7 Ways Psychology Can Make Your Facebook Ads Unforgettable

Getting people’s attention in an increasingly crowded space is the challenge all advertisers face. On Facebook, given the small real estate and defined limits we have, it’s an even bigger ask.

 

1. Always Show Faces

If you want to draw people’s attention straight to your ad, make sure it shows a face.

 

2. Emotions Always Win

Emotional arguments are always going to win over rationality. We’re always drawn to emotions in other people, especially in their faces, so this is a great way to use the above technique as well.

 

3. Use Red to Catch Attention

Most mammals can only see 2 colors. Humans can see 3. We’ve evolved to see reds, along with the blues and greens dichromats can see, because only when we started to lose our hair. Once our ancestors could see the bare skin beneath they could see the red blood pumping through it. We would become red when excited or angry, and this association has stuck. Because of this evolutionary change we find the color red the most enticing, shocking, and exciting color of all.

 

4. Make Your Customer Part of the Cool Crowd

As much as we love to think of ourselves as individuals, we never want to stray too far from the crowd. This is why 2 psychological techniques work so well in online advertising: social proof and social contagion.

 

5. Increase A Viewer’s Dissonance

You have an internal model of what you are like. In it, you’re awesome. You are competent, smart, funny — people hang on your every word.

 

6. Make Your Product Scarce

FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out. Apparently it’s in the dictionary.

It’s proper name is the Scarcity Heuristic. The world is so complex that we are constantly taking little mental shortcuts. This is one of them. If something is scarce, we presume it’s more valuable. This principle is true most of the time, so it makes sense for us to use it as a general rule.

 

7. Use The Ultimate Words

Images are king when it comes to advertising, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect your copy. Why? Because an image may instantly catch a persons eye, but the few words you use are what will ultimately win over a new customer. You have to get them right.

 

Free

Free is the ultimate word for any viewer of an ad. We are always on the lookout for free. Including it in an ad and it’s almost guaranteed to catch the eye.