From FoMO to clicks: Understanding young people's behavior toward retargeted advertisements

The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence have led to highly personalized and programmatic advertising, using retargeted advertisements that incorporate Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) appeals to enhance customer engagement. Retargeted advertisements chase customers after they leave a website without conversion. This study uniquely investigates the persistent influence of retargeted advertisements on young people in the digital sphere, particularly when synergistically combined with FoMO appeals. It further applies the Theory of Planned Behavior to understand its impact. FoMO is conceptualized in this study as a higher-order construct, comprising four lower-order constructs: scarcity, urgency, social proof, and loss aversion. These were included in a self-administered survey with a sample of 480 respondents. Data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Findings reveal a strong relationship between FoMO and attitude, subjective norms, and the intention to click on retargeted advertisements. Attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly influence young people's intention to click, ultimately influencing behavior. The influence of FoMO appeals on subjective norms and behavioral intentions is more pronounced among men. Conversely, attitude serves as the primary precursor of intention to click for women. These findings offer crucial theoretical and practical implications for stakeholders navigating the evolving digital advertising landscape.