Understanding the effect that Facebook's targeted advertising has on its brand image among Millennials.

Abstract

Targeted advertisements have become ever prevalent on social media platforms. These platforms often make use of personal and browsing data collected to ensure these advertisements are accurate. There are mixed feelings towards this practice with people finding it convenient and others finding it unethical. This research made use of a qualitative study on South African millennial Facebook users to determine the impact that targeted advertising has on Facebooks brand image. Interviews were conducted with the target population and coding was completed on their responses; this data was analysed to determine the impact that the targeted advertisements on Facebook had on the individuals. Qualitative research was used as this is an opinion and deep human understanding was needed to not only analyse the impact on the brands image, but also why the individuals felt the way they did. This research found that the majority of people dislike the use of targeted advertising and that they feel it is an invasion of their privacy.