Social Media Marketing and Online Purchase Intentions among Young Consumers

Abstract

Social media has evolved from an interpersonal communication environment into an algorithmically mediated marketplace in which young consumers encounter personalized advertisements, influencer content, electronic word-of-mouth, and interactive brand communication. This study investigates how social media marketing characteristics shape online purchase intentions among young consumers while distinguishing persuasive engagement from algorithmic personalization and perceived intrusiveness.
A central research gap is identified in the limited integration of conventional social media marketing attributes with AI-enabled personalization, advertising transparency, privacy concern, and cross-platform behavioral signals within a single predictive framework.
The proposed research conceptualizes purchase intention as the outcome of an interaction among content informativeness, entertainment value, social interactivity, electronic word-of-mouth, perceived personalization, brand trust, and privacy-related resistance.
A hybrid analytical framework combining behavioral survey variables with machine-learning classification is proposed to identify both explanatory relationships and nonlinear patterns of purchase propensity.