Understanding our reptilian brain

Influence your search audience by getting inside their heads

Before we jump into the words that work, it’s helpful to understand the psychology of decision-making. What drives the average person to make the choices they do? Why are we more likely to click on Ad A rather than Ad B? The psychology of decision-making is a robust field that can offer marketers helpful insights that can impact conversions.

Our reptile brain is the alpha leader

We have three brains driving us:

• The Human Brain: Most evolved part of the brain, known as the cortex. Responsible for logic, learning, language, conscious thoughts and our personalities.
• The Mammalian brain: Also known as the limbic system. Deals with our emotions, moods, memory and hormones.
• The Reptilian brain: Controls basic survival functions such as hunger, breathing, fight-or-flight. This is the brain that drives your customer’s buying decisions.

5 Ways to influence with copy

#1: Emotion

Pain: Think about the pain points of your customers and use the solution to the pain as a message point in your ad copy.

Emotion: Think about what moves your customer and use that to build a connection.

Ego: Focus on the “what’s in it for me” factor to create copy that gives your customer what they want.

Fear: Think about what customers fear or what they could miss out on without your product.

Contrast: Compare your brand or an element of your product to a competitor.

#2: The framing effect

When people react to a choice in a different way depending on how it is presented, they are showing a cognitive bias called “the framing effect.” People will avoid risk when a positive frame is presented, but seek risks when a negative frame is presented. This is self-preservation in the black and white frame of gain or loss. We can use the framing effect in our ad copy to influence searchers.

Test the framing effect in your ad title, description, call-to-action and URL

1. 10% off or Free Shipping?
2. Lifetime Warranty or Free Service for Life?
3. Save Bug or Big Savings?

#3: Lively verbs inspire action

Study participants saw a film of a traffic accident and afterward answered the question “How fast were the cars going when they contacted each other?” Other participants got different words instead of “contacted,” like “hit,” “bumped,” “collided,” and “smashed.” Even though they all saw the same film, the phrasing in the question influenced how fast they thought the cars were going

#4: Create a sense of urgency

The Fear of Missing Out is greater than rational thinking, and urgency in your ad copy fuels the FOMO. A sense of urgency can come from ad copy that emphasises words and phrases like “only,” “ending soon” and “now.” You can also create a sense of urgency with an ad that counts down – the number of hours left in the sale, the number of items remaining, or the minutes left until the sale begins.

#5: Add-ons and partner products

Selling up is nothing new in sales – suggesting a camera case for the new camera purchase, a shirt to match the new pants or a tire repair kit for a new bike purchase just makes sense. Use ad copy to encourage complementary add-ons

Make it a competition

Easy-peasy setup

1. Compile client info, previous ad copy, USP, offers, etc
2. Determine the goal (CTR, CPA)
3. Track who wrote what
4. Crown the champ!

Three step process

1. Build foundation: Research voice of the customer, Get competitive intelligence and Study the ad copy formula and framework with suggestions
2. Go crazy: Step away from Excel and Write it without worrying about character count
3. Create ads: Refine and Don't forget extensions!

Conclusion

The Art of Advertiser Science series from Bing Ads brings you deep insights, creative methodologies, and powerful tools that you can put to use right away.

So join us on a journey filled with insightful data, complex concepts, tough questions and new discoveries that empower you and your business to grow.