The effect of matching strategies and advertising performance: the roles of perceived goal progress and customer search behaviors

Purpose: The search advertising market continues to grow rapidly, making it increasingly important for companies to choose the appropriate matching strategy to advertise their products. This study aims to examine the impact of matching strategies on search advertising performance and how consumer search behaviors moderate the relationship. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs a mixed-method approach. An experiment is carried out to examine the effect of matching strategies and the mediating effect of perceived goal progress. Subsequently, using secondary data collected from a car loan company, we conduct ordinary least squares regressions to explore the impact of matching strategy and the moderating effect of consumer search behaviors. Robustness tests are conducted, including alternative model specifications, three-stage least squares model and entropy balance matching. Findings: The empirical results indicate that employing an exact matching strategy contributes to improved advertising performance and perceived goal progress plays a mediating role. Moreover, customer search behavior plays an important role in this relationship. Specifically, the positive effect of the exact matching strategy is weakened when consumers conduct searches using branded keywords, mobile devices and on weekdays. Practical implications: Our study provides guidance for marketing managers on designing search advertising matching strategy to better tailor customers’ search states, thus enhancing advertising performance. Originality/value: The study offers a novel contribution to the well-established realm of interactive marketing, specifically in search advertising, by examining the impact of exact matching strategies from the perspective of consumer search behaviors and proposing the mediating role of perceived goal progress underlying the relationship between matching strategies and search advertising performance.