Augmented Reality Marketing: A Bibliometric and Thematic Literature Review

Purpose - This literature review analyzes augmented reality in marketing from 2022 to 2024, identifying trends, research gaps, and key studies through a bibliometric approach. Design/Methodology/Approach - To address gaps in the literature, 171 scientific articles related to augmented reality published between 2022 and 2024 were curated based on relevant Web of Science categories and prestigious publishers to offer an extension of the landscape presented until 2022. These articles were systematically analyzed using VOSviewer software from two perspectives: co-authorship analysis and keyword patterns. The analysis mapped 522 authors into 133 clusters, revealing the scattered nature of augmented reality topics. On the other hand, the keyword analysis led to 40 keywords organized into four illustrative clusters. Findings and implications - Augmented reality research in marketing has evolved significantly, highlighting trends in consumer experience and technology acceptance. Emotional connections with brands and the implications of privacy regulations such as GDPR are critical. Future studies should address gaps in frameworks and explore the role of AI in enhancing augmented reality’s effectiveness across diverse audiences. Limitations - The limitations of this literature review stem from the small number of articles analyzed, published only from 2022 up to 2024, and the usage of only one software – VOSviewer – for analyzing only one dataset. Including more articles and software in data analysis could enhance findings, while reducing the risk of identifying redundant trends, and also provide in-depth results. Originality/value - Mapping thematic trends to identify research gaps through both author and keyword co-occurrence analyses for articles published from 2022 up to 2024, and analyzing occurrence and total link strength, dominant topics, and influential studies were empirically validated contributions to the originality of this literature review.