The Psychology of Advertising

It used to be, people were exposed to about 500 ads per day. Today, people see roughly 5,000 ads per day. There are 5.3 trillion display ads shown online every year. On average, children see 20,000 thirty-second commercials each year. Adults see an average of 2 million of those on a yearly basis. We asked some Sacramento Advertising experts how to make your ads stand out.

Advertisers know that people respond when they find anything enjoyable, noteworthy or interesting. They use that to make their brands popular. They target ads campaigns based on that. It may be an interesting image, music, a story or the brand itself that catches the eye of a person. A good advertising firm will be able to identify viral content and use it in their ads.

Ads are geared towards both thinking and feeling. However, feeling seems to rank higher. Based on advertising campaign performance, 31% of ads with emotional pull succeeded versus the 16% success of ads that focused on rational content.

Ads that trigger sentiments do so using different themes. However, pride, love, achievement, man’s empathy, friendships, loneliness or memories perform best.

Emotional response to an advertisement, rather than the ad’s actual content, produces great influence on the intent of a consumer to buy a product. Likeability is the most predictive measure that can help ascertain if an advertisement will increase the sales of a brand.

We are all aware that color can evoke certain feelings in a person. This is why it is used heavily in sales and branding.

Color plays a strong role in conversion as well. Studies show that changing the call-to-action button of an online ad from light green to yellow can increase conversion rates by 14.5%. A colored border around a Facebook ad image can also double the click-through rate.

Color contrast helps too. Research has shown that contrasting colors of two links within a single image can increase the conversion rate by 60%.

The first one is based on empathy. An empathetic response is when a person empathizes with, or feels close to, a brand after seeing an advertisement. This is achieved by showing images such as children, cats, dogs and babies in ads.

The second response is due to creativity. A creative response happens when an ad makes a person feel that the brand is ahead of the game or imaginative — a class all its own. This is achieved by perfecting the tone of the voice-over, proper casting, setting, storyline and even the background music. How the ad is directed plays a major part as well.

To capture the audience, it is important to apply a few key strategies. The advertising firm has to create surprise or joy right away. This will keep viewers involved. Joy and surprise are the best ways to achieve this. It is also important that one builds an emotional rollercoaster, as this will most likely ensure that viewers continue watching a video due to the emotional ups and downs they experience.