Beyond the targeted customer: Spillover effect through social influence – consumers with weak ties are more effective targets in social advertising

Zhen-Zhen Wang, Zhihua Zhu, Xiaoke Xu, and Naipeng Chao

Following an innovative large-scale field experiment, this study measures the extent of the spillover effect through social influence in a social advertising campaign.
Wang et al

Management Slant

  • Given the importance of spillover effect in social advertising, the marketing industry should reconsider the prevalent application of customer centricity in targeted advertising. It might be more appropriate to target customers on the basis of their degree of connections instead of their interests in the products.
  • Because spillover effect spreads through weak ties instead of strong ones, targeting those with broad weak connections instead of limited strong connections could enhance the effect.
  • Social advertising might also have created a higher return on investment than expected because of spillover effect. Future design of the...

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