Thesis (MA) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Communication and Media Studies Department

In the upcoming years, advertisers are anticipated to alter their focus and spend
millions more on social media advertising than on TV, print advertisements, and other
conventional advertising mediums. As technology advances quickly, customers
increasingly use the Internet as a one-stop shop to meet the majority of their demands.
The internet meets all of their needs for communication, entertainment, commerce,
and information search. Every day, a large number of customers use the internet for
personal tasks, but how many of them pay attention to the commercials, banners, and—
most importantly—the memory value of such adverts? Through the use of a survey,
this study aims to explore how social media advertising affects consumer purchasing
decision process: pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stages. This research
explores the effect of social media advertisements on consumers' buying behaviour,
highlighting that their influence changes throughout the customer decision-making
cycle. It also highlights the influence of elements like knowledge, amusement,
confidence, incentive, and happiness on social media advertisement and brand
recognition. Another aim of this study is to demonstrate the level of influence of social
media advertising through recall, to ascertain the link between social media advertising
and the purchase decision process. A case study research approach was employed in
the study. To choose 400 research participants, a stratified selection procedure was
utilized using a quantitative data-gathering strategy. A structured online and printed
questionnaire was used to measure, categorize, find patterns, draw generalizations, and
rank data, aligning with the study's goal. Students at Cyprus International University
served as the study's target population. Out of the 323 respondents, 283 filled out the
online survey, while 40 people gave their input via distributed printed questionnaoires
using SPSS version 26, Tables and graphs were created to display the results, variables,
and frequencies from the data that had been analyzed and reviewed. The demographic
classification shows that the majority the respondents mostly females and a significant
representation of adults aged 25-34 possessing bachelor's degrees. Social media
participation is high, with a considerable portion utilizing it frequently with
demographic features. Gender, age, education, and income all show a relationship with
the frequency of searching and participating in social media reviews and
recommendations.