In the realm of digital advertising, the recruitment and use of social media influencers is relatively a novel approach. Social media influencers change how buyers feel about a company or product by sharing photographs, videos and other content on their networks. The investigation’s goal is to look into the relationship between the credibility and resemblance of Instagram influencers and their followers’ intent to purchase on the social media platform. With the help of Google Forms, we can collect 384 usable responses, which we have calculated via the sample size Cochran’s formula. A method of sampling referred to as purposive sampling was utilised in the research study. The sample population for this study consists of residents of Delhi and the adjacent National Capital Region (NCR) in Haryana. This is done to ensure that the results are representative of the situation in India as a whole. The nation’s capital is Delhi. In addition to Delhi, this coverage includes the cities of Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonipat and Jhajjar, which are located on the outskirts of Delhi. Jamovi 2.2.5 version is used to analyse the data. To have a better grasp of the variations, the features of the respondents’ demographic makeup, which includes gender, age and number of followers, are examined. The source credibility theory is used in the study. The Pearson Correlation analysis is used to indicate that all predictor variables possess a favourable association with the consumer’s intent to buy and regression analysis is used for calculating the prediction and strength of influence. Both credibility and similarity with influencers are shown to favourably affect consumers’ propensity to purchase Instagram, however, the beta coefficient indicated that credibility with influencers had a greater impact. The findings of the study provide marketing practitioners with a clear insight into the parts of credibility of social media influencers may have an impact on a company’s target market and their propensity to purchase the product that is being marketed to them. The results recommend that influencer marketing may be an effective branding strategy, that should be considered when developing a marketing strategy. But, to further investigate this outcome, we recommend conducting additional research investigating the subject matter of ‘influencer marketing’.

Influencer, social media, Instagram, credibility, similarity

Aaker, D. A., & Myers, J. G. (1987). Advertising management (3rd Ed.). Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Agrawal, A. J. (2016, 27 December). Why influencer marketing will explode in 2017. Forbes.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/12/27/why-influencer-marketing-will-explode-in-2017/sh=1e97de1820a9

Alexander, J. (2019, 7 March). YouTube’s family vloggers worry about their future amid comment section crackdown. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/7/18250689/youtube-family-vloggers-comments-sections-minors-predator-behavior-monetization

Bahtar, A. Z., & Muda, M. (2016). The impact of User–Generated Content (UGC) on product reviews towards online purchasing–A conceptual framework. Procedia Economics and Finance, 37, 337–342.

Baker, M., & Churchill, G. A. (1977). The impact of physically attractive models on advertising evaluations. Journal of Marketing Research, 14(4), 538–555.

Berlo, D. K., Lemert, J. B., & Mertz, R. J. (1969). Dimensions for evaluating the acceptability of message sources. Public Opinion Quarterly, 33(4), 563–576.

Binder, M. (2019, 28 February). YouTube will now disable comments on all videos featuring children.  Mashable.  https://mashable.com/article/youtube-disables-comments-on-videos-featuring-minors#:~:text=The%20biggest%20update%3A%20YouTube%20will,risk%20of%20attracting%20predatory%20behavior.%E2%80%9D

Boerman, S. C., & Reijmersdal, E. A. van. (2020). Disclosing influencer marketing on YouTube to children: The moderating role of para-social relationship. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 3042. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03042

Booth, N., & Matic, J. A. (2011). Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 16(3), 184–191.

Brandwatch. (2016). 37 Instagram statistics for 2016. https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/37-instagram-stats-2016/

Brown, E. (2019, 19 February). Instagram influencer marketing is exploding in popularity—but watchout for fraud. ZD Net. https://www.zdnet.com/article/instagram-influencer-marketing-is-exploding-in-popularity-but-watch-out-for-fraud/

Cialdini, R. (1993). The psychology of influence. William Morrow & Co.

Constine, J. (2019, 2 September). Now Facebook says it may remove like counts. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/02/facebook-hidden-likes/#:~:text=Facebook%20could%20soon%20start%20hiding,instead%20of%20the%20total%20number

der Waldt, D. van., Loggerenberg, M. van., & Wehmeyer, L. (2009). Celebrity endorsements versus created spokespersons in advertising: A survey among students. SAJEMS, 12(1), 110–114.

DeVellis, R. F. (1991). Scale development: Theory and applications. Sage Publication.

Dhanesh, G. S., & Duthler, G. (2019). Relationship management through social media influencers: Effects of followers’ awareness of paid endorsement. Public Relations Review, 45(3), 101765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.03.002

Dodds, W. B., Monroe, K. B., & Grewal, D. (1991). Effects of price, brand, and store information on buyers’ product evaluations. Journal of Marketing Research, 28(3), 307–319.

Erdogan, B. Z. (1999). Celebrity endorsement: A literature review. Journal of Marketing Management, 15(4), 291–314.

Erz, A., & Christensen, A. B. H. (2018). Transforming consumers into brands: Tracing transformation processes of the practice of blogging. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 43(1), 69–82.

Farivar, S., Turel, O., & Yuan, Y. (2017). A trust-risk perspective on social commerce use: An examination of the biasing role of habit. Internet Research, 27(3), 586–607.

Freberg, K., Graham, K., McGaughey, K., & Freberg, L. A. (2011). Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 90–92.

Gareth, J., Daniela, W., Trevor, H., & Robert, T. (2013). An introduction to statistical learning: With applications in R. Springer.

Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R., & Singh, R. (2016). Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), 5833–5841.

Goldsmith, R. E., Lafferty, B. A., & Newell, S. J. (2000). The impact of corporate credibility and celebrity credibility on consumer reaction to advertisements and brands. Journal of Advertising, 29(3), 43–54.

Harrison, K. (2017, 9 January). Top 10 trends that will transform digital marketing in 2017. Forbes.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateharrison/2017/01/09/top-10-trends-that-will-transform-digital-marketing-in-2017/?sh=22ba41323bf5

Hoffner, C., & Buchanan, M. (2005). Young adults’ wishful identification with television characters: The role of perceived similarity and character attributes. Media Psychology, 7(4), 325–351.

Hovland, C. I., & Weiss, W. (1951). The influence of source credibility on communication effectiveness. Public Opinion Quarterly, 15(4), 635–650

Kahle, L. R., & Homer, P. (1985). Physical attractiveness of the celebrity endorser: A social adaptation perspective. Journal of Consumer Research, 11(4), 954–961.

Kapitan, S., & Silvera, D. H. (2016). From digital media influencers to celebrity endorsers: Attributions drive endorser effectiveness. Marketing Letters, 27(3), 553–567.

Liu, B. F., Jin, Y., Briones, R., & Kuch, B. (2012). Managing turbulence in the blogosphere: Evaluating the blog-mediated crisis communication model with the American red-cross. Journal of Public Relations Research, 24(4), 353–370.

Lou, C., & Yuan, S. (2019). Influencer marketing: How message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58–73.

Majidian, H., Mahmoudzadeh Vashan, M., & Hakimpour, H. (2021). Identify the effective factors and consequences of influencers’ behavior in social media marketing. Iranian Journal of Educational Sociology, 4(2), 24–36.

Markethub. (2016). Influencer marketing vs. word-of-mouth marketing. https://www.markethub.io/influencer-marketing-vs-word-of-mouth-marketing/

Martensen, A., Brockenhuus-Schack, S., & Lauritsen, Z. A. (2018). How citizen influencers persuade their followers. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 22(3), 335–353.

Neilsen. (2013, September). Global trust in advertising and brand messages. https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2013/global-trust-in-advertising-and-brand-messages/

Ohanian, R. (1990). Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers’ perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Journal of Advertising, 19(3), 39–52.

Ohanian, R. (1991). The impact of celebrity spokespersons’ perceived image on consumers’ intention to purchase. Journal of Advertising Research, 31(1), 46–54.

Pashaei, H. (2020). Users’ perception of influencers credibility on Instagram and their purchase intention regarding product recommendations by influencers [Doctoral dissertation, Université d’ Ottawa/University of Ottawa].

Rebelo, M. F. (2017). How influencers’ credibility on Instagram is perceived by consumers and its impact on purchase intention [Doctoral dissertation]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/132574661.pdf

Ruef, M., Aldrich, H., & Carter, N. (2003). The structure of founding teams: Homophily, strong ties, and isolation among US entrepreneurs. American Sociological Review, 68(2), 195–222.

Sallam, M. A. A., & Wahid, N. A. (2012). Endorser credibility effects on Yemeni male consumer’s attitudes towards advertising, brand attitude and purchase intention: The mediating role of attitude toward brand. International Business Research, 5(4), 55–66.

Schlecht, C. (2003). Celebrities’ impact on branding. http://worldlywriter.com/images/portfolio/proposals/celebrity_branding.pdf

Schouten, A. P., Janssen, L., & Verspaget, M. (2020). Celebrity vs. influencer endorsements in advertising: The role of identification, credibility, and product-endorser fit. International Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 258–281.

Talavera, M. (2015, 14 July). 10 reasons why influencer marketing is the next big thing.  Adweek.  https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/10-reasons-why-influencer-marketing-is-the-next-big-thing/

Varsamis, E. (2018, 13 June). Are social media influencers the next-generation brand ambassadors?  Forbes.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/06/13/are-social-media-influencers-the-next-generation-brand-ambassadors/#2d8b9e82473d

Wang, S. W., Kao, G. H.-Y., & Ngamsiriudom, W. (2017). Consumers’ attitude of endorser credibility, brand and intention with respect to celebrity endorsement of the airline sector. Journal of Air Transport Management, 60, 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2016.12.007

Weisberg, J., Te’eni, D., & Arman, L. (2011). Past purchase and intention to purchase in e-commerce. Internet Research, 21(1), 82–96.

Xiao, M., Wang, R., & Chan-Olmsted, S. (2018). Factors affecting YouTube influencer marketing credibility: A heuristic-systematic model. Journal of Media Business Studies, 15(3), 188–213.