The influence of targeted advertising, influencer marketing and user generated content on purchase decisions among undergraduate students at Makerere University

Abstract

This study examined the influence of targeted advertising, influencer marketing, and user generated content on purchase decisions among undergraduate students at the School of Statistics and Planning at Makerere University. The study was motivated by the rapid growth of social media marketing globally and in Uganda, and the limited empirical evidence on how these marketing dimensions influence purchase decisions among university students in the local context. The study was guided by three specific objectives: to assess the extent to which targeted advertising influences purchase decisions, to determine the effect of influencer marketing on purchase decisions, and to examine the role of user generated content on purchase decisions among undergraduate students at Makerere University. The study adopted a quantitative research design and employed a cross sectional survey approach. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 143 undergraduate students. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi square analysis, and multinomial logistic regression using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27. The demographic findings revealed that the majority of respondents were male (65.7%) and aged between 18 and 21 years (71.3%). The reliability analysis yielded a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.50, which is acknowledged as a limitation of the study. The chi square analysis revealed that targeted advertising (χ² = 62.265, p = 0.081), influencer marketing (χ² = 63.303, p = 0.068), and user generated content (χ² = 36.485, p = 0.711) did not have statistically significant relationships with purchase decisions at the 0.05 significance level. The multinomial logistic regression confirmed that the overall model was not significant. However, the parameter estimates revealed that targeted advertising was a significant predictor of one specific category of purchase decisions (B = 1.611, Wald = 4.607, p = 0.032, Exp(B) = 5.008). The study concluded that social media marketing does not significantly influence purchase decisions among undergraduate students at the School of Statistics and Planning at Makerere University. It is recommended that businesses targeting this demographic adopt more evidence-based marketing strategies, that Makerere University incorporate digital literacy programs into its curriculum, and that future researchers replicate this study across other schools and universities in Uganda using a Likert scale to improve instrument reliability.