Be personal, but not too personal: necessary condition analysis of young consumers’ reactions to personalized Instagram ads

Purpose Nowadays, personalization is key to connecting with consumers. However, it comes with a caveat: privacy concerns, which lead to a personalization-privacy paradox. This study aims to examine how young consumers respond to personalized digital advertising, considering both the benefits and potential downsides. It investigates how these perceptions shape affective ad involvement and how that, in turn, influences key online behaviours. Design/methodology/approach Data from an online survey of Instagram consumers were analysed using necessary condition analysis. Findings Results show that achieving high affective involvement requires communication to be perceived as highly personalized, highly useful and minimally intrusive. Affective involvement is a necessary but not sufficient condition for purchase intention. Similarly, positive eWOM is necessary to drive purchase intention, while negative eWOM does not significantly deter it. Originality/value The research examines both bright and dark sides of personalized advertising from the perspective of young consumers, offering a balanced view. By applying a necessary conditions analysis approach, it identifies the minimum levels of perceived benefits and concerns that must be met/avoided to trigger young consumers’ emotional engagement, sharing behaviour and purchase intentions. This approach provides more actionable and precise insights for designing digital marketing strategies that resonate with today’s privacy-aware, tech-savvy youth.