Publications

But How Many Likes Did You Get? An Eye-Tracking Study of Sponsored Instagram Influencer Posts

Marketers across a variety of contexts have increasingly turned to social media influencers (SMIs) to take advantage of their robust social networks to promote products and services. While research has focused on the perceived social relationship between SMIs and their followers, little attention has been given to the influence of social engagement cues, such as “likes” and comments, on promotional social media messages. Using an eye-tracking experiment (N = 93), this study demonstrated that while engagement cues, specifically “likes” on sponsored Instagram stories, did not impact attitudes towards the post, with no moderation effect for total fixation on the cues, participants’ overall assessment of the post did impact positive attitudes towards the brand and purchase intentions.

This paper received the top paper award at the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication Southwest Symposium in Albuquerque, N.M., November 7, 2025.

• Tefertiller, A., & Welter, T. (in press). But how many likes did you get? An eye-tracking study of sponsored Instagram influencer posts. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal.