Personalization effects in recruitment advertising: the mediating role of considerateness
Résumé
Across two between-subjects online experiments, we demonstrate that personalizing Facebook job advertisements with the integration of personal information in the ad increases job-pursuit intention through perceived considerateness (i.e., the feeling of being considered). Study 1 shows that need for cognition moderates the influence of personalization on considerateness, so that high need for cognition individuals do not experience considerateness when being exposed to a personalized ad containing both their first name and profile picture. Study 2 shows that only individuals with a strong personal sense of uniqueness experience considerateness when being exposed to a personalized ad containing only their first name. Therefore, the mechanism by which personalization transmits its effect on job-pursuit intention through considerateness is conditioned by personal traits. Our paper contributes to the understanding of personalized recruitment advertising by revealing a new working mechanism of ad personalization and its conditional process.