International Journal of Research in Business Studies and Management Volume 7, Issue 5, 2020, PP 10-17 ISSN 2394-5931 International Journal of Research in Business Studies and Management V7 ● I5 ● 2020 10 The Effect of Social Media Advertising Properties on Customer Buying Intention (Case Study: Consumers of Cosmetic Products) Ahmad Reza Akhavan Sarraf, Masoumehalsadat Hosseini Teshnizi Sheikh Bahaee University, Isfahan, Iran *Corresponding Author: Ahmad Reza Akhavan Sarraf, Sheikh Bahaee University, Isfahan, Iran INTRODUCTION It in its broadest sense, social media can be described as an almost infinite collection of user-generated content and interactions (e.g., edits, labels, social interactions, and open memberships). This umbrella definition encompasses any number of technologies, including public chat rooms, public wikis, open online communities, social networking sites, and public download groups. In a more specific sense, social media refers to a group of web-based applications developed based on the ideological and technological foundations of the web to enable the creation and distribution of user-generated content. The concept has become an increasingly integral part of our daily lives. Therefore, modern consumer behavior is inevitably influenced by the myriad of social media platforms such as Facebook, Telegram, YouTube, and Twitter (Hawkins and Vel, 2013). Furthermore, social media has transformed the way individuals interact with friends, private organizations, and government agencies. The effect is so extensive that social media platforms have become virtual locations where people, organizations, and even governments are able to interact commercially, socially, politically, and educationally to share their thoughts, products, and services with each other (Alalwan. 2018). Companies can leverage social media in many ways, including advertising, electronic word of mouth, customer relationship management, and electronic branding. Advertising on social media has steadily grown in significance to become one of the most popular and useful tools in the social media marketer's tool box. However, there are growing concerns about the viability of social advertising as a marketing strategy, and social marketers are facing harder challenges in planning and designing successful social media campaigns (Kamboj et al., 2018). Therefore, it is essential to identify effective methods to influence customers on social media. In recent years, social media has become a significant base for conducting marketing activities. Organizations are now pouring resources into advertising on social platforms. Organizations are continually looking for ways to analyze the performance of social media advertising while striving to design campaigns that maximize customer acquisition and incentivize to buy. ABSTRACT Social media is a powerful tool for marketing and advertising campaigns. Companies can use social media to target and influence customer attitudes. Social media advertisings are characterized by severalproperties, including interactivity, informativeness, perceived relevance, performance expectations, and hedonic motivations. These properties can affect customer buying behavior. However, it is especially challenging to design social media advertisings in a way that entices customers to buy something. This paper aims to study how social media advertising properties affect buying intention. The statistical population includes consumers of cosmetic products in the City of Isfahan/Iran who are exposed to social media advertisings. Given the infinite nature of the population, a convenience sample of 384 people is drawn. A questionnaire is used as the data collection instrument. To analyze the data and test the hypotheses, Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) is applied using SPSS and Smart PLS software packages. According to the results, interactivity, hedonic motivations, performance expectations, and informativeness positively influence buying intention. However, perceived relevance does not affect buying intention. Keywords: Social Media Advertising properties, Interactivity, Hedonic Motivation, Performance Expectation, Perceived Relevance, Informativeness, Buying Intention.