A Causal Model of Digital Marketing Strategies through the Decision-Making Process of Viewers Based on the 5A Customer Journey Model and Its Impact on Audience Engagement with Gaming Content Creators in Thailand
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Abstract
Results indicated that perception levels of all variables were high, with audience engagement recording the highest mean, followed by digital content marketing strategies, the 5A customer journey, and influencer authenticity, respectively. The model demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit with the empirical data. Six of the seven hypotheses were supported; notably, the hypothesis positing a direct effect of influencer authenticity on audience engagement was not supported, as this relationship was found to be fully mediated by the 5A customer journey. The key findings revealed that the 5A customer journey exerted the strongest influence on audience engagement and served as a critical mediating variable. While influencer authenticity could not directly affect audience engagement and required mediation through the 5A customer journey, digital content marketing strategies demonstrated both direct and indirect effects on audience engagement. These findings suggest that gaming content creators should priorities developing a comprehensive 5A customer journey whilst maintaining authenticity and delivering valuable content to foster sustainable audience engagement. The model explained over half of the variance in audience engagement.
Article history: Received 24 December 2025
Revised 1 February 2026
Accepted 5 February 2026
SIMILARITY INDEX = 1.99 %.............
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