The Power of an Ad: How Psychology Can Enhance Your Advertising

Have you ever created an ad campaign with high hopes of success? You’ve checked and double checked your marketing strategy and you feel confident. Perhaps you’ve even consulted a market research or data analytics company to ensure the data supports your strategy.

But if advertising is part of your marketing strategy (and it should be) then you must go one step further and consider how insights from consumer psychology can help enhance your marketing strategy and advertising plan. Whether you’re advertising to a small audience like your company’s new Instagram account or a large audience like a highway billboard, always ask yourself if you’ve considered human psychology when designing your ad campaign.

Why? At its most basic level, advertising is a discipline solely focused on how to get consumers’ attention. Whether it’s with big text, flashy designs, lowest price promos, or other techniques, all advertising has one goal—catching a consumer’s attention long enough that they end up buying something.

Truly successful efforts grab our attention so well, that we’re stuck obsessing about the product. Measures like I-Factor (or “irresistibility factor”) have perfected the art of measuring this result for brands, accurately assessing just how irresistible a product is to consumers. But most of the time, we’re stuck fighting for consumers (limited) attention. As Ken Faro and Mike Grimes write, “In an era of unlimited options, and attendant choice paralysis, consumers have developed acute methods to defend against information overload.” This defense is a highly selective psychological filter—and its an advertisers job to trick this filter.

Consider this scenario: Your potential customer is scrolling through social media and encounters your ad. It seems perfectly tailored for them. They probably curse the infamous algorithm and click on the ad—maybe they even purchase what the ad is highlighting. The success of this marketing funnel has everything to do with their psychological profile—who they are and what drives them—and how well its matches the messaging of the ad.

The match between the meanings of the ad and the individual’s identity is a carefully crafted science of symbolic fit.  Such semiotics is not a new field and advertisers have been using it in a number of ways for decades.

According to Forbes, in this day and age we encounter between 4,000 and 10,000 ads each day. So the “match” of consumer and content has to be better than good. When it comes to producing valuable marketing content, we need to go back to Psychology 101 and consider how we are making our potential customer think and feel.

Psychology and Advertising: The Elaboration Likelihood Model

When considering how to “match” consumers and content, one must first consider The Elaboration Likelihood Model. This process consists of two methods of thinking: the central route and the peripheral route.

The central route is like the Socrates of the brain: A deep thinker. This route takes in the information of an ad and analyzes it with great depth. In other words, it takes the time to ask the questions like “Does this brand align with my values and morals?” That consumer will look on the website, on ads, social media, and other branded materials to find an answer. Consequently, a brand that advertises socially conscious, sustainable practices will sell their product to that individual.

The peripheral route is for the “don’t want / don’t’ care” part of the brain: it’s all about processing that occurs when someone is uninterested or doesn’t know much about the subject. This type of processing uses shortcuts to process, like social signals or general impressions.

Why is The Elaboration Likelihood Model important? Consider your target audience and ad location. Let’s say you are a subscription box service for cooking - something like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh. You know those who buy your product are younger, more liberal demographic that buys. You might consider featuring something about how your delivery service uses sustainable packaging, because you know they’ll use a slow, deliberate central processing to decide they’ll buy your product or a competitors. 

If your customers are parents living a busy life going from work, to pick up kids, to helping with homework—they likely don’t have time to be super involved with what they’re buying for dinner. You may consider using attention-grabbing imagery as the decision to buy the product will be based on fast heuristics and quick decision making. You want the meal in your ad to look so absolutely mouth-watering that the consumer thinks, “I need to eat that.”

What ad strategy works best for you will greatly depend on how your consumer processes purchases in your category.

Ask for Help: How to Improve Your Marketing Campaign

Running a business is a task unto itself, nevermind the hours that go into perfecting your brand strategy. It might feel overwhelming to balance all of your responsibilities on top of planning a thoughtful marketing strategy. And yet, if your ads do not reach the right audiences, in the right ways, then it will be difficult to turn a profit.  

When thinking about how psychology can help advertising, you might consider consulting with a third party for additional support. No one can juggle every aspect of building a brand, especially if you’re building a small business or start-up. You’re going to need help from people who are well versed in the psychological techniques that can enhance your marketing.

 Inkblot Advertising is one of those firm well versed in the psychology of consumer. We offer personalized psychologically-based strategies that will increase brand awareness and your sales. We examine your marketing from a psychological perspective to ensure that you are entering the marketing landscape with strong, effective content.

If you’re interested in learning about how to psychologically optimize your content, contact Inkblot Advertising to learn more.