Intragenerational Differences in Information Quality and Credibility of Influencer Marketing: Insight from the Generation Z Student Cohort

Abstract The emergence of social media has compelled advertisers and businesses to develop new approaches for connecting with consumers, among which is the TikTok platform. This paper investigates the perceived information quality and information credibility of TikTok influencer marketing by a convenient sample of 691 Generation Z students in Greece and then explores intragenerational differences. Data were collected via an online questionnaire over a 3-month period in 2025, using a non-probability sampling method. Factor analysis for both information quality (four items) and information credibility (four items) yielded a single-factor structure. Therefore, all eight variables were tested for intragenerational differences to gain deeper insight. In the one-way ANOVA tests, the participants’ birth years (2002–2007), divided into three groups (two per year), was the independent variable, while the mean values for information quality and credibility items served as the dependent variables. The results indicated statistically significant differences only in relation to information quality. These findings help marketers craft more effective campaigns and help influencers enhance their authenticity and maintain audience trust.