A bibliometric analysis of social media advertising and authenticity research using VOSviewer

Abstract

Digital media, media consumption habits, and digital technology have transformed advertising in the previous two decades. Search engine advertising and banner ads were once the dominant forms of advertising in digital media. The tremendous growth of social media users has led to the creation of new advertising strategy known as social media advertising. However, marketers have noted a decline in consumer trust in contemporary advertising methods, and this shift indicates a growing scepticism among consumers regarding new advertising formats, especially considering the increasing incidence of online fraud and counterfeit product reviews. This necessitates researchers and practitioners to carefully study social media advertising and authenticity in the digital world. Considering the aforementioned points, a bibliometric analysis of social media advertising and authenticity research has been explored aiming to uncover emerging patterns within the research themes. The analysis gathers the scholarly works on social media advertising and authenticity by retrieving information from Scopus databases. Using bibliometric analysis and the VOSviewer tool, this research looked at 394 publications that were published between 2013 and 2025 and focused on the topic of social media advertising and authenticity. The analysis revealed that the existing literature on social media advertising and authenticity is comprehensive, concentrating on various aspects and highlights the nations that make significant contributions pertaining to this subject matter, the metrics such as co-authorship, co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling and the most prominent journals have been explored. The findings indicate the leading and key documents, journals, and nation-states selected based on the number of references shared with other documents, journals, and nation-states, serving as a valuable resource for generating further insights for various stakeholders including researchers, institutions, and policymakers, influencing the future direction of this evolving field and ensuring its sustained relevance and global impact through comprehensive research on the theme.