The 5 Psychological Triggers That Finally Lowered Our CAC (I Can’t Believe I Ignored These for So Long)

What's up, Marketers! This is Aazar.

This newsletter is about leveling up your paid growth marketing skills by analyzing the best brands' paid strategy, tactics, positioning, and value props.

This newsletter is divided into:

• Sharing what I've learned

• Sometimes sharing some other performance marketers’ lessons with you (this issue)

• And I analyze & compare the best ads on the internet

📣I’ve launched a bootcamp to help my folks here…

How to Consistently Find Winning Ads With AI

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Finding new winners used to feel like a fluke.

You make 6 variations. You spend money. And somehow, the first one you made still beats them all.

The worst part?

The CAC never drops. Because you’re not actually iterating. You’re just changing clothes on the same mannequin.

That changed when I started applying psychology properly.

Not just reading about it. Actually using it in the copy. In the hook. In the way a human brain wants to hear it.

I learned this from Sarah Levinger. She shared in her paid community and course, I am only sharing only a few out of so many psychological concepts she shared. 

And here’s exactly how I applied it.

Let’s break down 5 psychological triggers I tested. And how they helped me lower CAC and improve performance.

Important: I manage a DTC brand, overseeing its growth and running ads. This makes it easier for me to provide examples. However, these principles can be applied to any industry.

The first thing we did was to pick a creative that was already winning. 

Here are two of them:

The second format works really well. 

We tested five psychological triggers (aka heuristics, mental shortcuts the brain uses to make decisions fast). And we found a winner. I’ll share the winner at the end.

1. Social Proof: Give the crowd a face

We all know this one: “If others like it, it must be good.”

But Sarah helped me make it feel more real.

Instead of saying “10,000+ customers,” we rewrote the ad like this:

“Why 10,000 chai lovers are switching to this golden milk tea”

Why it works:

• “Chai lovers” made it tribal.

• “Switching” made it a movement.

• The number added credibility without screaming it.

• Using the “golden milk” was important (we’ve seen it work previously too)

This headline held attention longer and spiked interest.

2. Scarcity: Quiet FOMO is still FOMO

I used to think scarcity had to be loud.

But we tried this line:

“The golden milk tea that keeps selling out”

Why it works (Apart from basic psychological bias of scarcity):

• No countdown timers.

• Just a believable signal of demand.

No extra visuals needed.

The lesson I learned here was, scarcity doesn’t need urgency. It needs evidence.

3. Authority: People trust specifics

“Trusted by experts” is a lazy phrase.

Here’s what we tried instead:

“Approved by Ayurvedic doctors”

Why it works:

• Specific job titles + real contexts

• No big claims, just credibility from the right lens

• My customers and prospects love “unwind before bed time”

P.S. Make sure you make a BIG + relevant badge that most people are aware of already when they see it. 

How to Build a Creative Strategy That Doesn’t Break at Scale

Everyone can launch a good ad.
But scaling that success? That’s where most marketers hit a wall.

It’s a predictable pattern:

• Ad fatigue sets in

• Creative inspiration dries up

• Performance metrics start sliding

• You’re stuck recycling the same tired angles

The results?

• ROAS drops

• CAC climbs

• Panic spreads through the team

Here’s what most people miss:

• This isn’t a media buying problem.

• It’s not about tweaking your targeting.

• It’s not even about your budget.

It’s a creative ecosystem problem.

The best marketers know that a creative strategy must be built for scale from day one.

Without a systematic approach to creative development, you’ll always hit the same wall.

The difference between campaigns that scale and those that stall isn’t luck.
It’s having a deliberate creative strategy that keeps momentum going as you grow.

Ani and I are running a free webinar to teach exactly that.

If you're a:

• Performance marketer

• Brand manager

• In-house creative

• Agency lead

This is for you.

🎯 Register here to join the session

It’s also your sneak peek into the full 4-week Bootcamp.

4. Fluency: Make it simple

Everyone said simple ads work. I can now finally connect why it works. It’s because of this psychological principle.

Sarah talks about processing fluency, when a message is easy to understand, it’s more likely to be believed.

So instead of clever or clever-ish lines, we tried:

“Simple summer golden milk. Under $0.50. Ready in 2 Minutes”

Why it worked:

• Instantly visual

• No buzzwords

• Just outcome, time, and replacement

• Easy to consume within 0.2 seconds

People want decisions that feel easy.

5. Choice Heuristics: Binary frames work

This was one of my favorite insights.

Don’t make people scroll through 6 options. Just give them a simple A vs B.

“Which would you choose?”

Why it works:

• The emotional answer is obvious

• But it doesn’t feel forced

• It frames golden milk as the better, softer solution

You have to choose one, right?

Did you guess the winner?

It was the one with the headline “The golden milk tea that keeps selling out.”

What changed after testing these?

The structure of the ad didn’t change.
The product didn’t change.
Only the mental shortcuts changed.

Here’s what I realized:

• Iteration isn’t about making something new. It’s about seeing the same ad through a new lens.

• Stacking 2–3 psychological triggers while testing. It works better than relying on one.

• You don’t need more “ideas.” You need better frames.

We’re still testing more variations, we’ll keep you posted.

And I credit that shift to what I learned in Sarah Levinger’s group.

She doesn’t just teach psychological shortcuts like these. She shows you how to bake them into your creatives, from start to end.

If you’re a media buyer, creative strategist, or founder stuck with ads that aren’t scaling or unable to find new winners…

Join Sarah’s group (I hesitated at first because of the price  but within 7 days, the course and community call had already paid off. It feels like I have Sarah’s genius brain on speed dial)

It’s genuinely one of the few places where real creative strategy is taught, not just talked about.

That’s it for this one.

If you want me to drop a few swipe examples or iterations next time, let me know.

Plus, you can find all these examples here.

Thanks to our partners who support this newsletter.

Happy Growing with Paid Social,

Aazar Shad

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