Attitude towards Facebook advertising

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to provide insight on attitudes towards Facebook advertising. In order to figure out the attitudes towards Facebook advertising, a snowball survey was executed among Facebook users by spreading a link to the survey which was further forwarded by the participants themselves. This study was a quantitative study but the results of the study were interpreted in qualitative way. This thesis was executed with the help of factor analysis and cluster analysis, after which Chi-square test was used. This research expected that the results of the survey would lead in to two different groups with negative and positive attitudes. Factor analysis was executed to find relations between variables generated by the survey data. The factor analysis resulted in 12 factors that were put in a cluster analysis to find different kinds of groups. Surprisingly the cluster analysis enabled the finding of three groups with different interests and different attitudes towards Facebook advertising. These clusters were then analyzed and compared. One group was clearly negative, tending to block and avoid advertisements. Second group was with more neutral attitude towards advertising, and more carefree internet using. They did not have advertising blocking software in use and they liked to participate in activities more often. The third group had positive attitude towards advertising in Facebook and they seemed to enjoy advertising in facebook to some extent. The results of this study can be used as guidelines for companies that wish to further improve their Facebook advertising. This thesis is also a reminder about the complexity of people and their attitudes.