Increasing the Engagement with Sponsored Influencer Videos: Design Strategies for Structure and Content
Youngsoo Kim and Robert J. Kauffman
International Journal of Electronic Commerce,
Volume 29, Number 3, 2025, pp. 401-430.
Abstract:
Influencer marketing has become an integral engine within social commerce communities, driving user engagement through sponsored endorsement content. In particular, sponsored video has emerged as a key format for influencer partnerships, yet influencers and brands lack guidance on how to fully capitalize on its unique advantages. A defining feature of sponsored videos is flexible integration of commercial and organic content. This study examines such integrations through the theoretical perspective of product placement and develops a novel framework that involves structure-based (how to place) and content-based (what to place) strategies. Results of a field study using 598 sponsored videos show that, structure-wise, long commercial content relative to organic content (i.e. integration proportion) negatively impacts video engagement. Thematic relevance between commercial content and organic content (i.e. integration relevance) has a nonlinear effect on engagement, with viewers engaging less as commercial content becomes more relevant to the video narrative; there is some mitigation of this effect at high levels of integration relevance. Content-wise, product attribute description impairs engagement while usage experience sharing exhibits an “inverted U” curvilinear effect. By testing this framework, the study highlights that sponsored videos are more appropriately conceptualized as being a vehicle for advertising content, rather than advertisements in and of themselves. It also provides important implications regarding effective product placement in influencer marketing and for leveraging sponsored videos to drive user engagement in social commerce.