5 Psychological Tips to Write Successful Ads Copy

Psychological Tips to Write Successful Ads Copy

The success of your search ads copy depends mainly on the words and on the language you are going to use. In this post, i’m sharing with you 5 psychological tips to perfect your ads performance.

Don’t make the mistake of talking about yourself in your ads copy

The best way to speak to the audience is to try to solve a problem that they have. Studies have shown that successful search ads are those that attempt to find a solution to a problem .

Success is defined by the understanding of the audience needs. As a result, you should provide the information they are looking for in the search listing.

To illustrate the difference, let’s take an example of a neutral ad copy and one that speaks to the audience.

Example of a neutral ad copy:

Example of neutral search ads copy
Example of search ads copy where the advertiser is talking about his self

In this case, the advertiser simply responded to users searches by offering its service. That’s all !

Now look at the example below where the advertiser propose to users to solve their lock problem.

Example of search ads copy where the advertiser resolves user's problem
Example of search ads copy where the advertiser resolves user’s problem

In this case, the audience is more likely to interact with this ad than with another one – that don’t speak to them. Keep in mind that people will remember – among all – ads that seem closest to them.

5 psychological tips to improve your search ads copy

1 – Emotional triggers

Emotions influence and condition our decisions. Therefore, their use in advertisements is strategic; to improve the advertising message and make it resonate close to “consumers”.

By focusing on customers needs and activating the right emotional trigger, you increase the chances of conversion.

So you need to stop talking about “you”, and instead focus on “them”.

Another important point is to use a direct and relevant message in ads copy., The more direct your message, the more your chance are to to touch your future customers’s emotional trigger.

In general, an effective influence strategy (through emotional appeals) on search involves asking these 3 basic questions:

  • Who are my clients
  • What my clients like
  • What do my clients hate

2 – The social pledge

One of the most effective tactics – involving psychology, is to harness the power of social pledge when creating search ads copy.

According to Reevoo (a leading solution for managing user reviews and ratings), 70% of consumers rely more on recommendations from other users than content written by brands. This means that people are more likely to be influenced by their friends, or even other consumers, than by the brand !

Content created by peers is more influential than brand created content.
Content created by peers is more influential than brand created content.

A good way to use this “social insurance” is to include the collected reviews in Google Ads. This will create a climate of trust between consumers and your product / service.

ads showing statistics
Example of ads copy showing statistics

Additionally, even though Google has stopped supporting review extensions, it would be a good idea to claim social proof in your ads copy.

Example:

  • 1 million people like product xx on Facebook
  • Over 7 million followers on Instagram
  • 12,467 liked the product xx on Facebook (via a survey)

3 – The FOMO effect

Another popular psychological trick is to play on the scarcity effect. Indeed, according to neuroscience, scarcity can increase the demand for a product. People seem to have a reluctance to miss something. This is what we call the FOMO (Fear of missing out) effect.

Wondering how to implement this tactic? By creating a sense of urgency in you search ads copy, this will increase their effectiveness.

Google Ads and Bing offer a cool feature that allows you to activate an automatic countdown in your search ads.

Generally speaking, it has been observed that search ads copy with urgency messaging record up to 32% CTR increase when a countdown timer is added. So do not hesitate to use it when it makes sense.

4 – The illusory truth effect

“The illusory truth effect is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure”. Source: Wikipedia

What does all this mean?

This means that repeating your business / offer advantage in search ads can improve credibility and trust.

In addition, an enticing call to action will make your message easily recognisable among other ads. Plus, by making the search experience memorable, you also increase your chances that people remember and pay more attention to your ad.

5 – Dare to be different

It’s no surprise that people tend to remember the unusual versus the common.

Using creative vocabulary in your messaging helps improve them and make people stop at your search ads.

To get there, you need to:

  • demonstrate imagination
  • use intelligent vocabulary
  • be up to date with news
  • tell a story
  • use humor
  • use keywords with great creativity

Remember the basics of search ads copy optimisation

Do you plan to test or implement some of the above techniques? Great !

Just keep in mind the basic techniques of search ads optimisation – that do not conflict with the 5 psychological tips above.

In summary, optimising search ads copy consists in:

  • Include keywords in your ad header
  • Encourage users to take action by setting up call to action
  • Pay attention to the spelling and grammar of your search ads copy
  • Indicate the price of your product or service in the ads
  • Add capital letters for important keywords
  • Be concise and precise
  • Locate your ads when possible

Leveraging Psychology in search ads copy

Adopting a psychological approach when writing search ads copy will make you stand out and grab people’s attention. In fact, the language you use in your ads will be crucial for your performance.

If you want to start testing some of these psychological tricks in your search ads, start with:

  • Ask “why” you are offering a particular product or service
  • Take care of the header of your ad
  • Test keyword repetition
  • Do not underestimate the effect of FOMO (Fear of missing out)
  • Make sure the final destination reflects the original promise made in the ad.
  • Use statistics to support your offering (but don’t overdo it)
  • Be intelligent and “insolent”
  • Play on emotion and self-love
  • Always come back to the “why”.

Good optimization!

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