Engagement & Effectiveness of Video Advertisements On Different Social Media Platforms

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Engagement & Effectiveness of Video Advertisements on Different Social Media
Platforms
Brandon Lee Jia Wei
SCSWK1700078
American Degree Programme (ADP) – Communications, SEGi College Sarawak & Troy
University
JRN 491: Guided Independent Research
Ms. Norhayati Basri
18th November 2020

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Declaration by Student
I, Brandon Lee Jia Wei, hereby declare that the attached assignment is my own work and
understand that if I am suspected of plagiarism or another form of cheating, my work will be
referred to the Programme Director who may, as a result recommend to the Examinations
Board that my enrolment in the programme be discontinued.
______________________ ______________________
Date Signature
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Acknowledgement
I want to express my deepest gratitude to my lecturer, Ms Norhayati Basri, for her
constant motivation throughout this entire process of producing this research from the
beginning to the end. Thank you for your guidance and encouragement for me to complete
this research study.
I would also like to thank my parents and my close friends for supporting me
throughout this entire semester by giving me motivation and being there for me during this
whole research process. It was a tough process to get to this point of publishing my research
study but I am grateful for all the support and help from everyone who helped in the
development and the contribution towards this research paper.

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Table of Contents
Declaration by Student ............................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................... 3
Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 4
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 6
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. 7
List of Acronyms, Abbreviations & Terms ............................................................................... 8
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 1 – Introduction .......................................................................................................... 10
1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 10
1.1 Background of Study ..................................................................................................... 10
1.1.1 Problem Statement .................................................................................................. 18
1.1.2 Objectives of Study ................................................................................................. 19
1.1.3 Research Questions ................................................................................................. 20
1.1.4 Hypothesis............................................................................................................... 20
1.2 Conceptual Framework .................................................................................................. 21
1.3 Definition of Terms........................................................................................................ 22
1.4 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................... 28
1.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 29
Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................................... 30
2.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 30
2.1 Definitions and Concepts ............................................................................................... 30
2.2 Theories/Models ............................................................................................................ 35
2.3 Past Studies (Domestic & Foreign)................................................................................ 40
2.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 44
Chapter 3: Research Methodology........................................................................................... 45
3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 45

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3.1 Research Design............................................................................................................. 45
3.1.1 Primary Data ........................................................................................................... 48
3.1.2 Instrumentation ....................................................................................................... 50
3.2 Data Collection Procedure ............................................................................................. 52
3.2.1 Population & Sampling Technique ......................................................................... 52
3.2.2 Pilot Study............................................................................................................... 54
3.3 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 58
Chapter 4: Research Findings .................................................................................................. 59
4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 59
4.1 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 59
4.1.1 Data Analysis – Descriptive Analysis..................................................................... 61
4.1.2 Data Analysis – Inferential Analysis ...................................................................... 78
4.2 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 83
Chapter 5: Recommendations & Conclusion........................................................................... 84
5.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 84
5.1 Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 84
5.2 Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 85
5.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 87
References ................................................................................................................................ 88
Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 96
Appendix A: Malaysia Census Data 2010 ........................................................................... 97
Appendix B: Questionnaire Survey ..................................................................................... 98
Appendix C: Research Study Data (Inferential Analysis) ................................................... 99

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List of Figures
Figure 1 .................................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 2 .................................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 3 .................................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 4 .................................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 5 .................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 6 .................................................................................................................................... 16
Figure 7 .................................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 8 .................................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 9 .................................................................................................................................... 23
Figure 10 .................................................................................................................................. 34
Figure 11 .................................................................................................................................. 66
Figure 12 .................................................................................................................................. 69
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List of Tables
Table 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 42
Table 2 ..................................................................................................................................... 56
Table 3 ..................................................................................................................................... 61
Table 4 ..................................................................................................................................... 62
Table 5 ..................................................................................................................................... 63
Table 6 ..................................................................................................................................... 64
Table 7 ..................................................................................................................................... 64
Table 8 ..................................................................................................................................... 66
Table 9 ..................................................................................................................................... 67
Table 10 ................................................................................................................................... 68
Table 11 ................................................................................................................................... 70
Table 12 ................................................................................................................................... 71
Table 13 ................................................................................................................................... 72
Table 14 ................................................................................................................................... 73
Table 15 ................................................................................................................................... 74
Table 16 ................................................................................................................................... 75
Table 17 ................................................................................................................................... 77
Table 18 ................................................................................................................................... 79
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List of Acronyms, Abbreviations & Terms
ANOVA Analysis of Variance
COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease 2019
CMCO Conditional Movement Control Order
M Mean
MANOVA Multivariate Analysis of Variance
MCO Movement Control Order
S.D. Standard Deviation
Sig. Significance
SME Social Media Engagement
SNSUN Social Networking Sites Usage & Needs Scale
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

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Abstract
This research investigated the relationship between engagement and effectiveness of social
media video advertisements among East Malaysians aged 19 to 65 years old. A total of 95
participants were conveniently selected who responded the 26-question online survey that
comprises of Section A the demographic profile of respondents, Section B the Social
Networking Sites Usage & Needs (SNSUN) scale, Section C the engagement with social
media video advertisements and part D the effectiveness of social media video
advertisements. Only 94 of the participants were included in the research due to unmet
criteria of one participant. Raw data were analysed to assess if the data is reliable and then
Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to find the relationship between the
independent variables; engagement and effectiveness of social media video advertisements
and the individual dependent variables; social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube) and demographic profile of respondents. Results showed a significant relationship
between the independent variables and Instagram and YouTube. The hypothesis was accepted
that there is a difference in the engagement and effectiveness levels of video advertisements
on the different social media platforms.
Keywords: Social media, video advertising, social marketing, social media engagement
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Chapter 1 – Introduction
1.0 Introduction
This chapter will cover the basis and the foundation on the reasoning behind this
research paper. This chapter will investigate what social media is and the relationship
between social media and advertising and how social media is playing a significant impact in
the advertising field in this day and age. Statistics of social media usage will also be looked at
in this chapter which shows the increase in usage of social media in the last few years and it
has predominantly been on the rise during the 5-6 months when the Coronavirus Disease
2019 (COVID-19) hit the nations.
This chapter covers the terms used in this research study will also delve into the
mechanics and the different parts of the research study that will come together to form the
basis of this research. Social media also plays a massive role in our nation today. With the
increasing penetration of social media, there is a need to look into the different areas of
communication.
1.1 Background of Study
The 21st century is seeing the advancement of technology and social media.
Technology has helped to evolve how we communicate with each other. The inception of
social media plays a significant role in how we communicate and how we connect to the
people around us and beyond. In the marketing industry, the methods in which companies are
using to promote their business and products have evolved over the years. Although physical
processes are utilised less often such as distributing flyers, television advertisements,
billboards it is still being used by organisations to this day. Organsiations are also now using
other methods to market themselves, which has since evolved to online and digital marketing.
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Examples of online and digital marketing methods that companies are using include social
media marketing, building online stores, interactive websites and more.
As such, social media marketing is one of the main ways businesses are using to
market and promote their products and services to reach as well as to engage a broad
audience in hopes of increasing their brand awareness and sales. This research will be
focusing on which social media platform is the most effective for video advertisements
among social media users.
A typical goal for business and particularly a new business is to build brand
awareness and to increase the reputation of the company. On top of that, the company should
aim to strengthen relationships with users through engagement (Bandyopadhyay, 2016).
Constantinides (2016) pointed out that social media marketing is an essential tool in
marketing as social media can be used in different forms of marketing and other areas of
business such as through public relations where information can be communicated to engage
and speak to their targeted audience.
Advertisements via the Internet or social media are more commonly used in this
current era as a cheaper means of advertising, as quoted by Kathiravan (2017). Advertisers
and marketers require effective strategies and techniques to prove success in increasing their
sales and achieving their goals utilising the right form of design, media and advertisement.
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Our life becomes inseparable with social media nowadays. Statistics from We Are
Social & Hootsuite (2020) in their July snapshot report, that the use of social media had
increased immensely during the months before the publication of the report. The COVID-19
pandemic played a pivotal role in increasing the usage of social media over several months.
The report showed that there are 3.96 billion social media users with a 52% penetration
(Figure 1) with an increase of users by 10.5% which is equivalent to about 376 million users
globally (Figure 2) and that they are active on social media platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter and more.
Figure 1
Global Population Data on Mobile, Internet and Social Media Use
Note. Statistics retrieved from We Are Social & Hootsuite (2020)

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Figure 2
Global Digital Growth
Note. Statistics retrieved from We Are Social & Hootsuite (2020). Statistics shows the year
on year change in essential indicators of social adoption.
As of January 2020, the number of active Malaysian social media users was at 26
million users with a penetration of 86% (Figure 3), the percentage of which is higher than the
global average where there is an increase of 4.1% active social media users globally (Figure
4), which is equivalent to about 1 million users in the January 2020 report. Figure 5 shows
the global daily average use time among Internet users between the ages of 16 to 64 years
old. They spend an average of 6 hours and 42 minutes using the Internet daily while also
spending an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes daily on social media (We Are Social &
Hootsuite, 2020).
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Figure 3
Population Data on Mobile, Internet and Social Media Use Among Malaysians
Note. Statistics retrieved from We Are Social & Hootsuite (2020) in the January 2020 report.
Figure 4
Change in Key Indicators of Digital Adoption Among Malaysians
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Figure 5
Average Global Daily Time Spent with Media
Note. Statistics retrieved from We Are Social & Hootsuite (2020) in the July 2020 report.
The sharp increase in Internet and social media activity was contributed mainly due to
COVID-19, where almost the entire population are required to stay at home, and social media
became the primary source of communication to connect everyone from around the world. In
Malaysia, Internet users spend 7 hours and 57 minutes on the Internet and 2 hours and 45
minutes on social media daily (Figure 6) which further proves that Malaysia has a higher
Internet and social media consumption when compared to the global average (We Are Social
& Hootsuite, 2020). The circumstances caused by COVID-19 caused the majority of people
in the entire globe to stay at home. This can be a contributing factor to the sharp increase in
social media usage. In Malaysia, when the Movement Control Order (MCO) & Conditional
MCO (CMCO) was imposed only essential businesses such as pharmacies, food outlets,
grocery stores, hospitals and other critical industries were allowed to remain open with
measures in place. This period especially in Malaysia has seen an increased use of social
media (Tang, 2020). As the MCO lasted two months between mid-March and May, many
relied on social media as a tool for communicating whether socially or for businesses to
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continue staying in contact with their stakeholders (customers/employees/clients/etc.) as
working from home became an unavoidable option during this uncertain period.
Figure 6
Average Daily Time Spent by Malaysians with Media
Our World In Data gave a comparison of the number of users using different social
media platforms from 2004 to 2019, which showed the rise in social media usage. When
Facebook and YouTube were launched in 2008, there was a significant increase in usage and
is still steadily growing to this day. Most social platforms currently have at least more than a
billion users that are on these platforms (Figure 7).

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Figure 7
Number of Social Media Platform Users from 2004 to 2019
Note. Statistics retrieved from an article by Ortiz-Ospina (2019).
With the rising use of social media globally and especially in Malaysia, where there is
a high usage of social media, advertisers have a high target market. During this recovery
period of COVID-19, mainly in Malaysia, social media usage is currently at an all-time high.
Advertisers have a wide range of audiences to pick from and able to use this data to strategize
the content of their advertisements to target the appropriate audience.
Therefore, the rising of social media users has led to the rise of social media
marketing too. This is supported by a research conducted by Buffer (2019), where 73% of
marketers said that social media marketing is very significant or somewhat useful for their
businesses. Majority of social media marketers use platforms like Facebook (93.7%),
Instagram (84.4%), Twitter (80.9%), LinkedIn (70%) and YouTube (60.8%) to promote their
products and services using social media marketing. The rise of social media marketing and
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advertisements is also because social media is more easily accessible. Mohsin (2020) pointed
out that 91% of all social media users access these platforms using their mobile devices
(primarily smartphones).
1.1.1 Problem Statement
Social media is taking the world by storm in the past decade. The rise of social media
sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat has opened a new door for
social marketing. Advertisers and businesses have a plethora of options to choose from to
market their products and services to their intended audience. However, each social media
platform has a different approach to how they take advertisements from businesses and
market it to their users. The issue at hand is that because there are many social media
platforms to choose from, advertisers with a fixed budget may not be able to utilise many
forms of social media and is only able to choose one or two social media platforms that may
be the most effective for their business. On top of that, social media is a critical player in
advertising. Social media marketing takes on substantial marketing costs as the results from
social media can prove to be beneficial to the business and advertisers.
The high penetration of social media usage across the globe can also contribute to the
effectiveness of social media advertising. However, with the wide variety of social media
platforms available in the market, advertisers are spoiled for choice as each social media
platform has its pros and cons in video advertising. Hence, it is crucial for advertisers to
select the most suitable platform for advertising carefully and would guarantee them the best
output and results from those advertising. This study will be able to show the best social
media platform that will produce the best product or results in terms of which social media
platform is the most suitable to engage and reach out to potential audiences in East Malaysia
(Sabah and Sarawak).

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Although there are many social media platforms available, each social media plays a
different role and has their own significant purpose that it is designed for. For instance,
Facebook is used for sharing articles and posts, while Instagram is used to share photos,
Twitter is used to share short captions and messages while YouTube is a video sharing
platform. Each social media platform interacts in similar ways where it is either used to fill
up empty time or used for social interaction (Voorveld, Noort, Munt, & Bronner, 2018). This
information may help advertisers to understand how each platform is used and how
advertisements can be used to cater to their audiences using different social media platform.
1.1.2 Objectives of Study
The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between the type of social
media platform used and the engagement levels on social media advertising on those
platforms. This research study aims to examine how the attention span of Malaysian adults
could affect the engagement levels of video advertisement that can be used in social media
marketing. Through this research, it aims to study which social media platform is more
effective in advertising to its audience and the factors that play a part in the effectiveness of
video advertisement. Among all the types of advertisements available, the focus of this
research will be on video advertisements. The primary purposes of this research are to
understand which social media platform is the most effective to reach audiences through
video advertising through video advertisements. The idea is to know how each social media
platform that has video advertising capacities perform and see how they fare among each
other and understand which platform performs the best in terms of engagement and getting
the attention of the targeted audience.

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1.1.3 Research Questions
The research question that is being asked “Which social media platform is the most
engaging for advertisers to promote their products and services using video advertisements?”
In this research, the aim is to study which social media is the best platform for advertisers to
publish social media video advertisements and which platform produces the highest
engagement levels through these advertisements and will allow them to have an increase in
sales.
1.1.4 Hypothesis
The first hypothesis that can be gathered from this research study is that social media
engagement experiences will differ across the different social media platforms that are being
evaluated in this research study (H1). This can be because each social media has a diverse
target audience, and there are various uses and purposes for the existence of those social
media platforms.
The next hypothesis is that there will be a difference in the social media advertisement
engagements across the different social media platforms (H2). Similarly, to the social media
engagements, each video advertisement that is displayed on the various social media have
other purposes for using specific social media platforms for certain types of promotion or
advertising.
The third hypothesis that is observed in this research study is that there is a difference
between the engagement on social media advertisements to the demographic profile of the
targeted audience (H3). As the different demographics have different interest, this may have
an impact on the engagement levels on social media advertisements across the different types
of platforms. This can also be the fact that other groups of users use different kinds of social
media platforms.
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1.2 Conceptual Framework
Figure 8
Research Study Conceptual Framework
Social Media Platforms:
- Facebook
- Instagram
- YouTube
Social media
Social media
advertisements
engagement Demographic Profile:
engagement
- Gender
- Age
- Educational
Background
Figure 8 shows the conceptual framework that is designed for the research study. The
conceptual framework describes how the study is being conducted and the variables that are
involved and looked at through this research study. These variables lay the foundation of the
items that will be researched and what will be delved into deeper through this research where
the effectiveness of social media advertising can be looked at through different perspectives.
The different variables are correlated in which the independent variables influence the
outcome of the study based on the dependent variable. The independent variable will also be
able to affect and play a part in the dependent variable, which will have an impact on the
entire study.
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For this present study, the dependent variable is looking into the engagement of social
media advertisements to its targeted audience. The independent variables that are involved
are the types of social media platform that were being observed as well as the demographic of
the target group that is focused on for this study.
The different variables and the definition of these terms that are mentioned and used
in this research study are covered in Chapter 1.3 Definition of Terms.
1.3 Definition of Terms
The first and most crucial variable is the engagement of social media advertisements.
Vivek, Beatty, & Morgan (2012) defineds customer engagement as “the intensity of an
individual’s participation in and connection with an organisation’s offerings and
organisational activities, which either the customer or the organisation initiate.” In the
context of this research study, the engagement of customers or users is taking into account
how often social media platforms are used. Engagements of video advertisements in this
research measures the outcome of the video advertisement. This relates to the action a user
takes after viewing the video advertisement either clicking on a link in the video or
purchasing the product showcased in the advert.
The next important factor is the demographic profile for this research. In the context
of this research, the focus will be on Malaysians residing in East Malaysia. For this research,
data collected for this research will look at Malaysians who are born and currently residing in
Sabah and Sarawak. The Population Distribution and Basic Demographic Characteristics
from the Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2010 conducted by the National
Statistics Department of Malaysia reported that East Malaysians make up 20.3% of the total
population which is equivalent to around 5.76 million citizens (Refer to Appendix A)
(Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2011). This vast number from East Malaysia can play a
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vital role in how businesses advertise their brand and products to their potential and current
customers on the island of Borneo.
Furthermore, age also plays a significant factor in the data collection for this research.
Erikson’s Stages of Development theory helps to determine the different categories of age
groups based on the stages of development of an individual. After studying the impact of
social experience across an individual’s life span, Erikson came up with the theory that help
to better understand the different categories of age group based on the stages of development
of an individual (Cherry, 2020).
Figure 9
Erikson’s Stages of Development
Stages of Development Age Group
Infancy Birth – 18 months
Early Childhood 2 – 3 years
Preschool 3 – 5 years
School Age 6 – 11 years
Adolescence 12 – 18 years
Young Adulthood 19 – 40 years
Middle Adulthood 40 – 65 years
Maturity/Late Adulthood 65 – death
Note. Information retrieved from an article by Cherry (2020).

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The present research will be focusing on individuals between the ages of 19 – 65
years old, which are the stages of young adulthood and middle adulthood. This age group is
chosen as this age group represents a majority of the population in Malaysia. The 2010
National census shows that 67.3% of the national population lies between the ages of 15-65
years old, which is equivalent to around 19 million people (Department of Statistics
Malaysia, 2011). This research will be covering four different generations which range from
Baby Boomers those that are born in 1945-1964 which are ages 56 to 75; Generation X,
which refers to those born between 1965 and 1979 (Wong, Gardiner, Lang, & Coulon, 2008),
ages 41 to 55; Generation Y, also known as the Millennials, are those born between 1980 and
1994, ages 26 to 40 years old; and Generation Z are individuals born between 1995 and 2015,
ages 5 to 25 years old (Betz, 2019).
Educational background will also play a minor role in the outcome of this research.
For this research, the educational background of respondents from the data collected will be
observed to see if there is any correlation between the educational background of the social
media users and the other factors mentioned in this section.
Boyd & Ellision (2008) defineds social media as a service that is web-based that
enables individuals to create a public or semi-public profile within a controlled system and
provides visibility for users to interact with one another and allow for relationships to form.
The research also notes that different social media sites have another method of making these
connections from site to site. Social media has a common theme in which the use of online or
digital technologies are essential in the definition of social media (Wolf, Sims, & Yang,
2018). The dictionary, on the other hand, defines social media as forms of electronic
communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which
users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other
content (such as videos) (Merriam-Webster, n.d.).

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Several social media platforms are readily available in the market such as Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, LinkedIn and many more. For this research,
Facebook, Instagram & YouTube will be the targeted social media platform to focus on.
Advertisements can come in many shapes and form. The more popular advertisements
that are used in this day and age include e-mail marketing, digital signage, videos, display
ads, social ads, search engine marketing and so many more (Cyberclick, n.d.).
Kathiravan (2017) listed out the types of advertisements that are more commonly used
in social media marketing and advertising:
1. Banner ads. These ads are a more straightforward form of advertisements that appears
either on the top or bottom portion side of the screen. These ads are typically measured in
pixels and cover nearly 75% of screen space.
2. Tickers. Ticker advertisements are advertisements that move around the screen. Typically,
tickers will appear as a pop-up message with a dialogue box like an alert message.
3. Superstitial. This is an example of an animated advertisement. Its appearance commonly
uses flash, 3D images or videos which are near similar to ads shown on television as TV
adverts.
4. Interstitial. Interstitial adverts are advertisements that are typically shown on loading
webpages to fill the buffer time when loading a new website. For example, when loading into
a new website or website, interstitial ads will appear while waiting to enter the chosen or
selected webpage to fill in the buffer time. These ads can be clicked away and redirect users
to the website that the user intends to go to.

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5. Pop-up advertisements. Pop-up advertisements appear in front of popular web pages at the
time of loading. More popular sites like Amazon uses pop-up advertisements use this type of
ads on their webpages.
6. Pop-under. These advertisements typically appear behind webpages.
7. Transactional ads. Transactional advertisements are a popular form of advertising as it is
an interactive advertisement that allows users to request information or purchase the product
without leaving the website users are on.
8. Roadblocks. Roadblocks are a form of advertising that forces users to view the
advertisement for a set time limit before being allowed to enter the intended webpage.
9. Rich media ads. Rich media ads have more interactivity as it moves, talks or can beep or
flash. These kinds of ads require more capability for processing and are typically filmed
commercials.
10. Floating ad: These ads usually are floating above the content that is being viewed by
users on a webpage
11. Expanding ad. This form of adverts can change size and web page content.
12. Polite ad. These ads appear as small chunks to not distract or disrupt the user’s experience
on the website
13. Wallpaper ad. Wallpaper ads appear as the background of the webpage. The
advertisement will appear in the background of the webpages.
14. Video ad. Video advertisements are more commonly used on social media sites like
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. These ads are video adverts that are shown as sponsored
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or posts that are shown to users. This is a common form of advertising that is found on most
webpages and social media networking sites.
15. Map Ad. Advertisements that appear as graphics or text that appears on map-based
applications or websites like Waze, Google Maps or similar map-based applications.
16. Mobile ad. This form of advertising is short message service (SMS) that appear as text or
may contain multimedia messages and usually are used by companies to reach a broad
audience in a short period.
For this research study, video advertising will be the critical advertising tool that will
be looked into further in understanding the effectiveness of advertisement among social
media users. The reason video advertisements are chosen for this research is that past studies
have shown that the attention span of humans has decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8
seconds in 2013 which is much shorter compared to the attention span of a goldfish which is
9 seconds. Subramanian (2018) also mentioned that computers and technology that are fast-
paced contribute to the shortening of the human attention span. Because of this, marketers
and advertisers use attracting videos to gain the attention of their target audiences. This is the
reasoning behind the purposes and usage of video advertising in this research study.
The final element in this research study, which also acts as the primary purpose of the
research is the effectiveness of the advertisement. By definition, advertisement effectiveness
is a tool that is used to measure how successful an advertisement is in achieving its intended
goal. A company's advertising effectiveness usually increases over time with many messages
or exposures. Advertisement effectiveness can be evaluated in several ways such as reach
(the number of users who have seen the advertisement), sales and profits (the amount of sales
income earned through the ad) and brand awareness (the percentage of users that recognise or
are aware of the brand and product) (Suttle, n.d.).

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1.4 Significance of the Study
There’s limited studies about topics on social media conducted in East Malaysia. A
majority of local research studies are customarily conducted nationally, with most
respondents coming from West Malaysia or better known as Peninsular Malaysia. As such,
this research study will focus on Malaysians from and residing in East Malaysia, which
consists of Sabah and Sarawak. Most times, there is a degree of difficulty in getting sample
data from East Malaysia due to the inaccessibility of technolpgy and that there is a lack of
data which is the reason the researcher aims to study on this topic among East Malaysians.
Therefore, the ultimate goal of this research study is to enhance businesses primarily
those based in East Malaysia to be able to use this research study to assist in choosing the
right platform for getting the right audience to advertise products and services.
The age group that is selected for this research study is ages 19-65 years old. The reasoning
behind this age group as this is the age group that is more active on social media compared to
the other age groups. This is also because this age group hold a large chunk of the population
which will contain more merit in the study and will be able to give a proper representation of
the East Malaysian community.
Taking into consideration the population of East Malaysians aged 15-65 years old
based on data from the 2010 National Census, the population of East Malaysians that falls in
this category is an average of 65.4% of the population which is around 3.7 million people.
The median age of citizens in Sabah 22.8 years old while in Sarawak, the median age is 26
years old. This shows that the median age of the population in both states are considered to be
in the young adulthood stage with Sabah having the lowest median age when compared to all
the other states (Refer to Appendix A).

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1.5 Summary
This chapter talks about the role social media has a significant role in the current
advertising scene. Based on recent statistics, Malaysia has a high penetration rate of users that
are active on social media in which Malaysians have a high potential to have a high
consumption of social media which provides a broad target audience that can be used by
advertisers. Data also shows that East Malaysians make up a significant part of the Malaysian
population. This research will focus on which platform is the most effective that businesses
can use to advertise to East Malaysians. The next chapter will be about the different theories
and past researches to support this research study.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.0 Introduction
This chapter will investigate the different research models and theories that can help
with the explanation of this research. Past research papers will also be looked into further
prove and better explain the various concepts used in this research. In this research study, the
theory that will be the focus of the research study is social marketing theory. This chapter
will cover the past research papers and journal articles that have a correlation to this research
study. The information from this chapter will also serve as a foundation for the basis of this
research. This chapter will also gather the many different definitions and concepts from
various journal articles through the ages and how the theory of social marketing and social
media engagement has evolved through the years.
2.1 Definitions and Concepts
The concept of the effectiveness of social media advertisements lies in how the
advertisement is promoted and published to its intended audiences. For this research, the
concept of this study looks into how the advertisements shape the perception and how
effective these advertisements have on its audiences. Social media engagement is a form of
measurement to measure comments, likes and shares of content on social media. Although
racking followers is a positive trait that businesses can have. Still, the most significant
measure of social media success is to have an audience that is engaged and not just a large
audience pool. As a business, the quality of social media should be an essential factor that
companies should strive for and not only the quantity. The elements that are crucial for every
social media platform is the activity and engagement to build positive brand experience and
to develop meaningful relationships with new and potential customers. Social media
engagement can be measured in several ways and can be measured by a range of metrics
which can include and not limited to the following: (McLachlan, 2020)
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 Shares or retweets
 Comments
 Likes
 Followers and audience growth
 Click-throughs
 Mentions (either tagged or untagged)
 Using branded hashtags
Merriam-Webster (n.d) defines engagement as the act of engaging. Engaging on the
hand is defined as tending to draw favourable attention or interest. Social media engagement
is also a two-way street; the attention on social media measures how engaged an audience is
with content. Engagement helps businesses to assess how their content is perceived by their
audience based on their interest in and reactions to the content that is shared. For brand
loyalty to be created, businesses should make efforts to engage with their audience and
continue the engagement between the audiences when there is a form of engagement that
happens between the company and the customers. Examples of actions that continue the
engagement between the business and customers include responding to comments, follow and
engage with similar or local companies, and answer questions that are being asked online.
These actions will help to create a stronger connection between the business and customers
and exemplify the commitment of the business to customer service.
Social engagement is significant to help measure the effectiveness of social media
campaigns and how they perform and how the audience and potential customers react to an
organisation’s brand. Social media marketing is essential for businesses to stay in touch with
old customers and for them to find new ones. Low engagement could reveal customer
dissatisfaction or disinterest in a brand. Good engagement, on the other hand, only helps to
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improve the image and growth of a business. As an example, when a new potential customer
looks into the social media of a brand and sees few likes and no comments, they may lose
interest. Still, on the flip side, when they a social media page of a brand that has lots of likes,
enthusiastic comments, and helpful responses from the business, they are more likely to stay
on the page, follow the brand’s social accounts, and hopefully convert into a customer of the
brand. Social media marketing can generate new leads, nurture existing leads, generate sales,
and create brand loyalty with customers. Engagement is essential to good social media
marketing and the goals that come with it (SEO Digital Group, n.d.).
The concept of the idea of the research study is to identify the relationship between
the engagement of social media advertisements on its target group. The reasoning behind the
chosen audience of aged 19 – 65 years old is that this age group is the optimal age group that
uses social media daily and are prone to viewing advertisements regularly. As this group is
always exposed to social media advertisements, this group is the perfect sample group to be
studied for this topic.
The effectiveness of social media is also another key focus in this study that is being
looked into, in which whether the advertisements on social media will have any impact and
impression on the target audiences. Referring to the previous chapter, humans are designed to
have a short attention span. With the introduction of new technologies, the attention span of
humans will reduce.
Global Web Index (2019) shared their findings that the share of people that uses
social media to hunt and research for products has increased to 31% today. Social media in a
users’ daily lives has changed as now social media carries significant weight in the
purchasing process of products and services. Social media has also been built up to becoming
the space where users want to see brands, offers and works on their news feeds. Research by
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Global Web Index showed that 4 in 10 users follow their favourite brands on social media
which showed that although users don’t find branded content intrusive they find these
contents comfortable in viewing alongside their friend’s posts. The research also showed that
digital consumers spend an average of 2 hours and 26 minutes per day on social networks and
that ads on social media do play an essential role in introducing new brands and products to
consumers. However, ad-blocking has overwhelmingly demonstrated the efforts online adults
take to protect their online experience from unwanted, intrusive or irrelevant content.
However, social media, on the other hand, is different as the popularity of accessing social
media via its apps shields advertisements from web-based ad-blockers. Globally, ads placed
on social media rank as the fourth most popular source of brand discovery, with 28% of
Internet users saying ads help them find out about new products. Research also showed that
social media ads are more prevalent among uses compared to other online advertisements on
the Internet. Figure 10 shows how in most regions across the globe that users discover brands
and products through social media ads compared to other online ads. The research also
showed that social media ads ranked higher than other forms of advertisements through
different channels (Trifonova, 2019).

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Figure 10
Comparison of Brand and Product Discovery between Social Media and Online Ads
Note. Data taken from an article by Trifonova (2019).
However, there is a downside to having too many advertisements on social media,
SurveyMonkey reported that nearly 3 out of 4 users (74% of users) believe that there are too
many ads and this number increases to 78% for adults above the age of 35. 63% of users also
reported that they tend to see the same cycle of advertisements whereas 44% of users found
advertisements to be irrelevant to their wants and needs and for users aged above 35 years the
number increases to 51%. These statistics showed that a considerable portion of users find
that social media adverts are intrusive and overwhelming users at times (Gitlin, n.d.).
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2.2 Theories/Models
The theory that is being discussed and the theory that serves as the main focus of this
research study is social marketing theory. The idea was first coined by Philip Kotler and
Gerald Zaltman (1971) where they defined social marketing as “ the design, implementation
and control of programmes calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and to
involve considerations of product designing, pricing, communication, distribution and
marketing research” (Lokhande, 2003). Marketing is relevant to all organisations that have
customer groups. However, Andreasen (1994) criticises the earlier definitions of social
marketing and justifies the explanation of what social marketing is and proposes the
description of the theory as “the adaptation of commercial marketing technologies to
programs designed to influence the voluntary behaviour of target audiences to improve their
welfare and that of the society of which they are a part.”
Wood (2012) compared that many definitions of this theory most of the time refers to
commercial marketing approaches while shifting focus to non-profit goals and other
intentions argued that social marketing should not be dependent on commercial marketing
theory (Wymer, 2011; Peattie and Peattie, 2003; Wood, 2008). Wood (2008) himself agreed
that social marketing theory should stand on its own and not be like commercial marketing
theory. However, changes to commercial marketing theory and practices have caused
redundancy in traditional models. There is a more significant and growing relationship
between marketing and branding, which is of significance in the whole concept of social-
marketing theory. Peatty and Peatty (2003) argued as well that whether the definition of
social marketing by Kotler and Zaltman (1971) is satisfactory to define the explicit objective
of social marketing and the campaigns that fall under social marketing. They also question
the behavioural change that is found in social marketing campaigns and that it is not
exchanged by the target “customer” in return for a social marketing offer. This led them to
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ideate the concept of interaction is more appropriate in social marketing. They also argued
that in social marketing, there might not be any form of behavioural change at all. Dann
(2010), noted that there are over 45 peer-reviewed academic journal articles that contained
different version and definitions of social marketing through 45 years of the existence of
social marketing. The rapid increase in descriptions causes the lack of consensus of a more
rigid definition to be set in stoned was flagged by Andreasen (2006). Stead, Gordon, Angus,
& McDermott (2007), on the other hand, offers a counterpoint stating that social marketing
can be looked at as not a single theory but a structural framework. This concept is similar to
the idea and definition by Burton (2001), where she described critical marketing as a
conceptual cluster rather than centrally defined concept.
The whole concept of social marketing revolves around the process of changing
behaviour and attitudes of the public to achieve the objectives in social, economic, political
and business areas. Social marketing is also about the awareness that is developed among the
different people groups which are the consumers, organisations (which can consist of social,
political or business) and the general public regarding long term interests of the business
world. Social marketing can also be referred to societal marketing to achieve the following
objectives of satisfying the needs of customers, improving the quality of life, ensuring that
long term policy for customers and the society’s welfare is implemented and to ensure
freedom from all forms of pollution and ecological destructions (Lokhande, 2003). Despite
the vast number of definitions and concepts, the entire theory was founded on the belief of
Wiebe (1951) that “advertisers can sell ‘brotherhood like soap’ and that the same tactics and
strategies employed to market goods and services can be used to sell pro-social ideas, values,
and behaviours.” The contrast between marketing campaign goals which aims to increase
profits through enhanced sales, the primary motivation of social marketing is with the
cumulative effect of such modifications being an end benefit for society is to change
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behaviour. As stated above, again, Hill and Moran (2011) pointed out that the vast literature
on social marketing has dealt with issues to ideate and come up with a stand-alone definition
for the theory. The challenges social marketing faces have also been addressed in recent years
due to its goal of modifying becoming very ambitious are often high involvement and
ingrained beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. Given the resistance faced in attempts to change
problematic behaviours, McGovern (2007) argued the reason social marketers must
understand the perception of the actions and the individuals themselves as well as how peer
influence which is environmental factors may affect the adoption of behaviours (Pechmann,
2002) and how many different audiences can be targeted with the appropriate messages
(Flora & Thoresen, 1988).
Hill (2010) also pointed out that earlier iterations of the definitions of social
marketing campaigns did little more than use ‘social advertising’ tactics. Still, instead, it is
used to spread encouraging messages to promote alternative behaviours without providing
necessary adjustments for long-term modifications to occur (Fox & Kotler, 1980). As the
field progressed, commercial marketers’ footsteps were followed by employing integrated
marketing campaigns, relationship marketing techniques, segmenting audiences with
appropriate messages, lowering costs and adequately positioning the benefits of behavioural
change. Reviews of social marketing studies shown in recent decades that this has led to
positive and encouraging results as pointed out by Malafarina & Loken (1993) and Stead et
al. (2007). Recent studies on social marketing have also shown that non-mainstream
promotions or advertisements are going to be more critical in the social marketing field, and
more campaigns will include technologies of new media, especially in recent years.
The other theory that supports the leading theory of the social marketing theory is
social media engagement (SME) theory. This theory is a supporting theory that supports the
concept and the idea of this research study. The approach of social marketing is generally
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broad when coming into the context of this research study. Hence, social media engagement
theory acts as a supporting theory to better support the leading theory of social marketing
theory in supporting and establishing the basis of this research study.
Social media became very much popular in the 21st century. Social media platforms
such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have created unique structures, new norms and
cultures in the community. Social media has migrated into the mainstream media, and when
social media is introduced to the world, marketers took advantage of the opportunity to use
social media for marketing (Williamson, 2010). In this time and age, many businesses and
companies are leveraging on social media to handle and address a multitude of tasks. Besides
using social media for digital advertising and promotions, they use social media to tackle
other issues such as handling customer service issues, ideate innovative ideas and to engage
with their customers (Solis, 2010). Earlier studies have been conducted on experiences with
social media, but they tend to generally focus on social media or only one specific social
media platform. Regardless, the lack of studies that directly compare social media platforms,
the public actively use social media and engage with them regularly. The engagement level
differs with the various platforms used based on the unique characteristics of each platform of
social media which includes functionalities, interface and content (Voorveld et al., 2018).
Gangi & Wasko (2016) believed that the main goal if the traditional business model is
to create a tangible product or service and protect the organisation from competitors by
creating an organisational boundary. Introducing social media allows users to modify, share
and reuse content regardless of the original meaning or purpose intended by the creator.
Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) defines social media as “a group of Internet-based applications
that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the
creation and exchange of User Generated Content.” Social media is a tool that in this modern
time is a valuable tool as it is an interactive tool that can be used in advertising and market
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intelligence to a business or an organisation on top of satisfying the needs and interests of
users.
Moving closer into the theory of social media engagement, Prahalad and Ramaswamy
(2004) created a foundation model of co-creation in the service sector in which the theoretical
model was expanded by Gangi & Wasko (2016) in which they focus the expansion of the co-
creation model to focus on the social interactions among users that are supported by social
media platforms. The work of Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) was built upon by Gangi &
Wasko (2016) by applying a socio-technical systems perspective by addressing the influence
of user experience on engagement and subsequently the usage of social media.
SME theory accounts for its role it plays as a technological platform that is used to
facilitate social interactions among users globally and temporally distributed. The rise of
social media comes mainly from the technological evolution in recent years that provides
users with a unique experience that enables users to connect in ways that were never before
possible in the last decade. Social interactions which are defined as the communication
among users through social media where the experience of social interactions is a critical
factor that forms the whole user experience on top of the user experience through the use of
the technical features of social media. Social interactions are a crucial factor in the research
study as it forms a large part of the user experience by fostering relationships that are
personalised among users and it serves as a transparent means of communication by
providing access to social resources including friends, acquaintances and family members.
Social interactions among users also serve as a guide and provide meaning in evaluating how
intensely involved users wish to be. In terms of the technical features of social media, it is the
tools that provide users interact with one another and impact the direction, magnitude and
scope of benefits for individual users and the organisation. Technical features can include
multiple elements which are; the extent to which users can retrieve information and interact,
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the flexibility to use features for various purposes, the ability to integrate content, and the
evolvability of the elements to meet users’ specific needs as they become more proficient
with the platform (Gangi & Wasko, 2016).
There has been a lengthy discussion on how user engagement should be defined. One
of the definitions from O’Brien and Toms (2008) define user engagement as a category of
user experience while several other scholars define user engagement using a more traditional
approach of involvement (engaging) and participation (the act of being engaged) suggesting
meeting is both a psychological state and behaviour (Hwang & Thorn, 1999). In more recent
times, Ray, Kim & Morris (2014) define engagement as “a holistic psychological state in
which one is cognitively and emotionally energised to socially behave in ways that exemplify
the positive ways in which group members prefer to think of themselves.” Despite all the
definitions given by both recent and older journal articles, a clear description of user
engagement still remains inconclusive for scholars as engagement is defined as a portion of
user experience, a psychological state, and user behaviour. The central premise of SME
theory is that higher user engagement leads to the more significant usage of the social media
platform. Use is defined as the frequency of a user’s contribution, retrieval, and exploration
of content within a social media site. Users that frequently participate in a variety of
activities, the more valuable the social media platform becomes to the organisation and
fellow users, resulting in the co-creation of value (Gangi & Wasko, 2016).
2.3 Past Studies (Domestic & Foreign)
This research study can be compared and is built upon past research studies from both
foreign and domestic studies that are based upon social media engagement. The past research
studies that can be drawn upon are based on social media advertising engagement between
audiences.
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A foreign study was conducted by Voorveld et al. (2018), which focuses on the
engagement with social media advertising and the differentiating role of each platform type.
This study examines how consumers’ engagement with social media platforms drives
engagement with advertising embedded in these platforms and, subsequently, evaluations of
this advertising. The survey conducted by the researchers maps social media users’
engagement experiences with Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +, Instagram,
Pinterest, and Snapchat and their experiences with and evaluations of advertising on these
platforms. The findings of the survey show that the engagement is highly contexting specific
where it comprises of various types of experiences on each social media platform. It is
designed in such a way that each social media platform is experienced uniquely.
Moreover, on each platform, there are a different set of experiences that relates itself
to advertising evaluations. It is further shown that engagement with social media advertising
itself is critical in explaining how social media engagement is related to advertising
evaluations. The general conclusion is that there is no such thing as “social media.”
In their study, the engagement with different platforms varies in terms of the number
of users that engage with the social media platform (Refer to Table 2). How the engagement
was measured in their study was giving each dimension of the experience of using each social
media platform and assigning factor loadings for each item. The data was then tabulated, and
a score was given for each dimension, and the sum of all the measurements was tabulated at
the end of each social media platform. From the results of the survey, Facebook scored the
highest in terms of social interaction and topicality. What this meant was that Facebook has
the highest used in terms of social interaction and is the most common social media platform
used in people interaction. Consumers of Facebook used it to stay up to date with the latest
happenings and to share and communicate with the people around them. Facebook also had
high scores on the dimension of pastime. This also showed that Facebook is a common social
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media platform that is used by its users to past time and uses it during their downtime.
Facebook overall had the highest combined score for all the elements and dimensions that
makes Facebook the most engaging social media platform in this modern era based on this
research study.
Table 1
Social Media Engagement Between Different Platforms
Note. Table is extracted from a research paper by Voorveld et al. (2018)
Twitter also had pretty high scores on several dimensions. The primary function of
Twitter was to ensure that people are informed on the latest happenings in an instant.
However, one of the highest-scoring dimensions is the negative emotion related to the content
dimension where users are often disturbed by the content on the platform as well as made
users feel involved with the happenings that are posted. Although Twitter scored low on
almost all dimensions, one of the top-scoring dimensions is social interaction where indeed,
Twitter is a common social media platform used by its consumers to interact with one another
in the cyberspace.
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YouTube scored the highest on the entertainment dimension. YouTube is designed to
provide in terms of entertainment through videos. Although YouTube scores less on other
dimensions, it achieves high scores on topicality and pastime which to a certain extent,
YouTube is used by consumers to stay up to date with the latest news and to fill in empty
time gaps between their days.
Instagram is a social media platform that is used as a pastime. In the pastime and
topicality dimensions, it scored relatively high it is also another platformed used by
consumers to stay in touch with their community and be quickly informed on the latest
happenings and stay up to date. It also serves as a platform for social interaction and
entertainment, and it is an all-in-one inclusive app that has a variety of functions.
On the flip side, a similar study is conducted locally in Malaysia. However, there isn’t
much research done on this particular topic on engagement with social media advertisements.
The research that comes close to this research study is the perception of consumers on
advertising on Facebook.
Past research by Yaakop, Anuar, Omar, & Liaw (2012) covered the perception of
social media advertising on Facebook. This research looked into different aspects of social
media engagement which includes perceived interactivity. Perceived interactivity is described
as a means to allow users to participate in creating and recreating content. In the context of
interactivity on the Internet shifts the ways users perceive advertising since offline
advertising is much different compared to online advertising. The second element is
advertising avoidance, which is where all actions by media users that differentially reduce
their exposure to advertisement content. The next part is the credibility of the advertisements
and where the source or message of the content is believable depending on the objective and
subjective components of the believability of the content. The last element is privacy where
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social networking sites (SNS) share privacy concerns as users share information and
preferences, which includes personal details, images, statuses, hobbies to these SNS.
The research was conducted on undergraduate students at a local university in
Malaysia with a sample size of 5000 undergraduates taking part in the survey study. The
research study showed that using regression analysis; there is a positive relationship between
perceived interactivity and attitude towards the advertisement on Facebook, between
advertising avoidance and mood towards the ad on Facebook and between advertising
avoidance and attitude towards the ad on Facebook. On top of that, there is a positive
relationship between credibility and attitude towards the advertisement on Facebook.
2.4 Summary
This chapter delves into the two theories that best supports this research study which
is social marketing theory and social media engagement theory. From what can be gathered
from many previous types of research and journal articles, social marketing theory looks
more to commercial marketing with the addition of supporting social causes. The next
chapter will be covering the research methodology of the research study. It will cover on how
the research is conducted and the type of data that will be collected and its method of
collection as well as explaining the different techniques used to manage the data as well as
how the pilot study is conducted.

45
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
3.0 Introduction
This chapter explains how the research is conducted through quantitative analysis.
How the research data collected, research structure and methodology will further be
described. At the end of the chapter, the result of the pilot study will be shared, and this will
be the benchmark when the actual data is collected.
3.1 Research Design
Three social media platforms are at the focus of this study which are Facebook,
Instagram and YouTube. The reason these social media platforms are chosen is that these
platforms are the most commonly used in Malaysia and have the highest percentage of usage
among users above the ages of 16 (We Are Social & Hootsuite, 2020). This research study is
conducted using quantitative research. Aliaga & Gunderson (2006) defines quantitative
research as “explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using
mathematically based methods (in particular statistics). Quantitative analysis is a more
straightforward method of researching and collecting data. This is because the data produced
from quantitative research are always numerical, and they are analyzed using mathematical
and statistical methods. If there are no numbers involved, then it’s not quantitative research
(Skills You Need, n.d.). There several ways to collect data using quantitative analysis. The
method that was chosen for this research study is through a questionnaire survey. The survey
was conducted online through an online form (Google Forms). An online survey is the
chosen method as it brings several advantages. SmartSurvey (n.d.) listed out the benefits of
using online surveys for data collection.

46
1. Faster
The time to complete an online survey is cut down by two-thirds compared to traditional
research methods (paper & pen) is because the data is being collected digitally and
automatically. The information and data gathered from the survey are being gathered and
tabulated automatically. Time is not needed to transfer data from the respondent’s responses
to a central database compared to traditional paper and pen methods which is time-
consuming. Response time is almost instant as respondents can fill in the survey
electronically and submit it in no time.
2. Cheaper
Using online questionnaires reduces the research costs as the survey is conducted online,
costs can be saved as there are many cheaper alternatives and even free form collection
software and apps that can be used to launch surveys and collect and analyze data.
3. More accurate
The margin of error is significantly reduced with online surveys because participants enter
their responses directly into the system. Traditional methods rely on the attentiveness of staff
to enter all details correctly, and naturally, human error can creep in whenever a person has to
perform a repetitive task.
4. Quick to analyze
The results of the online survey are ready to be analyzed at any time through a click of a
button. Results from the data collected can be viewed quickly, and reports can be generated
almost instantaneously.
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5. More honest
Market researchers have found that participants overwhelmingly prefer to complete online
surveys rather than take part in written questionnaires or telephone interviews and usually
provide more extended and more detailed answers. By designing and sending relevant and
targeted surveys, people are more likely to respond with honest answers.
6. More selective
Online surveys allow researchers to pre-screen participants and allow only those who match
the target profile to complete the survey.
7. More flexible
The order of the questions in an online survey can be changed, or questions can be skipped
altogether, depending on the answer to a previous question. This way, a survey can be
tailored to each participant as he or she proceeds.
Google Forms was used to create and distribute the online survey as it is free and easy
to use. It is also the most commonly used form creation tool used by researchers to conduct
surveys. The survey is divided into four sections (Appendix B). The first section is the
demographics of the respondents, which covers the basic demographics of the respondent.
The second section of the questionnaire are questions which have been adapted from the
social networking sites usage & needs scale (SNSUN) which aims to evaluate the use of
social media among the target respondents (Ali, Danaee, & Firdaus, 2019). The questions in
the third section look into the engagement towards social media advertisements. The last
section has questions that ask about the effectiveness of ads on a range of social media
platforms. The collected data is then analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) to generate the reliability scores and the relationship between the variables.
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The targeted demographic for this research study is East Malaysians aged 19 to 65 years old
who have used or are using at least two social media platforms.
3.1.1 Primary Data
Primary data is the source of the data that is used in this research study. Primary data
is an original data source that is collected firsthand by the researcher (Salkind, 2010). The
origins of primary data are usually chosen and tailored specifically to meet the demands or
requirements of a particular research study (Formplus, 2020). The primary data for this
research study is collected digitally through an online questionnaire survey. The researcher
used a survey form tool to collect the primary data and analyses it using SPSS for the data
analysis phase. Past research has shown that primary data can prove to be more reliable than
secondary data. One of the advantages of primary data is that researchers are collecting
relevant information and data that is specific to the purposes of the research study. This is
helpful because the questions that are designed by the researchers for their particular target
population are tailored towards the research and can extract and gather the necessary data that
will assist in the analysis of the data collection and the research study. In other words,
researchers themselves collect the data either by using surveys, interviews and direct
observations.
As an example, in the field of workplace health research, direct observations may
involve a researcher watching people at work. The researcher could count and code the
number of times she sees practices or behaviours relevant to her interest; e.g. instances of
improper lifting posture or the number of hostile or disrespectful interactions workers engage
in with clients and customers over some time. To take another example, researchers intend to
study workers’ experiences in return to work after a work-related injury. Part of the research
may involve interviewing workers by telephone about how long they were off work and
about their experiences with the return-to-work process. The workers’ answers which are
49
considered as primary data in this scenario will provide the researchers with specific
information about the return-to-work process which includes, learning about the frequency of
work accommodation offers, and the reasons some workers refused such requests (Institute
for Work & Health, 2015).
Primary data is reliable because it is usually objective and collected directly from an
original source while also giving up to date information about a research topic compared to
secondary data where data is collected from past researches and data collection. Researchers
have to go through irrelevant data before finding the correct data to be used for the relevant
research study. Although secondary costs less or none at all and does not take a lot of time, at
times, it may be hard to find the right data that may suit the purposes of the research data.
The researcher also has full control over primary data as the information is collected through
primary research. The researcher has the full power and authority to decide the design,
method and the techniques to analyze the data to be used for the specific research study that
is being conducted. Primary data is particular to the needs of the researcher at the moment of
data collection. The researcher can control the kind of data that is being collected.
On top of that, primary data is more accurate compared to secondary data and the data
is not subjected to personal bias, and as such, the authenticity can be trusted. The researcher
also owns the information that is collected through the research conducted. As the researchers
themselves collect the original data, they can be made available publicly, patent it or sell the
data. Primary data is also more reliable as the information is usually up to date because it
collects data in real-time and does not collect data from old sources.
However, there are a couple of disadvantages of using primary data. Gathering
primary data is time-consuming and takes quite a lot of effort to collect the data. Still, the
pros outweigh the cons and having primary data is more suitable and reliable in ensuring
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accurate data to be used for a research study (Formplus, 2020). For this research study,
primary data is essential, reliable and more suitable to be used in this study through the
primary data that is collected through the chosen method of data collection.
3.1.2 Instrumentation
The quantitative study is performed using a questionnaire that is distributed to the
target group of respondents. The questionnaire is distributed via a Google Form which is a
web-based form creation application software. The estimated time taken to complete the
questionnaire is between 10 to 20 minutes, with the questionnaire being split into four
sections. Respondents were required to answer all sections of the questionnaire. All the
questions were asked in English and are in multiple-choice form, which allowed the
researcher to evaluate and analyze the data easily. Most of the questions asked in Section B to
Section D were asked using the Likert scale with five options to choose from (where 1
indicates ‘Most likely’ and 5 indicates ‘Most unlikely’). The Likert scale is the most
commonly used type of rating scales that are used because that is used to measure attitudes
directly (McLeod, 2019). The questionnaire was vetted through multiple times to ensure the
language and the questions used were appropriate and suitable for this study. After the vetting
process is complete, the questionnaire was then launched to the general public. In total, there
are 27 questions in the questionnaire survey.
At the beginning of the survey, respondents are presented with an informed consent
form with details of the study and prompted respondents to either agree or disagree with the
disclaimer. These questions are acting as permission to allow the researcher to gather data
from the respondents for.0 this research study. Then the survey moves on to the first section.
There are five questions in the first section which covers the demographics of the
respondents, which includes the gender, age, educational background, occupation status and
location of the respondent. In the second section of the questionnaire, there are ten questions
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which have been adapted from the social networking sites usage & needs scale (SNSUN).
The questions which are being asked include whether the respondent is using social media,
the respondent’s preferred device to access social media, the number of social media that is
actively used by the respondent and listing the platforms they used.
On top of that, respondents are asked how often they check their social media and the
time spent on social media on weekdays and weekends as well as the times they are active on
social media. Respondents are also asked the frequency of using specific social media in a
single day. For questions in this section, respondents are given a list of options which range
from time frames, frequency and a list of social media platforms for the respondents to select.
The next two questions in the third section look at the engagement towards social
media advertisements. This section is split into two parts. The first part is a Likert scale
where respondents are shown a series of five statements, and respondents have to select on
the scale, which is the most relevant answer to them. The statements that were asked include
whether respondents have watched, engaged and interacted with video advertisements on
social media. The next part of this section is a checkbox question which asks respondents to
select social media platforms where they have watched at least one video advertisement on
that particular platform in the last month.
The last section consists of questions that ask about the effectiveness of ads on a
range of social media platforms and asks respondents eight questions on whether video
advertisements on different social media platforms can influence them to purchase the
product or service that is being advertised. Respondents are also asked which social media
platform is the most suitable for video advertisements to be played. The last part of this
section requires respondents to answer how likely they are to watch the different length of
52
video advertisements on different social media platforms and select the most appropriate
length of these video advertisements in their own opinion.
A total of 95 respondents participated in the survey. Of these respondents, 94
respondents fit the criteria of the study which were respondents aged 19 – 65 years old living
in East Malaysia (Sabah & Sarawak) and is using or has used two social media platforms.
Only one respondent was ineligible, and the data was not counted as the respondent indicated
their age as above 65 years old which is over the age limit that is being studied in this
research.
3.2 Data Collection Procedure
The survey was launched in mid-September 2020 and was given out to the public and
was shared via the researcher’s friends and family members. The questionnaire link was also
shared through social media and was answered by members of the public that fit the survey
criteria. The first phase of the pilot study was conducted, and the initial target number of
respondents was set at 30 respondents. However, the number of respondents quickly filled up
within an hour of launching the survey. The researcher then decided to allow the survey to be
open for up to 24 hours. When the survey form was closed, there were a total of 95
respondents that responded to the survey. This allowed the chance for the demographic of the
respondents to be as even as possible to get a more reliable and accurate data during the data
analysis phase of the study.
3.2.1 Population & Sampling Technique
The population was solely focused on East Malaysia as there was a need to collect
relevant data from East Malaysia. A population is a complete set of people with a specialized
set of characteristics (Banerjee & Chaudhury, 2010). There are two types of population in the
context of a research study which are target population and accessible population. Target
53
population, which is also a known theoretical population that has varying characteristics, is
referencing the entire group of individuals or objects researchers are interested in studying
and generalizing their conclusions. The accessible population, on the other hand, is the
population in which the researchers can apply their findings. This population is a subset of
the target population and is also known as the study population. It is from the accessible
population that researchers draw their samples (Explorable, n.d.). For this study, the research
is conducted from a target population. The target population for this study is East Malaysians
ages 19 to 65 years old and have used or are using at least two social media platforms. The
population and the sample size are set while also taking into account that there is a fair
representation across all the demographics of age, gender, occupation status, educational
background and location.
Sampling is the process of selecting units from a population of interest so that by
studying the sample that may somewhat generalize the results back to the population from
which they were chosen (Trochim, 2020). The sample size is a subset of the population
(Banerjee & Chaudhury, 2010). There are two types of sampling techniques which are
probability and non-probability sampling techniques. For this research study, non-probability
sampling was used. There are many types of non-probability sampling used in to set the
sample size. The sampling that was used for this particular study is convenience sampling.
Convenience sampling is one of the easiest methods of sampling because participants are
selected based on availability and willingness to take part. The results that are obtained are
useful but are prone to significant bias because those who volunteer to take part may be
different from those who choose not to (volunteer bias). The sample may not be
representative of other characteristics, such as age or sex. Note: volunteer bias is a risk of all
non-probability sampling methods (HealthKnowledge, n.d.). However, this is the easiest
method that is both quick in terms of gathering respondents and not time-consuming as well
54
as efficient as the survey can be spread far and wide without the need to look for specific
groups of people and to have a fixed number for each demographic.
The sample size is set at 30 respondents for the pilot study. However, as the survey
was closed at the end of the data collection, the number of respondents that fit in the survey
criteria was at 94 respondents. As the actual number of respondents is tripled from the target
number, there is a fairer representation of the demographics and have a minor relationship
with the main factors that are being observed in this research study.
3.2.2 Pilot Study
A pilot study can be defined as a small study to test research protocols, data collection
instruments, sample recruitment strategies, and other research techniques in preparation for a
more extensive study. In the stages of a research study, a pilot study is one of the crucial
stages in a research project. It is conducted to identify potential problem areas and
deficiencies in the research instruments and protocol before implementation during the full
study. Pilot studies also allow researchers to be familiar with the procedures in the protocol
and can help them decide between two competing study methods, such as using interviews
rather than a self-administered questionnaire (Hassan, Schattner, & Mazza, 2006). Pilot
studies are essential in research due to several reasons which include:
a) Help define the research question
b) Testing the proposed study design and process and alert any issues that may cause
problems and affect the research study
c) Helps to determine the feasibility of the study, so that resources and time are not
wasted (Enago Academy, 2020).

55
Provide preliminary data that you can use to improve your chances for funding and convince
stakeholders that you have the necessary skills and expertise to carry out the research
successfully.
For this particular research study, the purposes of the pilot study are to ensure that the
questionnaire given out to respondents is valid and reliable and that the respondents can
answer it within the estimated time frame. The pilot study was initially targeted to collect 30
respondents in the small-scale pilot study with the intention to increase the number of
respondents to about 100 respondents. However, due to the nature of the survey being spread
to multiple people at the same time, the actual number of respondents tripled within less than
24 hours, and the survey had to be closed prematurely as the target number was reached. The
data was then taken to be analyzed by the researcher. The pilot study is aimed at evaluating
and assessing the reliability of the questions before conducting the actual research by
increasing the number of respondents and to gather the final data for the data analysis stage.
As the number of respondents collected in the data collection phase for the pilot study
exceeded the initial set amount of 30 respondents, the researcher decided to continue the data
collection until it hit 95 respondents and closed the survey form after 24 hours of publishing
it. The data from 95 respondents is then converted and tabulated using SPSS, statistical
software to generate the results and to conduct the data analysis.
After the data was entered into SPSS, the reliability analysis was tabulated for Section
C, and Section D of the questionnaire and the Cronbach’s Alpha score is calculated for both
sections as shown in Table 2. Only these two sections have their reliability checked as the
first two sections (Section A – Demographics & Section B – SNSUN) are questions that have
been adapted and taken from previous research studies. The researcher has created questions
that are included in Section C (Engagement with social media advertisements) and Section D
56
(Effectiveness of social media video advertisements) for this research. Reliability in the
context of research refers to how consistently a method measure something. If the same result
can be consistently achieved by using the same techniques under the same circumstances, the
measurement is considered reliable (Middleton, 2019). In terms of statistics and data analysis,
the term used to measure the reliability of a data is called reliability analysis. Reliability
refers to the extent to which a scale produces consistent results if the measurements are
repeated several times. Reliability analysis is determined by obtaining the proportion of
systematic variation in a scale, which can be done by determining the association between the
scores obtained from different administrations of the scale. Thus, if the association in
reliability analysis is high, the scale yields consistent results and is therefore reliable
(Statistics Solutions, n.d.).
Table 2
Reliability Analysis Scores
Section Cronbach's Alpha
Engagement with social media advertisements .419
Effectiveness of social media video advertisements .842
Note. This table demonstrates the reliability analysis scores using Cronbach’s Alpha
generated for the two sections of the questionnaire that consists of questions created by the
researcher.
57
Based on the table above, the reliability of the engagement of social media (Section
C) is below the acceptable rate of 0.5. The justification behind these scores is that after the
data is analyzed, the responses to the questions in this section is justified. Looking deeper
into the specific questions asked in this section, the reliability score is justifiable based on the
responses given to those questions.
Responses to most questions in this section are leaning towards one answer as the
questions in this section is to verify and to confirm that respondents should have encountered
at least one video advertisement while on social media. There are two parts to these
questions. The first part is respondents are asked to select the best option that suits them on a
Likert scale from most often to least often based on the statements that are presented to them.
The second part is a checkbox question which prompts respondents to select which social
media platforms they have encountered social media video advertisements in the last month.
The social media platforms that were asked in this question include Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter and Snapchat. Most of the respondents gave their responses to
the focus platforms of this study (Facebook, Instagram and YouTube). The responses for
these platforms are that respondents have viewed video advertisements in the past one month.
On the contrary, the other social media platforms are platforms that more respondents have
not viewed video advertisements in the past one month. This is justifiable as social media
marketers hardly use Twitter due to its word limit on posts, WhatsApp does not have any
advertisement features except those shared by other people, and Snapchat is not as commonly
used in Malaysia at this point.

58
The other reasoning towards the low-reliability score could also be due to the
confusion on what is meant as video advertisements. There is a likelihood that respondents
could only be focusing on paid social media advertisements that are labelled as ‘Ad’ or
‘Sponsored’ on these platforms and not thinking about free advertising (ads that are posted on
social media without being boosted or paid for in any shape or form).
3.3 Summary
To wrap up this chapter, this chapter covers the research methodology on how the
research is conducted and how the research data is collected using the quantitative method.
This chapter is about how the research is conducted in terms of what type of data is collected,
and the process of how the data is collected and the method of collecting the research data.
This process is crucial in planning and organising the data needed for the analysis of data
which will be covered in the next chapter. The next chapter will display the data analysis
from the data collected from the survey. The next chapter will also explain the results and
findings from the data that was collected in this research study.
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Chapter 4: Research Findings
4.0 Introduction
This chapter will cover the analysis of the data that was collected from the research
study conducted in the previous chapter using descriptive and inferential analysis. This
chapter will look into the overall findings and the data that was collected from the data
collection phase. The data collected are analysed and will be presented based on the
respondents from the survey conducted.
4.1 Data Analysis
Two types of data analysis are presented which are descriptive analysis and inferential
analysis. Descriptive statistics is defined as the describing, showing or summarising the
collected data in a meaningful way that can connect and display patterns that might emerge
from the presented data. Descriptive statistics, however, do not allow researchers to make
conclusions beyond the data that is analysed or reach conclusions regarding any hypotheses
that have been made. They are simply a way to describe the presented data.
Descriptive statistics are essential in research as it makes it easier for researchers to
present their raw data in a way that would be easier to visualise compared to showing the raw
data on its own especially when there are large amounts of data involved. Descriptive
statistics, therefore, enables researchers to present the data in a more meaningful way, which
allows a more straightforward interpretation of the data. For example, if researchers had the
results of 100 pieces of students' coursework, they may be interested in the overall
performance of those students. The distribution or spread of the marks are the vital data that
researchers would want to study through descriptive statistics and analysis (Laerd Statistics,
n.d.).
60
Inferential statistics are produced through complex mathematical calculations that
allow researchers to infer trends about a larger population based on the data collected through
the selected sample group. Inferential statistics are used to study relationships between the
different variables within a sample and make generalizations or predictions about how those
variables will relate to a larger population.
It is usually impossible to examine each member of the population individually.
Researchers choose a representative subset of the population, called a statistical sample, and
from this analysis, they are able to say something about the population from which the
sample came.
Several techniques are used by researchers to study and examine the relationships
between the variables being studied and use to create inferential statistics which includes
linear regression analyses, logistic regression analyses, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA),
correlation analyses, structural equation modelling (SEM), and survival analysis. When
conducting research using inferential statistics, researchers conduct a test of significance to
determine whether they can generalize their results to a larger population. Common tests of
significance include the chi-square and t-test. These tell scientists the probability that the
results of their analysis of the sample are representative of the population as a whole.
Although descriptive statistics help researchers to learn things such as the spread and
centre of the data, nothing in descriptive statistics can be used to make any generalizations. In
descriptive statistics, measurements such as the mean and standard deviation are stated as
exact numbers.
61
Even though inferential statistics uses some similar calculations such as the mean and
standard deviation, the focus is different for inferential statistics. Inferential statistics start
with a sample and then generalizes to a population. This information about a population is not
stated as a number (Taylor, 2020).
4.1.1 Data Analysis – Descriptive Analysis
In this section, the descriptive statistics of the survey conducted will be populated and
further explained. As mentioned in the previous chapter, out of the 95 respondents that
participated in the survey, only 94 responses are valid. The responses are tabulated and
analysed using SPSS.
The descriptive analysis of the data collected is split into four parts, with each part
covering each section of the survey. The first part of the descriptive analysis shows the
demographic breakdown of all the 94 respondents that participated in the study on Section A
(Demographic Background).
Table 3
Frequency of Gender
Gender Frequency Percentage (%)
Male 25 26.6
Female 69 73.4
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Table 4
Frequency of Age
Age Frequency Percentage (%)
19 - 30 years old 50 53.2
31 - 40 years old 17 18.1
41 - 50 years old 7 7.4
51 - 60 years old 15 16.0
60 - 65 years old 5 5.3
Table 3 shows the frequency of gender of the research respondents. From the initial
analysis, more female respondents participated in the survey compared to male respondents.
Table 4 shows the frequency of the different age groups of the respondents that participated
in the survey. From the table above, more than 50% of the respondents fall in the under 30
age group, which consists of people in Generation Z and millennials (Generation Y). On the
other end of the spectrum, there was a total of 27 respondents (28.7%) of respondents that fall
in the Generation X and Baby Boomers category.

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Table 5
Frequency of Highest Education Background
Level Of Education Frequency Percentage (%)
SPM or IGCSE or O-Level 13 13.8
A- Level or Matriculation or STPM 5 5.3
Foundation 5 5.3
Diploma 14 14.9
Bachelor's Degree 43 45.7
Master's Degree 13 13.8
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 1 1.1

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Table 6
Frequency of Occupation Status
Occupation Status Frequency Percentage (%)
Employed/Working 43 45.7
Housewife/Homemaker 4 4.3
Retired 4 4.3
Self Employed 12 12.8
Student 29 30.9
Unemployed 2 2.1
Table 7
Frequency of State of Residence
State Frequency Percentage (%)
Sabah 43 45.7
Sarawak 51 54.3
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Based on the data analysis for the highest education background (Table 5), about
45.7% of respondents have completed their Bachelors’ degree which meant that a portion of
these respondents are currently working which tallies with the data in Table 6 where 58.5%
of respondents are employed either working for an organisation or company or self-employed
or running their own businesses. There are 37 respondents (39.3%) that have completed their
education at a Diploma level or below. This also aligns with the data that 30.9% or 29
respondents are currently students. Looking into the state of residence of the respondents
(Table 7), there is an almost equal amount of respondents from both states of Sabah and
Sarawak which provides a similar insight to the data collected through the survey.
The next part of the analysis is the analysis of the data of the SNSUN scale. As part of
the requirements of the survey, respondents must have used social media to be eligible to be
included in the study. The data also shows that 95.7% (90) of the respondents use social
media regularly, and the remainder 4.3% (4) of respondents use social media occasionally.
The data in Table 8 shows that 84 respondents (89.4%) preferred to use mobile devices such
as smartphones to access social media while 7 respondents (7.4%) preffered to use laptop.
This can be proven further based on data from We Are Social & Hootsuite (2020) (Figure 11)
were looking into the device ownership of users of Malaysians, 97% of Internet users own a
smartphone followed by 32% users owning a laptop or desktop computer, and 32% own a
tablet device. This backs up the data collected that smartphones (mobile devices) are the
most preferred device to access social media.

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Figure 11
Statistics on Device Ownership
Table 8
Frequency on the Preferred Device to Access Social Media
Device Frequency Percentage (%)
Desktop Computer 2 2.1
Laptop 7 7.4
Mobile Device (Eg. Smartphone) 84 89.4
Tablet 1 1.1
Note. The survey item read as follows “What is your preferred device for accessing social
media?”
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Table 9 shows the number of social media platforms that are used by the respondents.
76 respondents actively use three or more social media platforms that amount to more than
80% of respondents. This shows that the respondents are aware of several social media
platforms that are readily available to be used.
Table 9
Frequency on the Number Social Media Platforms Actively Used
Number of Social Media Platforms Actively Used Frequency Percentage (%)
1 2 2.1
2 16 17.0
3 28 29.8
4 27 28.7
5 10 10.6
More than 5 11 11.7
Note. The survey item read as follows “How many social media platforms do you actively
use?”
However, there is a trend when it comes to social media platforms that are actively
used by respondents. Out of the 94 respondents, WhatsApp is the most popular choice, with
93.6% of respondents use WhatsApp regularly followed by Facebook, with 74.5% of
respondents. At the bottom of the chart is Snapchat with seven respondents (7.4%) that use it
regularly (Table 10). We Are Social & Hootsuite (2020) reports that YouTube, WhatsApp,
Facebook and Instagram are the top platforms (in descending order) used by Malaysian
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Internet users with more than 70% of users using these platforms. Twitter and Snapchat are
not as popular platforms used by users with Twitter being used less than 50% of Internet
users and Snapchat used by less than 25% of Internet users. From the data collected from the
survey, the other social media that are used included Discord, Telegram, Line, WeChat,
Reddit and TikTok which are not the more popular platforms used when comparing to data
from We Are Social & Hootsuite’s study (Figure 12).
Table 10
Freqency on Social Media Platforms That Are Actively Used
Social Media Platforms That Are Actively Used
Social Media Frequency Percentage (%) of respondents
Facebook 70 74.5
Instagram 63 67.0
YouTube 62 66.0
Twitter 19 20.2
Snapchat 7 7.4
WhatsApp 88 93.6
Other 9 9.6
Note. The survey item read as follows “Which social media platforms do you actively use?”
The other social media that were listed by the respondents included Discord, Telegram, Line,
WeChat, Reddit and TikTok.

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Figure 12
Statistics on the Most-Used Social Media Platforms among Malaysians
The analysis of the number of times respondents check social media daily shows that
there is high traffic of social media usage. Table 11 shows that more than 63% of the
respondents check their social media more than seven times a day, with 16% of them
checking them on every notification beep.

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Table 11
Frequency of Checking Social Media Daily
Frequency of checking social media Frequency Percentage (%)
On every notification beep 15 16.0
1-2 times per day 3 3.2
9 + times per day 34 36.2
Note. The survey item read as follows “How often do you check your social media?”
Table 12, on the other hand, shows a trend that there is more usage of social media on
the weekends compared to weekdays. 22.3% or 21 respondents use social media for more
than 7 hours a day on weekends compared to just 15 respondents (equivalent to 16%) on
weekdays. However, there is no big difference among the days when social media is used for
more than 5 hours a data. On the weekdays, 31 respondents use social media for more than 5
hours, while 33 use more than 5 hours on weekends. This shows that there is a possible
similar group of people that use more than 5 hours daily. However, most of the respondents
use social media for around 3-4 hours on both weekdays and weekends. This is an interesting
piece of data as there is some consistency in the number of hours spent daily.
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Table 12
Frequency on the Time Spent on Social Media
Weekdays Weekends
Time Spent
Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%)
Less than 15 1 1.1 1 1.1
minutes
0.5–1 hour 9 9.6 7 7.4
1–2 hours 22 23.4 19 20.2
3–4 hours 31 33.0 34 36.2
5–6 hours 16 17.0 12 12.8
7–8 hours 5 5.3 10 10.6
9 hours and more 10 10.6 11 11.7
Note. The survey item read as follows “How much time do you spend on social media in a
day?”
Table 13 shows interesting pieces of data in regards to when the respondents access
social media. There is no significant difference to when social media is used actively and
accessed by the respondents. Between the weekdays and weekends, there are minor
differences, and there is no significant increase in usage at certain times. However, social
media is actively used by respondents at night where between 45% to 49% of respondents use
social media after 7.00 pm which is usually after dinner time and after working hours which
are typically the free hours of the respondents.

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Table 13
Frequncy on the Time of Day Most Active on Social Media
Weekdays Weekends
Time Spent Percentage Percentage

Frequency Frequency
(%) (%)
Midnight/Early Morning 2 2.1 5 5.3
(12:00AM-6:00AM)
Morning (6:00AM-12:00PM) 19 20.2 18 19.1
Afternoon (12:00PM- 18 19.1 19 20.2
4:00PM)
Evening (4:00PM-7:00PM) 9 9.6 9 9.6
Night (7:00PM-12:00AM) 46 48.9 43 45.7
Note. The survey item read as follow “What time of day are you most active on social
media?”
The last question of Section B asked respondents the social media platforms that are
used actively by them. Table 14 shows that Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are used
multiple times in a day by more than half of the respondents with almost all the respondents
use WhatsApp numerous times in a day. Snapchat and Twitter are used less frequently where
respondents who have used those platforms use it occasionally.

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Table 14
Frequency of Social Media Platforms Used
Frequency Facebook Instagram YouTube Snapchat Twitter WhatsApp
More than once a day 50 51 50 4 16 90
Once a day 11 13 16 1 90 1
Occasionally 21 17 23 18 22 3
Rarely 9 9 4 16 16 -
Never 1 - 1 22 15 -
N/A (Not Applicable) 2 4 - 33 23 -
Note. The survey item read as follows “How much time do you spend on social media in a
day?”
Moving on to Section C (Measuring Engagement with Video Advertisements on
Social Media), this section focuses on two key areas which are the engagement of
respondents to social media video advertisements and the platforms used to engage with these
advertisements. For the first part of the question, several statements are shown to the
respondents, and they responded to the statements on a Likert scale from 1 (Not Often) to 5
(Very Often). Table 15 shows the mean score of each statement. The data shows that the
respondents have encountered video advertisements on social media very often and also click
away from those video advertisements. Respondents also hardly engage with these
advertisements (which includes liking, sharing or clicking on links on the video ads) as well
as purchasing the advertised products or services. However, the data also showed that
respondents are often exposed or introduced to new brands and products through these
adverts.
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Table 15
Mean of Engagement with Social Media Video Advertisements
Statements Mean
I have encountered video advertisements on social media that are at

4.18
least 5 seconds long
I click away from a video advertisement on social media. (Either to

4.21
skip or exit the video before it ends)
I have engaged with the video advertisement. (Liking, sharing,

1.80
clicking on links)
I have purchased a product or engaged with the content on the video

1.55
advertisement.
I am introduced to new brands and products through video

2.96
advertisements
The next question asked respondents to identify with social media platforms they have
encountered video advertisements within the last one month of taking the survey. Table 16
shows the number of respondents that have encountered video advertisements within the last
month. Based on the data collected, more than 50% of respondents encountered video
advertisements on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. This is prominent and justifies the
primary purpose of this research study as these platforms have advertising features which
allow businesses to pay for advertisements to appear on these platforms. Hence, these
platforms will have a higher viewership of ads compared to other platforms.

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Table 16
Frequency of Video Advertisements Encountered on Social Media Platforms
Social Media Frequency Percentage (%) of respondents
Facebook 65 69.1
Instagram 50 53.2
YouTube 68 72.3
Twitter 5 5.3
Snapchat 2 2.1
WhatsApp 8 8.5
Note. The survey item read as follows “Which of the social media platforms below have you
encountered at least one (1) video advertisement in the last one (1) month?
The last section will look into the effectiveness of video advertisements on social
media. Several questions asked about the effectiveness of these advertisements; there were
several questions where the data stood out. When respondents are asked which platform that
they are more willing to purchase products or services that are promoted through video
advertisements, more than 30% of respondents would somewhat or very likely buy products
advertised to them on Instagram via video advertisements, Instagram came up on top as
compared to other social media platforms that were listed, about 40-50% of respondents were
somewhat unlikely or very unlikely would purchase products advertised to them on these
platforms (which includes Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Twitter). This is
also interesting as the next question that followed asked about which platform will be more
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persuasive to the users or the respondents to purchase the products advertised to them using
video advertisements and Instagram was the most popular choice with 34% of respondents
selecting Instagram followed by Facebook at 31.9%. This is an interesting piece of data,
among the focused platforms, YouTube was the top platform choice of respondents that are
willing or interested to watch video advertisements beyond 15 seconds and is the platform
where respondents encounter the most video advertisements compared to Facebook and
Instagram.
From the responses that were collected, respondents are more likely to watch
advertisements that are below 15 seconds. Respondents are somewhat unlikely or indifferent
to watching advertisements on the target social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube) compared to ads that are more than 15 seconds and where respondents are not as
likely to watch the entire duration of the video advertisement. The three target platforms
receive a somewhat similar score for both time lengths, which is also similar to the average
mean score of the three platforms which can be seen in Table 17.
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Table 17
Likeliness to Watch the Entire Duration of the Video Advertisement
Less than 15 seconds More than 15 seconds

Score
Facebook Instagram YouTube Facebook Instagram YouTube
Mean 2.78 2.62 2.89 2.34 1.98 2.46
Average Mean 2.76 2.26
Note. The survey item read as follows “For each social media platform listed below, how
likely are you to stay and watch the entire duration of the advertisement?”
The last two questions in the questionnaire asked respondents how long they are
willing to watch a video advertisement and how long they think a video advertisement be to
attract their attention. For the target social media platforms, more than 50% of respondents
are willing to watch video advertisements that are less than 10 seconds long. When asked
about how long a video advertisement is to attract their attention, the amount went up to more
than 60% for all the three target platforms.

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4.1.2 Data Analysis – Inferential Analysis
For this section, the data will also be analysed to identify if there is any significant
relationship between any of the variables that were laid out in the hypothesis and the
framework. The focus of this section is Section C and D of the survey as well as the variables
laid out in the conceptual framework. To analyse the inferential data, the multivariate general
linear model was used on SPSS to generate the analysis for the variables that are being
studied. To recap, the variables that are being studied are the relationship between the
engagement and effectiveness of social media video advertisements and the target social
media platforms (Facebook, Instagram & YouTube) and the demographic profile of the
respondents (gender, age & educational background). For each variable, the results are
analysed using the general linear model to produce the mean (M) and standard deviation
(S.D.) for each answer to the variables and tests of between-subjects’ effects to produce the
significance score for each variable which can be referred to in Table 18. The raw data for the
inferential data is attached in Appendix C.

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Table 18
Social Media Video Advertisements Engagement & Effectiveness
Engagement Effectiveness
Variable
M S.D. Sig. M S.D. Sig.
Gender Male 26.32 2.27 58.08 14.38

0.662 0.733
Female 26.70 4.06 59.39 17.05
19 - 30 years old 27.18 3.32 59.72 14.28
31 - 40 years old 27.24 3.61 56.00 15.45
Age 41 - 50 years old 24.86 3.53 0.092 55.14 15.03 0.684
51 - 60 years old 25.80 4.60 63.27 21.63
61 - 65 years old 23.40 2.07 55.40 24.66
SPM or IGCSE or O-Level 25.08 4.41 60.69 20.99
A- Level or Matriculation or 28.00 5.30 62.20 11.84
STPM
Educational Foundation 27.00 2.55 61.80 13.10

0.389 0.984
Background Diploma 26.50 2.56 59.07 17.05
Bachelor's Degree 26.37 3.66 57.77 16.88
Master's Degree 27.92 3.43 60.00 13.50
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 31.00 - 50.00 -
Social Facebook 26.74 3.78 0.508 58.70 16.31 0.730
Media Instagram 27.33 3.64 0.005 61.81 17.18 0.018
Platforms YouTube 27.26 3.26 0.014 58.90 14.11 0.909
Note. The mean (M) and Standard Deviation (S.D.) is generated using multivariate general
linear model on SPSS.

80
For the gender of respondents, the data for the engagements for males are (M=26.32)
and for females (M=26.70). For the effectiveness, the data that is extracted for males are
(M=26.70) and females (M=59.39). The engagement has a significant score of (Sig.=0.662)
as for the effectiveness it has a significant score of (Sig.=of 0.733). As such, there is no
significance between the engagement or effectiveness of social media video advertisements
with the gender of respondents. For a variable to be considered to be significant with the
engagement and effectiveness, the significance score has to be 0.05 and below.
For the age range of respondents, for the engagement, the data that was extracted for
the different age groups are; 19 to 30 years (M=27.18), 31 to 40 years (M=27.24), 41 to 50
years (M=24.86), 51 to 60 years (M=25.80) and 61 to 65 years (M=23.40). As for the
effectiveness, 19 to 30 years (M=59.72), 31 to 40 years (M=56.00), 41 to 50 years
(M=55.14), 51 to 60 years (M=63.27) and 61 to 65 years (M=55.40). For the Sig., the
engagement has a significant score of (Sig.= 0.092) as for the effectiveness it has a significant
score of (Sig.= 0.684). As such, there is no significance between the engagement or
effectiveness of social media video advertisements with the age range of respondents.
For the educational background, the engagement for SPM or IGCSE or O-Level
respondents are (M=25.08), A- Level or Matriculation or STPM (M=28.00), Foundation
(M=27.00), Diploma (M=26.50), Bachelor's Degree (M=26.37), Master's Degree (M=27.92),
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) has (M=31.00). For the effectiveness, the data for SPM or
IGCSE or O-Level respondents are (M=60.69), A- Level or Matriculation or STPM
(M=62.20), Foundation (M=61.80), Diploma (M=59.07), Bachelor's Degree (M=57.77),
Master's Degree (M=60.00), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (M=50.00); however there is no
S.D. available for this category. For the Sig., the engagement has a significant score of
(Sig.=0.389) as for the effectiveness it has a significant score of (Sig.=0.984). As such, there
81
is no significance between the engagement or effectiveness of social media video
advertisements with the educational background of respondents.
In terms of the social media platforms, the data is collected using the responses on the
social media platforms that are used by the respondents. For the engagement scores for
Facebook, it has a score of (M=26.74, S.D=3.78) and has a significant score of (Sig.=0.508).
As for the effectiveness, it has a score of (M=58.70, S.D.=16.31) and a significant score of
(Sig.=0.730). There is no significance between the engagement or effectiveness of social
media video advertisements with Facebook. For Instagram, it has a score of (M=27.33,
S.D.=3.64) and a significant score of (Sig.=0.005) for the engagement. As for the
effectiveness, it has a score of (M=61.81, S.D.=17.18) and a significant score of (Sig.=0.018).
There is, however, a significant relationship between the engagement or effectiveness of
social media video advertisements and Instagram. As for YouTube, the engagement has a
score of (M=27.26, S.D.=3.26) and a significant score of (Sig.=0.014). In the effectiveness, it
has a score of (M=58.90, S.D.=14.11) and a significant score of (Sig.=0.909). There is a
significant relationship between the engagement and effectiveness of social media video
advertisements with YouTube. There is also a significant relationship between the
engagement with social media video advertisements and YouTube.
Based on the results of the data collection, the information gathered can answer and
justify the hypothesis laid out in Chapter 1. For H1, there is indeed a difference in social
media engagement experiences across the different social media platforms being studied.
From the data gathered, Facebook is the most commonly used social media platform
compared to the other platforms. Facebook is also the most actively used platform among the
respondents in this study. This shows that hypothesis 1 is accepted and that social media
engagement experiences does indeed differ across the different social media platforms that
are being evaluated in this research study.

82
As for H2, there is indeed a difference in the engagement of social media video
advertisements across the different social media platforms that were studied. Based on the
findings of the data collected, Instagram is the most popular platform and is the most
engaging platform when it comes to video advertisements; this is because of how the ad is
presented as well as the advertisements are easily skippable compared to other platforms
where it is needed to view the add before viewing the intended content. YouTube then
follows this because of its more flexible video advertisement plan where most adverts are
short and sweet and are skippable. This is also due to the different functions and purposes of
each social media platform being studied. For Facebook, its platform is used for
communication with several different functions that can be used on the platforms. However,
it is more common to encounter video advertisements on Facebook; respondents have found
it as a turn off due to the excessive number of video advertisements that are being shown to
them. As for Instagram, its primary purpose is a photo and video sharing platform, although
the number of video advertisements appearing on the platform has almost the same frequency
or lesser, advertisements are much shorter due to its limit of 15 seconds (Instagram stories)
and 60 seconds (Instagram posts). Due to the short video adverts, it makes it more bearable. It
is skippable at any point of viewing the advert and users could scroll away from the
advertisement if the ad does not interest them compared to Facebook and YouTube where the
ad must be viewed for a short period before users are allowed to skip the ad. As for YouTube,
it serves the primary purpose of a video sharing platform. YouTube is known to be one of the
first few platforms that introduce video advertising on social media platforms before other
platforms implement them. YouTube’s advertising algorithm varies on the videos that being
viewed, the frequency of users viewing video advertising depends on the video they watch.
Also, it is more user friendly and easier for users to skip ads as it is set at a specific time
limit, and users can skip after a short period (typically 5-30 seconds). From the data collected,
83
it is clear that Instagram and YouTube are the two more favourable platforms for video
advertising to be placed on social media. On top of that, users prefer advertisements that are
10 seconds or less as the human attention span is only 8 seconds, that is all it takes to attract
the users' attention to continue watching the advertisement or skip it. The results conclude
that hypothesis 2 is accepted and that there is a difference in the social media advertisement
engagements across the different social media platforms.
Last but not least, for H3, there is no significant difference between the demographic
profiles of the targeted audience, together with the engagement and the effectiveness of social
media advertisements. This shows that there is no significant relationship between the
demographic of the users with the engagement with social media video advertisements. This
shows that an individual’s demographic does not have a significant impact on the
effectiveness of video advertisements on social media. From the analysis of the data, it can be
concluded that the effectiveness of video advertisements that are on social media platforms
depends on the platform that is being used. H3 is rejected and that there is no significant
difference between the engagement on social media advertisements to the demographic
profile of the targeted audience.
4.2 Summary
This chapter covers the basics of data analysis and how it is conducted. The chapter
also covers the data analysis from the data that was collected through the survey conducted in
the previous chapter. The data collected was analysed in two ways, using descriptive analysis
and inferential analysis. The analysed results allows the researcher to provide findings using
these data that were collected. The next chapter will summarise the findings from the
research study and will provide a resolution and summary of the entire research.
84
Chapter 5: Recommendations & Conclusion
5.0 Introduction
This chapter covers the overall summary of the entire research study. This chapter
will also look into the limitations faced during the study as well as providing
recommendations to improve the research study in future studies. This chapter will sum up
the findings of the study and provides a definite conclusion for the research topic.
5.1 Limitations
Several limitations can be identified in this research study. Limitations occur all the
time, and it helps researchers to understand the limitation and suggest better implementations
for future researches. For this research study, the first limitation is the short time limit. For
this particular research study, there was not a lot of time given to complete the entire study
from start to completion. There were only three months to complete the study from the
research proposal to the data analysis and summarizing the findings of the studies. Due to the
nature of this research study, the time limit given was not negotiable, and the researcher had a
fixed period to execute the study.
The second limitation is the execution and implementation of the data collection
phase. The questionnaire that was published in the pilot study phase was not up to the perfect
standard as there were issues with the reliability score for a portion of the survey. This was
also partially affected by the factor of time constraint. The researcher did not have a lot of
time to scrutinize the questionnaire multiple times and was given a short period to release the
questionnaire survey. As a result, more time was taken to analyze the data and time was taken
to identify and justify the results and data from the data collection phase. This was another
factor that contributed to this limitation is the confusion of the subject matter. As the subject
matter was about video advertisements on social media, there is a possibility that the
85
respondents were only focusing on sponsored or paid advertisements and not including free
ads which may have contributed to the low-reliability score.
The third limitation faced by the researcher is the structuring of the questions that
were being asked in the questionnaire survey. This is the first time the researcher is producing
a research questionnaire. This proves to be a challenge as the researcher had to spend time to
research past questions to integrate with the questionnaire survey as well as combining
original questions created by the researcher. This was also another factor in the low-reliability
score for a portion of the survey. After the data was collected, the questions were then
reviewed, and the researcher noticed that some questions were similar to each other, and
some were confusing.
The final limitation faced by the researcher is the broad topic of the research study. As
the researcher is studying the effectiveness and engagement on social media platforms and is
studying three different platforms, this gave a challenge as the data needs to be looked at on
three different platforms and comparison is needed to be made among the platforms that are
being studied.
5.2 Recommendations
Several recommendations can be made to improve future researches further and
upgrade how this research study is conducted. The first recommendation is that in the future
there can be researches that can dive deeper in the topics of social media such as studying the
individual social media platforms in more detail compared to this research where the research
on video advertisements is done more generally. Other research topics that can be looked into
deeper is the comparison on the effectiveness of other types on social media advertisements
within a singular platform.

86
The second recommendation for researches is to ensure that proper definitions are laid
out in the research study as well as during the data collection phase. In the context of this
research study, the researcher should provide the relevant definitions in the survey form to
define the terms used in the research study to ensure that the respondents or the target
research group can understand the terms used in the context of the study they are
participating in.
The next recommendation that can be made to improve the research study is to ensure
that when a survey is used in the data collection phase, the questions are checked numerous
times to ensure the quality of the questions can assist the researcher in collecting the
necessary data needed for the research study. Another recommendation is that researchers
should make use of previous questionnaires that have been published and to adapt past
research questionnaires into their research, especially if researchers are new to the research
study concept.
The last recommendation is for the researches to have a proper progress chart or
schedule to plan the duration of the research study. Due to the short time limit of conducting
the entire research, researchers should have a proper timeline plan to ensure that the research
study is executed on time as well as producing a high-quality research study.

87
5.3 Conclusion
In conclusion, this research study was successful as the researcher was able to identify
that there is a significant relationship between the engagement on social media
advertisements with Instagram and YouTube. Through this research study, the researcher can
determine there is some effectiveness of video advertisements on these platforms to its target
research group. In addition to this, the research data has shown that social media users prefer
shorter and meaningful advertisements as users generally are overwhelmed by the number of
ads shown to them on social media which is also contributed by the short attention span of
humans.
88
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Engagement & Effectiveness of Video Advertisements On Different Social Media Platforms

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Engagement & Effectiveness of Video Advertisements on Different Social Media

Brandon Lee Jia Wei

JRN 491: Guided Independent Research

Ms. Norhayati Basri

18th November 2020

understand that if I am suspected of plagiarism or another form of cheating, my work will be

Board that my enrolment in the programme be discontinued.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to my lecturer, Ms Norhayati Basri, for her

this research study.

development and the contribution towards this research paper.

Declaration by Student ............................................................................................................... 2

Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 4

List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 6

List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. 7

List of Acronyms, Abbreviations & Terms ............................................................................... 8

Chapter 1 – Introduction .......................................................................................................... 10

1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 10

1.1 Background of Study ..................................................................................................... 10

1.1.1 Problem Statement .................................................................................................. 18

1.1.2 Objectives of Study ................................................................................................. 19

1.1.3 Research Questions ................................................................................................. 20

1.2 Conceptual Framework .................................................................................................. 21

1.3 Definition of Terms........................................................................................................ 22

1.4 Significance of the Study ............................................................................................... 28

1.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 29

Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................................... 30

2.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 30

2.1 Definitions and Concepts ............................................................................................... 30

2.2 Theories/Models ............................................................................................................ 35

2.3 Past Studies (Domestic & Foreign)................................................................................ 40

2.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 44

Chapter 3: Research Methodology........................................................................................... 45

3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 45

3.1 Research Design............................................................................................................. 45

3.1.1 Primary Data ........................................................................................................... 48

3.1.2 Instrumentation ....................................................................................................... 50

3.2 Data Collection Procedure ............................................................................................. 52

3.2.1 Population & Sampling Technique ......................................................................... 52

3.2.2 Pilot Study............................................................................................................... 54

3.3 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 58

Chapter 4: Research Findings .................................................................................................. 59

4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 59

4.1 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 59

4.1.1 Data Analysis – Descriptive Analysis..................................................................... 61

4.1.2 Data Analysis – Inferential Analysis ...................................................................... 78

4.2 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 83

Chapter 5: Recommendations & Conclusion........................................................................... 84

5.0 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 84

5.1 Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 84

5.2 Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 85

5.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 87

Appendix A: Malaysia Census Data 2010 ........................................................................... 97

Appendix B: Questionnaire Survey ..................................................................................... 98

Appendix C: Research Study Data (Inferential Analysis) ................................................... 99

List of Acronyms, Abbreviations & Terms

ANOVA Analysis of Variance

COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease 2019

CMCO Conditional Movement Control Order

MANOVA Multivariate Analysis of Variance

MCO Movement Control Order

S.D. Standard Deviation