Tansian University Journal of Arts, Management & Social Sciences

Screen-ad congruence is the visual alignment between advertisements and the surrounding layout of social media feeds, such as symmetry, image ratio, and orientation. As users scroll through platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, the aesthetic integration of ads within their feeds becomes critical in shaping perception and emotional response. This study explored the influence of screen-ad congruence on users’ aesthetic appreciation and likeability of advertisements in social media feeds. The study was anchored on three theoretical perspectives: Processing Fluency Theory, Affective Response Theory, and the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP). A descriptive survey design was adopted, and a purposive sampling technique was used to select 1,218 active users of social media platforms who had prior exposure to feed-based advertisements. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Analysis included descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. The study found that screen-ad congruence significantly enhances aesthetic appreciation and ad likeability. Specifically, ads that matched the visual flow and spatial characteristics of feed content were rated as more visually pleasing and emotionally engaging. The study also found that the impact of screen-ad congruence is more pronounced in visually uniform platforms like Instagram. It recommends that advertisers tailor ad designs to match the specific visual structure of each platform in order to maximize user engagement and positive affective responses

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