Time Heals All Wounds: How Discounting Cues and Multiple Exposures Impact the Effectiveness of Infleuncer Advertising Over Time

Abstract: Through an online experiment with a 2 (no ad disclosure/standardized ad disclosure ’paid partnership with the (brand)’) x 2 (single exposure to the influencer content/multiple exposure to the influencer content) between subjects design (N= 195), the current study examines 1) the effects of multiple exposures to Instagram Influencer content and disclosure presence on persuasion knowledge skepticism and para-social interaction (PSI) and 2) how these psychological processes impact attitudinal and behavioral outcomes 3) over time. Results showed that advertising disclosure on both Instagram posts and stories didn’t directly increase skepticism. Conditional indirect effects showed that only in the case of a single exposure did an ad disclosure, via skepticism, negatively affect brand attitudes and purchase intention. In support of a relative sleeper effect, attitudes and intentions measured at a second data collection point showed the most improvement when initial skepticism was high. Implications for researchers, practitioners, and advertisers are discussed.