Is there an emerging path to brand equity in the digital age? The role of personalized Facebook advertising and brand experience

Despite the rapid rise of personalized Facebook advertising and its significant impact on brand equity in the digital age, research on this topic remains limited, with the role of brand experience largely overlooked. Existing studies on the drivers of brand equity still tend to rely on traditional dimensions or general marketing mix elements, with little effort to explore newer, more contemporary pathways to building brand equity in today’s context. This study aims to examine the influence of personalized Facebook advertising on brand equity, with brand experience serving as a mediating factor. Data were collected from 295 retail consumers in Vietnam who had previously encountered personalized Facebook advertisements. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test both direct and indirect relationships. This study, based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, finds that perceived personalized advertising positively affects brand equity components - brand associations, brand loyalty, and perceived quality - both directly and indirectly through brand experience. Notably, brand experience plays a key mediating role, especially in strengthening the link between personalized advertising and brand associations.