Since its inception on search engines in 1990s, keyword advertising has quickly grown into a leading forms of online advertising, accounting for 40% of today’s online advertising market. A key success factor of keyword advertising is its ability to deliver the most relevant advertisements to the customers. In addition, a small marketers can afford to compete for exposure in respective market. Therefore, keyword advertising has been gaining greater attention from marketing scholars and practitioners. The electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) information providing both product information and recommendations can satisfy consumers. This article examines how the keyword advertising contribute to the eWOM. The article describes a study focusing on the moderating role of the product category (experience vs. credence).
The surveying data source of this study is the customers of restaurant and medical cosmetic industry. 400 structured questionnaires are distributed to the students of the Continuing Education School of Chinese Culture University through a convenience sample technique.353 completed questionnaires were returned. The result show that keyword advertising is positively and significantly correlated with eWOM, supporting our hypotheses. In addition, credence goods is positively and significantly between keyword advertising and eWOM, failing to support our hypotheses. This study discusses the implication for the theory and practices, and suggestions for the future study.
