How Television and Print Advertising, Digital Banners, and Firm-Created Word-of-Mouth Support Different Stages in the Path to Adoption
(A2019-5681)

AUTHORS

Florian Dost, Lancaster University Management School; Ulrike Phieler, Technische Universität Berlin

KEYWORDS

adoption funnel; multichannel; seeding

ABSTRACT

Advertising supports the path to purchase, but empirical knowledge about what type of advertising affects what stage in the adoption funnel is incomplete. This research investigates how television and print advertising, digital banners, and firm-created word-of-mouth from a seeded marketing campaign differentially affect aggregate-level searches, visits, and sign-ups of a home decoration online service platform. Results from the endogeneity-controlled model indicate, that traditional advertising helps in early stages, digital banners bring users directly to the platform at intermediate stages, and firm-created word-of-mouth helps converting users in the last stages of the adoption funnel. These findings complement less comprehensive extant multi-channel advertising and adoption funnel studies; they also provide empirical evidence for the effectiveness of seeded marketing campaigns. For managers, the results imply that advertising can address bottlenecks in the adoption funnel.