(How) does the number of followers impact the success of influencer marketing? A construal level perspective

Tools

Cowan, Kirsten and Marder, Ben and Lavertu, Laura and Li, Jiayuan (2025) (How) does the number of followers impact the success of influencer marketing? A construal level perspective. Journal of Advertising Research. ISSN 1740-1909 (https://doi.org/10.1080/00218499.2025.2482276)

[thumbnail of Cowan-etal-JAR-2025-How-does-the-number-of-followers-impact-the-success]
Preview
 Text. Filename: Cowan-etal-JAR-2025-How-does-the-number-of-followers-impact-the-success.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 logo
Download (635kB)| Preview

Abstract

Prior research disagrees on how a social media influencer’s (SMI’s) following affects their persuasiveness, evidencing different moderators and mediators. This research offers a holistic explanation by showing when SMIs with lesser vs. greater followers can be more effective. Specifically, an SMI’s followers cues social distance, and, in turn, influence construal level, such that they are perceived as closer (vs. further) from oneself. Moreover, we introduce message diagnosticity (e.g., brand tagging; media channel) as a form of hypothetical distance; matching SMI social distance and diagnosticity influences persuasiveness. Secondary data and three experiments support our proposed matching process. Self-brand connection mediates.

ORCID iDs

Cowan, Kirsten, Marder, Ben, Lavertu, Laura ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0084-9114 and Li, Jiayuan;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)