The Effectiveness of Marketing Using Virtual Content Creators (Influencers) on Millennial Consumers' Purchase Decisions
Abstract
Virtual influencers, computer-generated personas that create content and endorse brands on social media, are increasingly used to reach millennial consumers, yet evidence on whether they actually drive purchase decisions remains fragmented across disciplines, product categories, and generational cohorts. This study aims to synthesize current empirical and conceptual evidence on the effectiveness of virtual influencer marketing for millennial consumers' purchase decisions. A systematic literature review following the PRISMA 2020 protocol was conducted on publications from 2021 to 2026 retrieved from Consensus and Google Scholar. From 41 records identified, 25 peer-reviewed studies with active DOIs met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed through descriptive mapping and thematic synthesis. The findings show that virtual influencers can be as persuasive as human influencers when three conditions converge: credible source attributes (trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness), engaging and useful content, and a congruent product category, particularly visual and technology-related products rather than sensory ones. The effect on purchase decisions is rarely direct; it travels through consumer engagement, perceived value, positive emotion, and parasocial relationships. For millennials, utilitarian value and credibility weigh more than novelty, while perceived inauthenticity and undisclosed artificiality remain the main barriers. This study proposes an integrative Credibility–Engagement–Decision framework and offers practical guidance for brands targeting millennial consumers in emerging markets such as Indonesia.
Keywords
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