Basic buyer psychology for better ads

Understanding buyer psychology is critical for marketers, but many aren’t using it properly — if at all. 

One reason many marketers struggle is assuming they need a deep understanding of psychology. In reality, the basics go a long way.

I studied psych for five years before getting into marketing. Knowing how a synapse fires has never helped me increase conversions.

Basic psychological principles, on the other hand, have helped me create winning campaigns, boost landing page performance, and turn slumping ads into winners.

Principles like these:

• Fear of loss is stronger than love of gain 😱
• Authority has a strong influence on behavior 🫡
• Emotions affect decisions more than we think 😡
• Your customer’s first impression extends to everything ✨
• New info is absorbed better if we link it to something we know ⛓️

Class is in session ⬇️

‍How emotions guide decision-making 🤔

If you take one thing away from this blog, let it be this: decision-making is emotional. 

Humans like to believe we're rational and objective but the truth is, our brains just aren’t designed that way. The part of your brain that handles emotions is also crucial for making decisions (the amygdala). 

This is why we respond to emotional messaging more than we do rational arguments. We come up with logical reasons for buying things after we’ve made our purchases.

The last time you bought a shirt, did you do a cost/benefit analysis to ensure you were getting the best value? Or did you buy the one you’re excited to wear this weekend?

How to apply:

You don't need an emotional storyline to work emotion into your ads. Just highlight outcomes instead of features.

This ad from Lovevery is a great example of highlighting the outcome (busy mom gets some downtime), rather than product features. This gives parents an emotional reason to buy the product.

"People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!" 

-Harvard professor Theodore Levitt

Fear of loss is stronger than love of gain 😱 > 😍

Prospect theory is a theory of behavior that suggests people prefer to minimize losses rather than maximize gains. 

The main takeaway is that most people are more risk averse than they realize. The fear of losing $100 is stronger than the desire to gain $100. It’s a lot more complicated than that but all we need is the basic idea.‍

How to apply: try flipping your messaging to talk about what your audience is missing without your product, rather than what they gain from it.

You can also leverage sale events or limited-time products with headlines like “Don’t miss out,” instead of “On sale now.”

I like the urgency this Ruggable ad creates. Instead of just saying “now on sale,” this ad urges “get the deals before they’re gone.” It leverages fear of loss to flip the classic sale announcement.

More specificity might help this ad, e.g. saying when the sale ends and what they’ll lose, but either way it does a good job playing up fear of loss.

Authority influences behavior 🫡

When someone is in a position of authority, we are easily influenced by their opinions and more likely to feel that they are speaking the truth. This is known as authority bias.

Essentially, we believe authority figures because of who they are, not because of what they’re saying. We trust that these experts know best, and it saves us time to just follow their suggestions.

Authority bias is why toothpaste companies put dentists in their ads. Same with vets in dog food ads.

How to apply: Social media is becoming the go-to place for product research for a lot of people. Search for creators in your industry who have some authority and use them in UGC.

You don’t need someone who’s at the top of their field, just someone with more authority than average. Find a barista to recommend your coffee, or get a dog-walker to review your new line of leashes.

Then, start your ad with an introduction that showcases their authority. It’s as simple as “I’ve been a barista for five years,” or, “I’ve made thousands of cups of coffee,” then bring it home with “... and I’ve never tasted coffee like this before.”

Bam. Hook and authority in one sentence.

The halo effect 😇

The halo effect is a simple but often misunderstood bias in decision-making. Essentially, when we see a good trait in a person or company, we see them as good in general.

In marketing specifically, the halo effect refers to the fact that if you like one product from a certain brand, you’re more likely to feel positively about their other products. Even if they’re completely different products.

In 2007, Apple smashed sales records for their Macintosh computers, gaining precious market share. Can you guess what year the iPod touch came out?

2007. People loved the iPod so much that it drove sales of other products. 

How to apply: do you have a flagship product that is most associated with your brand? One that people rave about?

It wouldn’t hurt to test adding “from the makers of [your main product]” to ads for your other products. 

It’s not just brand loyalty, it’s taking the reputation your best product has built and letting your other products or services benefit from it.

Link your product to something familiar 🔗

Our brains are pattern-recognition machines. When we get new information, we try to fit it into a pattern that we understand. 

That’s why metaphors and comparisons are so effective for learning new things. They create links between what we already know and what we’re hearing for the first time.

Creating links in the minds of your buyers will make your product more memorable and your selling points easier to understand. Those are both great for boosting sales.

How to apply: the formula is simple. Position your product as 

“Like [product category] but [differentiator]”,

or 

“[product category] with [value prop].” 

You don’t have to say it explicitly, but try to form that link for your audience. Olipop has done a great job of this, plugging in "soda" and "healthy" to the first formula:

Olipop is more than just, "soda but healthy." It's actually meant to boost digestive health, but that concept isn't as familiar as soda. 

This ad simplifies their message, making it easier to understand and remember the product.

Tying it all together 🧵

You don’t need a PhD to leverage psychology in your marketing. All it takes are a few basic principles to make more effective ads.

• Highlight outcomes instead of features ✨
• Build urgency and FOMO through your copy 🚨
• Find and use creators who hold some authority 👸
• Use your bestsellers to boost your other products 💪
• Create links between your product and familiar concepts 🔗

Now get to work implementing these tricks! And don't worry, none of this will be on the final exam.