The effect of advertisements through social media on consumer purchase intention: A research on students of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University

Social media has suddenly appeared in people's daily lives and become indispensable due to developing internet technologies. People can connect to the social media wherever they can access the internet and this enables them to communicate with other people and communities. Along with providing people to make virtual friends and to share many audio, video and files, social media has also shaped the shopping activities on the internet. To reach the target audience by means of social media tools is both easier and cheaper, which has caused companies' advertising activities in the social media to increase rapidly. Therefore, companies actively follow the social media like regular users and try to influence the buying behaviors of consumers through the advertisements they give to social media. Within the scope of this study, an examination and evaluation of the effects of advertisements through social media on consumer purchasing intentions was tried to be presented. In the study, the effect of advertisements on purchasing intention was examined according to the information, entertainment, credibility and irritation factors that consumers perceive from advertisements. It was revealed that information, entertainment and credibility factors have a positive effect on consumer purchasing intention, while irritation factor has a negative effect. These factors were also compared with each other to determine which of them has the most effect on purchasing intentions. The finding indicates that the advertisements with credibility affect consumer purchasing intentions more than the other advertisement types. Key Words: Social media, advertisement, consumer perceptions of advertisements, purchasing intentions.