advertisements greatly influences their purchasing choices. Considering these results, companies and marketers should tailor their online advertising campaigns to appeal to the tastes and habits of tech-savvy youth. Furthermore, Facebook Marketplace can improve its platform to meet the increasing demand for online buying.  By zeroing in on a particular audience and medium, our study adds to what is already known and contributes significant theoretical and practical insights on how digital advertising is changing. The study also contributes to theoretical understanding by confirming the AIDA model's relevance in modern digital advertising ecosystems.

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