Background: Digital technology replaces disruptive banner advertising withtailored marketing messages hidden in the form of personalized native ads. Onsocial media, these ads are not only customized based on consumers’ interest andonline behaviour, they are also strategically placed in order to blend in withauthentic content. Personalized native advertising exerts its persuasion not only inits relevance to consumers’ interest, but in its non-interruptive and covertcharacteristic as well. On top of that, the underlying data collection to generate theseads triggers privacy concerns from consumers.

Purpose: Given that personalization and nativeness are often examine separately,this study explore two effects in combination. This study explores how millennialsage 19-39 understand, perceive and respond to the persuasion attempts in socialmedia’s personalized native advertising. The understanding and perception of datacollection, and GDPR is also within the ambition of this study.

Method: Adopting a qualitative method, this study collects empirical data throughsemi-structured interview. Millennials within the age range of 19-39 who reside inSweden are selected for the interviews.

Conclusion: It appears that most millennials are receptive to the personalizednative advertising on social media. They showed high persuasion knowledge andthus, are self-confident in recognizing persuasion attempts, despite its covertness.The millennials in this study expressed various reactions to the persuasionattempts, but most engage in personalized native advertising they encounter onsocial media if they can enjoy benefits from it. On the other hand, a small amount ofmillennials perceive such persuasion attempts to be manipulative and deceptive,and some actively engage in effective and behavioural ad avoidance.