Paid Social Media Advertising and Digital Marketing Content Quality as Determinants of Ecourse Purchase Decisions Mediated by Customer Trust

Wira Pekik Amiruddin (Postgraduate Program, Universitas Pakuan, Bogor)
Hari Muharam (Universitas Pakuan Bogor, Indonesia)
Sufrin Hannan (Universitas Pakuan Bogor, Indonesia)

Economics and Business Journal
Vol. 4 No. 5 (2026)

This study aims to analyze the influence of paid social media advertising and the quality of digital marketing content on the purchase decision of the BuatMudah e-course, both directly and indirectly through customer trust as a mediating variable. The background of this study is based on the decline and fluctuations in BuatMudah e-course sales amidst the growth of the EdTech industry and increasing competition in the educational market for content creators. This study used a quantitative approach with a survey method. Primary data were obtained by distributing questionnaires to 355 BuatMudah e-course customers. The research instrument was designed based on indicators of paid social media advertising, digital marketing content quality, customer trust, and purchase decisions. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and the Sobel test to examine the mediating role. The results show that paid social media advertising has a positive and significant effect on customer trust, with a path coefficient of 0.72 and a calculated t-value of 16.17. The quality of digital marketing content also has a positive and significant effect on customer trust, with a path coefficient of 0.75 and a calculated t-value of 14.41. Furthermore, paid social media advertising had a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions with a path coefficient of 0.25 and a calculated t-value of 4.35. Meanwhile, the quality of digital marketing content had a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions with a path coefficient of 0.14 and a calculated t-value of 2.31. Customer trust was shown to have a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions with a path coefficient of 0.39 and a calculated t-value of 5.03. The Sobel test results indicate that customer trust mediates the effect of paid social media advertising on purchasing decisions and also mediates the effect of digital marketing content quality on purchasing decisions. Thus, purchasing decisions for the BuatMudah e-course are determined not only by advertising effectiveness and content quality, but also by the ability of these two digital marketing stimuli to build customer trust.