Marketing is applied psychology.

Using it right (ethically) can have a massive impact on your growth.

Here are the top 10 psychological concepts you apply to your ads:

1. The Psychology of Fresh-Starts

What: The Fresh-Start Effect can give you the motivational boost you need to make changes and achieve your goals.

When to use it: New years or new beginning.

Example: MasterClass knows how to use new year’s resolution right despite not being a fitness product.

2. The Psychology of Mimicry

What: We unconsciously imitate the behaviors, speech, and movements of others who are similar to us or if we like them.

When to use it: When your product comes in the “aspirational” outcome category.

Example: This Whoop ad uses mimicry to follow this person’s life and become a Whoop athlete:

3. The Psychology of Idleness Aversion

What: Research says people are happier when they're busier. Even if we're forced to be busy.

How to use it: Your job is to make them feel “good busy”.

When to use it: If you are a “knowledge” product.

Example: Imprint, a knowledge app, has got my attention just because of this psychology. How? It’s hitting my doom scrolling (aka idleness)

4. Familiarity bias

What: It’s the tendency for individuals to prefer what is familiar and to seek to avoid the unknown.

This is my favorite; I keep using it. And it works like a charm.

How: Use familiar screens on your ads to have a pattern interrupt. I use Apple notes, Whatsapp screens, screen time screens to send message.

Example: With Apple notes.

Here’s one that reduced my ads from $300 CPA to $48:

Another ad example (I did it). We spent 100K+ because it gave 5x ROAS

But the latest ones I am going to try are these — you should too (stole for Nice Ads newsletter):

The newsletter author tells us why this is an effective ad:

Join his newsletter if you find this interesting:

5. Hick’s law

What: Hick's law is a psychological principle that states that the more options are available to a person, the longer it will take for him or her to make a decision about which option is best.

How can you use it: Bundle your product to make it easy in your ads for your users to decide.

When to use it: Retargeting is a good option.

Example: Obvi sells a bundle product when viewers click on this ad.

Here’s the hero of their landing page:

Are you running paid ads for your brand or clients?

For the last four months, I have been running a paid social mastermind group, and I have only accepted 20% of all the applications (because only the best can help each other level up). So, why do people join this group and pay €24/month for it?

They get:

• Exclusive live discussions with other paid social marketing pros (no more individual jumping on Zoom calls).

• Exclusive summarized tactical newsletter for those who couldn’t attend our session.

• Paid gigs: Agency, consultant, and job offers for the community

• Sounding board: They get honest feedback on landing pages, ads, and campaigns

• Insiders' secret: They also jump on bi-monthly calls to learn what’s working for us on paid socials

• Extra support: Content, community, rant, and more.

So, if you are interested in our paid social marketing group, then I’d highly encourage you to apply where folks don’t just learn from me but from each other too. And the best part? They love it!

Here’s a tweet from our mastermind a few weeks ago:

Apply here if you want to level up (prices will increase to €29 after the 35th membership, at the moment, we have 30 (last week was 25).

We had a session last week, and some marketers have a ton of experience. I am about to share it in a private newsletter.

And if you already know about the mastermind group and are still on the fence, check out why other marketers are loving this video.

6. Negativity Bias

What: buyers unconsciously pay attention to adverse news, trends, and stories so that they can avoid potential losses in the future.

Use negativity to craft compelling messages

When to use it: Any brand can use this with a problem or struggle.

I have a ton of examples for this one.

Here’s a video example (look at the thumbnail image):

7. The foot-in-the-door technique

What: The foot-in-the-door technique is a compliance tactic that assumes agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a second, larger request.

When to use it: Offer free trials, free workshops, and something of value first. Then, make them take the next step.

Example: Code Sanchez offers a paid community for Entrepreneurs, and she offers free webinars & newsletters. Webinars are usually effective for the foot-in-the-door technique. It also develops trust before asking for bigger things

8. The Psychology of Envy

What: Envy is deeply ingrained in the human psyche and common to all times and people. Our tribal ancestors feared arousing the envy of the gods, whom they placated with elaborate rituals and offerings. Now, this continues, and you can use it in ads.

When to use it: Fitness or better life products are good to use this concept.

Hook: Y’all have a sibling that’s one up you?

You can use this hook and create a desire around your product.

Script also shares that he didn’t even try it but changed his mind, and he is hooked.

Storytelling and psychology are done right.

9. The Psychology of Least Friction

What: Most people are inherently lazy and, if not lazy, want to do things efficiently. They want to take the path of least effort or resistance. This is called the law of least effort.

How to use it: Tell your customers it’s easier to buy.

Example: Endy ad shares the “dream outcome” and says it’s not that much of an effort. It’s just one click away.

10. The Psychology of Meme

What: My good friend, Katelyn Bourgoin, shared this in her newsletter below (do subscribe to her newsletter if you want to learn how to use psychology in your marketing):

How to use it: If you are not always trying to be “on-brand” use it to entertain your audience with the latest memes.

Kate shares in her newsletter:

Example: I have not seen anyone doing better than The Milk Road

Thank you, Matt McGarry, for this inspiration (I know you are an avid reader).

I could go on with so many examples, but the content has to be inspiring and digestible. Try these as inspiration, and let me know if any of them worked for you.

If you like this post, reply to this email and tell me if you want more psychological ad examples. I’ll cover another one in the future.

Newsletter/Content of the Week - The DTC Daily

It’s The Morning Paper for E-Commerce Marketers. In 5 minutes, you’ll catch up on what’s going on in DTC news, trends, and stories.

My friend Max says it’s The WSJ for E-Commerce Marketing. They bring readers the most impactful e-commerce news, tips, and tools every weekday through our newsletters & various social channels.

Product of the Week - Triple Whale

So, I am basically in love with Triple Whale. They help you with tracking and attribution. They tell you which channels, ads, and creatives to work with to increase your AOV. They recently launched a creative cockpit and are about to issue AI for ads. I’m on the waitlist. They recently raised $25M a series B round.

And I am in love with the marketing team. If you are in DTC, you must have heard about them. Perhaps, it’s time to give them a fair try.

Happy Growing with Paid Social,

Aazar Shad

What did you think of this newsletter? I appreciate your feedback!

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Help you get more customers with paid marketing. Book a strategy call here.

2. Promote yourself to 4,617+ highly qualified paid marketers by sponsoring this newsletter. Reply to this email.