Do intrusive in-app ads in branded mobile applications influence Gen Z users' behavioural responses?

Branded apps have emerged as an important component of contemporary mobile marketing strategies, enabling organizations to strengthen customer engagement, enhance user experiences, and cultivate long-term brand loyalty. While mobile apps often rely on in-app advertising as a revenue-generating mechanism, brands generally perceive that including in-app advertisements in their branded apps may affect brand-related outcomes. However, in-app advertising and its impact on branded apps have not been empirically tested, and there is limited understanding of its effects on the parent brand. More importantly, there remains a notable lack of research examining the influence of intrusive in-app ads on Gen Z users. The experimental study therefore explores how in-app advertising features influence perceived ad intrusiveness, attitude towards the branded app, attitude towards the parent brand, ad irritation, ad avoidance behaviour, and intention to discontinue the branded app among Gen Z app users through the theoretical lens of Psychological Reactance Theory. The study also examines how the three in-app ad features interact and identifies the ad characteristics that help mitigate perceived advertising intrusiveness in branded apps. The findings of the study reveal that intrusive in-app ads lead to ad irritation and ad avoidance. No evidence was found that intrusive ads impact attitude towards the branded app and parent brand. However, app discontinuance intentions were higher in advertisements with low ad congruity, compared to branded apps with no ads.