Studying the factors that affect female university students' purchasing intention through Instagram influencers

The advent of social media has resulted in a significant paradigm shift in the field of marketing, enabling rapid and seamless linkages between enterprises and prospective clientele while also permitting direct engagement with consumers. As a potent tool, Instagram has enabled marketers to cultivate trust among influencers and their respective audiences. Female university students constitute a notable demographic within the realm of enthusiastic social media users, heavily relying on these platforms not only for communication and entertainment purposes but also for their shopping requirements. The primary objective of this quantitative research study is to investigate the impact of Instagram influencers' credibility and content quality on the purchasing intentions of female university students in Türkiye. By utilizing established advertising theory and the source credibility model, we conducted an online questionnaire. A digital questionnaire was conducted, inviting a sample of 425 female college students who all follow at least one Instagram influencer to participate. The collected data was analyzed with SPSS Version 24.0 software. The findings of this study clarify that the credibility of Instagram influencers and the quality of their content favorably influence purchase intentions, with content quality and credibility being identified as the most significant factors. It is noteworthy that female college students exhibit a preference for attributes such as trustworthiness and expertise over attractiveness.