If a Picture is Worth 1000 Words, How Much is a Video Worth: The Influence of Ad Format on Ticket Purchasers’ Ad Clicks

Abstract

As social media advertising spending continues to rise, marketers’ understanding of how to enhance the effectiveness of these ads must also continue to expand. Utilizing an online experiment and a field study, we test the effect of different formats of Facebook ads (image vs. video) on sports advertising effectiveness (e.g. clicks to purchase tickets). Specifically, this research compares the effect of image ads, video ads, and carousel ads for a Major League Baseball team on page engagement and clicks to purchase game tickets. Vividness and fit theory are both examined as explanations. Results showed that the image ads performed the best in terms of clicks for purchase because of perceived vividness. Interestingly, the video ads only worked best for generating engagement for the social media page itself. Implications for marketing practice and research are provided.

Keywords:

• social media
• advertising
• baseball
• clicks to purchase engagement
• Facebook
• image ad
• video ad

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).