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Back in 2015, I was working for a mid-sized UK software company. My job was to increase the number of leads we generated from our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.
To help, they gave me around £5,000 and asked me to create a few click-worthy Facebook ads.
Lacking inspiration, I Googled “the best commercials of all time.”
Here’s what I saw.
“Think a little.” the ad is considered the best ad of the 20th century (Ad Age). That is great. It broke newspaper advertising norms with an enormous amount of attention-grabbing white space and challenged industry norms, portraying the car’s unusually small design as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.
But that didn’t help me come up with a lead magnet Facebook ad. My ideas were bad.
It turns out that staring at great ads didn’t help me make great ads.
Instead, I needed to learn the psychology behind great ads, which can provide simple tips that anyone can use to make an ad more effective.
In the eight years since, I’ve interviewed dozens of advertising professionals Push and now I have three scientifically proven tactics that I use whenever I create an ad.
So, it’s time to stop staring at the Volkswagen, and instead try to follow this simple advice.
Science-proven tactics for creating ads (with examples)
1. Create scarcity.
Back in 2019, KFC Australia had a promotion. $1 Chips Australia wide.
To promote the offer, KFC designed a gigantic Facebook experiment. They created 90 different promotional messages, including creative pieces such as:
The Colonel was never so generous, chips for a dollar.
I loved Perth to Brisbane. They cost only $1.
Australia’s favorite chips for just $1.
All 90 different variations were run on Facebook ads in one big experiment to see which was the most effective.
Each ad was shown to thousands of Australians, and the KFC team measured how many clicks each individual ad received.
The winning ad was deceptively simple. it said:
“Chips for $1. Limited to four per customer.”
Out of all 90 variations, this one got the most clicks and led to the most sales. But why? KFC was limiting the promotion. KFC has limited the amount customers can buy.
So why did it boost sales?
That’s because scarcity.
By limiting the amount available, KFC made chips look like a scarce resource. We are hardwired to prefer scarce resources over abundant resources.
When we read that the chips are limited to four per customer, we quickly assume that the deal must be good – why else would KFC limit it?
This experiment shows that scarcity will often trump the most creative advertising slogans.
So, with the ad you create, try to add some scarcity. Maybe limit the amount a customer can buy. Perhaps you should display low stock levels or limited supply.
Do it ethically and truthfully and you’ll probably make a better ad.
2. Leave a letter.
In a 2020 study by Leo Burnett, Mike Treharne and Richard Shotton.quoted in Richard’s book), participants were shown ads with brand names containing missing letters, for example, “HS_C.”
It was obvious to readers that the bank was HSBC, but removing one letter made the ad more attractive. And therefore more efficient.
Shotton, Treharne and Burnett found that brand names with missing letters were 14% more memorable.
This is due to the generation effect.
By removing one of the letters from the brand name, the viewer is forced to think to find the answer.
It is not hard. Everyone in the study knew the bank was HSBC, but that extra engagement made the ad more effective.
The charity Cancer Research UK has applied this very principle in some of its advertisements.
They ran this big billboard campaign.
It only takes viewers a second to figure out that the answer is OBESITY. But that extra bit of engagement made the ad memorable.
The American Red Cross has found a clever way to apply the same bias.
They removed the letters A, B, and O from their ad to highlight the need for those blood types and create a memorable ad.
A confusing tagline makes the viewer pay attention and makes the ad more effective.
It has been shown in the laboratory to increase memorability.
And I think it’s worth trying out in your ads.
Try using incomplete brand names in your marketing materials, introduce quizzes or puzzles into your ad design, or test an interactive ad format that requires some form of user input.
It’s proven to make your ad more memorable.
Read more:
3. Ask a question.
Rohini Ahluwalia and Robert Burnkrant in theirs in 2004 the study showed several hundred participants to dozens of different ads.
Ahluwalia and Burnkrant wanted to see if certain types of language produced more effective advertising copy.
They found that ads with questions in the copy were rated 14% more favorably than ads without questions.
Just adding a question mark made the ad more attractive.
Two researchers hypothesized that audiences feel more connected to an ad when they ask a question.
Questions attract the audience, making the ad more effective.
A few years ago I tested this very Nudge ad.
I ran two ads on reddit.
The first ad (control) had no question attached.
it said, “Ditch the boring business podcasts. Try Nudge.Next to that copy I put a few of my 5 star reviews.
The second ad was identical to the first, except I added a question.
“Tired of boring business podcasts? Try Nudge.”
I discovered that Ahluwalia and Burnkrant’s discovery was real.
The question ad was 17% more effective than the control ad.
This attracted many more people to my podcast and resulted in many more listeners.
A 17% improvement from changing just two words and adding a question mark is impressive. This shows that questions engage viewers – and make the ad more effective.
These three tips won’t help you create an award-winning ad. They won’t spark the same creativity behind Volkswagen’s “Think small.” campaign.
But they will improve your ads. And these are simple, actionable steps you can use on any ad to bring it closer to perfection.
This blog is part of it Phil Agnew’s Marketing Cheat Sheet series where he reveals scientifically proven tips to help you improve your marketing. To learn more, listen to his podcast Pusha proud member of the HubSpot Podcast Network.
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/improve-ad
