Not all friends are created equal: The effect of friendship type on performance of shared native ads on social media

Native ads are paid advertising created by brands to resemble non-sponsored editorial content from the publisher itself. However, how individuals respond to native ads created by brands then shared by consumers on social media remains unknown. In one field study and three experiments across multiple product categories and two cultural contexts with data collected from both ad sharers and receivers we show that consumers evaluate ads more favorably when they are shared by close friends than casual friends, which is mediated by receiver’s perceived friendship role ambiguity. Furthermore, sharer-product congruence moderates the effect between the type of friendship on attitude towards the ad through perceived ambiguity, providing managers with targeting insights to improve the performance of shared ads. Collectively, these studies illustrate that both how and with whom consumers share ads impacts the receiver’s attitudes towards the ad and other advertising outcomes.