Influence of Ad Congruence and Social Cues on the Probability of Choosing a Restaurant

Abstract. Information processing of digital content includes conscious and un-conscious processes, memory, attitudes, and emotions and moods. Build up into the Heuristic‐Systematic Model, that states that persuasion can occur through a systematic or heuristic way, this research explores the effect of social media (SM) ratings and the ad content embedded in the SM website. Online ratings (part of the user-generated content (UGC) in SM platforms) are often heuristics cues. Subtle forms of congruence, such as the matching category between a restaurant advertiser and the third-party ad, as well as UGC, could have an impact on con-sumers’ attitudes towards the former. However, research on how SM platforms and advertising embedded on them are processed is scarce. This study investi-gates whether congruence between the advertiser and the ad and the UGC have an impact on the probability of going to the restaurant. We conducted a within-subjects 2 x 2 design online study with 295 participants manipulating ad congru-ence (congruent x incongruent) and valence of the ratings (positive x negative) to measure the probability of going to the restaurant. Each participant was ex-posed to four restaurants in a TripAdvisor layout with UGC. The results show that ad congruence had no statistically significant effect; however, the valence of the UGC had a main effect, in which a positive valence led to an average of 72% probability of going to the restaurant and negative valence to 42%. We concluded that the UGC is strong enough to overcome any effect of ad congruence in this study.