Determining the Predictive Relevance of Social Media Marketing on the Indicators of Consumer Buying Decision Using PLS Path Analysis

Consumers are the cornerstone of market dynamics, with their behaviors and preferences driving business strategies across various sectors. This study examined the impact of social media marketing channels on the consumer buying decision process among online consumers in the National Capital Region. The study focused on the six constructs: e- Word of Mouth (eWOM), Social Community (SC), Social Media Advertising (SMA), Quality of Content (QC), User Experience (UE); and Frequency of Visit (FV). The study employed one hundred fifty-eight (158) respondents representing the population of online consumers experienced shopping in any social media channels using the convenience sampling technique. Findings of the study showed that e-word of mouth (<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$e$</tex>WOM) have a significant influence on consumers' evaluation of alternative (EA) and post-purchase decision. There is also positive significance between social community (SC), evaluation of alternative (EA) and purchase decision. Social media advertising (SMA) is also deemed to have a positive impact on consumers' post- purchase decision; while quality of content (QC) is significant with information search, evaluating alternatives, and purchase decision. Moreover, user experience (UE), needs recognition (NR) and post- purchase decision (PPD) are found to be significant compared to information search (IR), evaluating alternative (EA), and purchase decision (PD). The findings also showed that frequency of visits (FV) of consumers to social media sites positively impacted their purchase decision and post-purchase decision. Researcher recommends exploring other channels of social media marketing and widening participants across the region.