How Emotional Marketing can Boost Facebook Ads
Ways to Increase Your Facebook Ads using Emotional Marketing
Facebook advertising is like an auction with both winners and losers.
And you want to be on the winning side – don’t you?
Therefore you need to create Facebook campaigns that finish the race as champions whilst collecting new customers in the process.
An effective move would be creating ads that catch consumer’s attention before any other Facebook post or ad can get to them.
While there are many tips and hacks written across the web –here is one that is highly promising – playing on consumer’s emotion.
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What is Emotional Marketing?
Emotional marketing refers to marketing and advertising efforts that primarily use emotion to make your audience notice, remember, share, like and buy.
What ….
These emotional marketing values typically taps into a singular emotion, like happiness, sadness, anger or fear to elicit a consumer response.
There are four basic emotional categories – happy, sad, afraid/surprised and angry/disgusted.
Robert Plutchik’s “wheel of emotions” illustrates some of these emotional spectrums using colours.
Depending on your product, industry and audience you cannot always target general happiness.
How come …
Just like with your marketing goals you must dig deep and define precisely what feeling you are aiming to elicit.
This will influence the details of your marketing — your copywriting, media, graphics choices, etc. and help you to be effective as possible.
Why Emotional Marketing Works
Trend Hunter Marketing analysed 55 emotional marketing campaigns and found the average popularity score to be 8.0 — higher than in other categories.
By spicing up your Facebook campaigns with emotion and thrill you can allure your Facebook audience to make them click and purchase.
An analysis of 1,400 successful ad campaign case studies found that campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) as those with only rational content.
There is no limit to the importance of emotional marketing that you can bring into play – excitement, melancholic, shock, fear, happiness – just to name a few.
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Emotional Marketing Strategies
This post will teach you how emotional marketing can boost your Facebook ads and celebrate a great victory over the competitors.
Below are different ways how emotional marketing can increase your Facebook ads with some examples of emotional marketing.
There are in no order of importance since all of them are equally important. You may choose a few or all of them or mix and match as you like.
1. Make the offer about the buyer.
Make sure your offer is one that speaks to your audience and not just a list of your product’s features. Make it about them.
Why ….
Remember that your offer and ads should not be a long list of your product’s features or new user experience – UX updates.
Google manages to turn their rather technical offer into something that is actually about the reader.
Google’s Facebook ad makes it crystal clear that it is all about you, nothing but you.
- New domains that tell your story
- Get your domain today
- Find a domain name for your story
Further Reading: How to Write a Good Meta Description for SEO
2. Use memorable symbols
People are quick to build new associations between everything they see. That is why you should include positive symbols in your ad design to make your audience remember you with positive emotions.
Positive symbols can include:
- Checkmarks
- Smiley emoji/s
- Celebration emoji/s
- Stars
Asana’s Facebook ad creative displays a growth curve together with a checkmark icon.
What does it make you feel? If you are a prospect for Asana then you are likely to feel the relief of completing work in time.
You probably noticed how colourful all the Facebook ad examples in this article are.
There are two reasons for that:
- We are in love with colourful ad designs because our brain loves colours.
- Your target audience will also love colourful ad designs because all their brains love colours.
Research has discovered that consumers make up their minds within 90 seconds of their initial interaction with either people or products and anywhere from 62 – 90% of their decision-making is based on colours alone.
You should be able to make colourful Facebook ads align with your branding as a go-to strategy and it is an easy win.
3. Learn to Handle Negative Feelings
A Facebook ad sparking negative feelings is not always a bad thing especially if it first ignites the negative thoughts and then offers a solution to cheer you up.
Really…
Do not overdo the negativity in your ads. The key to successful Facebook ads lies in just the right amount of negativity.
A study by Stanford GSB and Tel Aviv University discovered that small doses of mild negative information also called blemishing effect might actually strengthen a consumer’s positive impression of a product or service.
Contently’s ad headline makes many marketers worry: If the future of content isn’t blogging, what am I going to do?
But just as the ad’s negative headline has grabbed the reader’s attention it also offers a solution: More videos. More downloadable content. More infographics.
According to the viral content study – some negative emotions contribute more to going viral than others especially the negative emotion of anger.
No Way…
Emotions like sadness is less likely to be shared but where it inspires high-energy emotions like awe, anger and anxiety it is more likely to be shared.
Anger wins the award as the most viral emotion. Note that anger is typically directed at the topic – not the author or publication.
Inciting anger in readers requires some tolerance for dealing with controversial topics.
The study also found that controversial blog posts receive twice as many comments on average however this could alienate customers and partners.
Awe will be the safest and most reliable path towards viral content. Awe is more than surprise – it is the reason we cannot stop watching movies with big explosions and larger-than-life heroes.
Creative inventions, completed labour-intensive projects, stunning design and novel are all ways to fill viewers and readers with awe.
Here is how to put negative feelings to good use in your Facebook ads:
- Capture your audience’s attention with a negative headline.
- Let your audience know about a small default about your product to show you are not hiding anything.
- Remind the readers of a negative fact or situation they encounter on a daily basis.
It is absolutely amazing to see how emotions affect buying behaviour in consumers across the spectrum.
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We all hope that we are going to be funnier, smarter and prettier.
That is why we buy new things — to improve our lives. While deep inside, everyone knows that most of the time material things would not make us happy but we still keep hoping they will.
Aaahh Guilty …
Shopify’s Facebook ad plays on the emotion of hope by using aspiring language and brilliant copywriting.
Start your journey and Get more out of life are both great slogans and talk to Shopify’s target audience and it offers hope.
Emotion of hope can be activated by masterful copywriting and also provide a platform or a solution to reach a better future.
If you promise to double a company’s revenue then also be clear about how you will do it.
5. Nail the Ads-Audience Match
Make sure your ad’s offer, design and messages match with your Facebook target audience.
Johnathan Dane from KlientBoost likes to divide Facebook audiences into three distinct groups:
- Ice cubes – people who have never heard of you and have not visited your website before
- Lukewarm audience –people who know who you are but cannot exactly tell what it is that you do
- Volcano lava traffic –people who have bought something from you before or are way down the conversion funnel on the path to becoming a customer.
Each of these temperature levels needs a dedicated Facebook ad emotional campaign if you are going to reach them effectively with a different offer and approach to ensure emotional advertising effectiveness.
6. Repeat Time-Sensitive Offers
When you give people too much time to make a decision they are going to postpone the conclusion and will likely forget about it.
However when presented with a limited time offer – consumers get worried about missing out on the awesome offer.
No Way …
Use deadlines to make people click now. The best thing about limited time offers is that they really work.
Applying scarcity and urgency on a website for an online entrepreneur did increase sales by 332%.
Here is how Target has done it:
Another emotional marketing example is Groupon who has even added the end time with the time zone specification to make their offer feel more urgent.
This way there is no doubt when the offer’s going to end.
How to create emotional content marketing as a sense of urgency in your Facebook ads by following some of these principles:
- Define clear dates like Today only or Offer ends in 24h
- Offer a great discount like Get 60% off today
- Keep your offer simple and brief
- Place your best offer in the ad’s headline or the image
- Match the ad’s offer on the landing page
7. Show the Excitement
Excitement is known for its ability to increase impulse and make people act quickly and it is one of the best emotional marketing approaches to date.
If you manage to get a person excited in your Facebook ad offer they are a lot more likely make the purchase based on the momentum.
According to Paloma Vasquez author of The Psychology of Social Shopping who points out that:
In a state of excitement or arousal people think and behave very differently. Emotional states trump rational thinking and it is easier to sell to consumers when they are excited.
This Facebook ad by Blue Apron showcases delicious-looking ingredients. What feelings do you get when you look at it?
Maybe you feel hungry. Maybe you feel like eating healthy does not have to be a pain in the butt. Maybe you even feel joy because the bright colours are joyful.
Are any of those feelings bad for Blue Apron? No.
Do you think those feelings are bad for click-thru? Definitely No.
As you look at Blue Apron’s Facebook ad – you will notice that it breathes excitement for many reasons: the bright ad colours, the delicious mouth-watering meal and the energetic tone of voice.
One can almost feel the excitement of opening the subscription box and discovering its treasures.
When using the excitement tactic in your Facebook ads do not let the sparkle fade before the purchase is made.
Why …
An article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that it takes 20 minutes for the feeling of excitement to pass. In most cases emotions fade even faster.
Therefore it is best to keep your ad’s landing page as straightforward and compelling as humanly possible and lead the visitor to sign up.
A few tips for creating exciting Facebook ads:
- Use bright colours in the ad design.
- Try using exclamation marks and keep your ad copy short.
- Include an ad image that shows excitement.
- Showcase your product at the most exciting moment of its lifecycle.
- Make sure that your offer is actually interesting to the target audience.
- Insert a discount offer to give the final nudge and make the ad irresistible.
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One study found that emotional articles were shared more often and also confirmed that positive posts were shared more often than negative ones.
What if the same rule applies to your Facebook ads – will positive ads get more likes and clicks?
There are three main tactics to use in emotional marketing happiness in Facebook ads:
- Brightly coloured ad design.
- Including an ad image with smiling people.
- Using adjectives and verbs with positive connotations.
Eventbrite has been applying all the three methods across their Facebook ad campaigns.
From smiling people relating to happiness..
To bright and contrasted colours.
Eventbrite’s ads do add positive emotions towards the offer and also encourage consumers to associate the entire brand with happy feelings.
If your goal is to make people remember your brand as a mood-booster on a rainy day then create more positive ad designs.
A study analysed more than 1 million online reviews on sites like TripAdvisor and found that restaurants received significantly better ratings on days with nice weather and worse reviews on any day with rain.
Emotional marketing happiness can work especially well for B2C brands especially for alcohol producers who often publish commercials with people enjoying themselves on the beach or at a party.
9. Create a Curiosity Gap
In simple terms the curiosity gap is the discrepancy between what we currently know and what we would like to know and it works wonders if your goal is to get people clicking.
Copy Hackers was able to get a 927% boost in clicks on their Pricing page after applying the tactic.
Yes of course curiosity gap can also be incorporated into your Facebook ad copy.
The formula of curiosity gaps is simple – Ask people a fascinating question or tell them a cool story and leave the best part untold.
When targeting a cold audience it is best to fill in their curiosity gap for free whilst with warm audiences you can ask for something in return like their email address.
There are three primary elements that go into the curiosity gap publishing model:
- Emotional Marketing Headlines
- Publishing frequency
- Going Viral
The reason why this works is that people have a natural tendency to connect the dots and discover the answers.
It will be hard for them to resist reading and clicking on your Facebook ad after it has posed a fascinating question.
This is another emotional marketing advantage.
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10. Master the Art of FOMO
Have you ever attended an event and thought – Maybe something cool would happen this is likely to be FOMO – the fear of missing out.
56% of consumers are afraid of missing something like an event, news or something important if they do not keep up on social media.
A lot of data suggests that FOMO is most prevalent among millennials.
Around 69% of millennials experience the phenomenon and according to Strategy Online – 60% of millennials make reactive purchases because of FOMO.
In other words they will buy something just because they feel they might miss out.
Really …
People are afraid of being left without an amazing experience but FOMO does not only apply to attending events. It also applies to other aspects of life and business.
For example, using emotional marketing images by showing huge numbers of people OptinMonster have helped, that makes the reader think that everyone else is already using their services and the person reading is the last one out.
By confirming over 24.1 Billion opt ins served, 600,000+ sites using OptinMonster and 217 Million conversion – OptinMonster makes the reader wonder if they are missing out on something.
How to use FOMO in your Facebook ads:
- Mention the number of people already benefitting from your product.
- Pose a question and hint how that person is missing out on a great opportunity.
- Make the reader feel like there is a fascinating community they are not part of… Yet.
- Make your Facebook ad offer limited by time to nudge people to sign up faster.
11. Create Location-Specific Ads.
Another case that calls for special measures is location-based targeting.
If you are targeting a specific location then test the inclusion of location-specific images and messages in your Facebook ads.
Airbnb’s Facebook ad is targeting people living in Bangkok by inviting them to join a hosts’ meetup.
Hired’s ad combines a specific audience – software engineers with location-based targeting.
The result is a Facebook ad that is more likely get a lot more clicks than a generic ad promoting their platform would produce.
Mazda in collaboration with Merchenta created customised ads based on geographic radius to target people who were likely to visit a specific Mazda dealership.
Visitors who saw these ads converted at a 53% higher rate than the control group. Almost 1 in 5 consumers interacted with the personalised ad.
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12. Remove Barriers Before They Are Formed.
Try to eliminate common restrictions and risks even before they are formed.
One of the reasons people change their minds about making a purchase last minute is that they come up with new objections or restrictions not to make the purchase.
As explained by cxl.com:
Whenever there is a transaction there is always risk. Usually the vendor has the buyer carry most of the risk however if the risk is too big then the purchase would not take place.
Try offering guarantees to eliminate or reduce the perceived risks your prospects might have.
Lyft counters the objection will I even make any money? by offering new drivers a $500 a week payment guarantee:
If you are a coffee lover then Blue Bottle Coffee’s Facebook ad will win you over with its’ free trial which neutralises objections around having to go into the store to try the coffee out.
The ad copy reads: Choose your coffee. Pick your frequency. Skip a shipment. Cancel whenever. Enjoy anytime. Notice the terms – Skip a shipment. Cancel whenever.
That is the perfect guarantee showing a potential buyer that they are free to cancel the subscription at any time.
No matter if you are in SaaS or e-commerce – if you can offer your prospects to overcome their restriction or objections then it is all worth it.
13. Make the Customer Feel Safe.
Try offering your buyers a money-back guarantee or subscription cancellation offer is a great way to do this.
Another way to make people feel great about their purchase is to remind them that they are making a smart choice.
How …
Dollar Shave Club’s Facebook ad uses a no-strings-attached strategy with this line: No commitment. No fees. It also says that their product is the smarter way to shave.
The person who buys the subscription will know they have made a clever deal and will feel good about it.
However the real emotional marketing value of this Facebook ad hides in the sense of belonging it creates.
The Dollar Shave Club’s ad copy tells a story about an exclusive set of members who enjoy awesome benefits of using the service and makes you want to belong to it.
Feeling the need to belong is a fundamental human need to form and maintain at least a minimum amount of lasting, positive and significant interpersonal relationships.
By turning your product into a bigger story of community you will attract more people who want to be part of something.
How to use emotional marketing value to create a sense of belonging:
- Frame your offer as an invitation into an attractive community.
- Include the names of influencers using your product.
- Mention the size of your user base to convince people of the community’s worth.
- Make the entry challenging enough for the person to value the community.
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A report has confirmed that MRI neuro-imagery shows that consumers use emotions rather than information to evaluate a brand.
If you are looking for a strong emotion that will immediately catch your audience’s attention then create an offer that will surprise them.
A simple way is to conduct an original survey and share interesting emotional marketing statistics with your ad audience. That is exactly what Grammarly has done:
You can also learn to apply the surprise and delight approach that is based on the principle that nice surprises make people feel special and important.
Offer a free coupon or some other pleasant surprise to win your Facebook target audience’s attention and trust via a series of small gestures.
Have a coffee on us. G2 Crowd offers a $10 Starbucks gift card in exchange for filling in a quick survey. This works for two reasons:
- People are pleasantly surprised to get the gift card.
- By filling in the survey they are becoming familiar with G2 Crowd’s brand.
According to Nielsen study – 83% of people say they always trust the recommendations of friends and family which makes it ever more important to engage your target audience.
When you create noteworthy Facebook ads – they will distribute organically via the likes, comment and shares by your target audience.
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People feel guilty about different things but one thing is for sure – if you can hit the right nerve then you will win their attention.
Not sure…
Consumers who feel guilty tend to respond well to small, short-term fixes. That is why the number of new gym memberships soars after a long holiday period and declines shortly after.
Guilt as an emotion can be used effectively in the B2B industry.
A study published by researchers at The University of British Columbia suggests that guilt can be a powerful tool for motivating self-improvement and for selling self-improvement products and services.
Scoro’s Facebook post asks – Are you working hard or hardly working? makes a person think whether they are really contributing enough.
Are you guilty of procrastination? The Facebook ad also offers a quick solution – 89 productivity hacks to improve oneself.
Remember that emotional marketing with guilt works best if you also provide a quick fix to the audience’s problem.
Slack’s Facebook ad has taken a similar approach by stating – Your inbox is out of control.
This is another reason why utilising strong emotional word Yikes in the first ad image instantly catching consumer’s attention. Slack provides both – a problem and a solution.
How to use guilt for successful Facebook campaigns:
- Remind your audience of a small mistake they are making.
- Offer a quick solution to their problem.
- Use strong words that spark negative feelings and help to grab attention.
Conclusion
Emotions are central to emotional marketing advertising effectiveness and can generate at least a 23% increase in sales.
Applying emotional marketing techniques to your Facebook campaigns is easy.
All it takes is smart copywriting, original ad design and lots of creativity.
Emotions can go a long way in helping to create click-worthy Facebook ads.
Find out what works best for your target audience and see your sales results grow.
To wrap up – here are nearly all the emotions listed once more: The fear of missing out, excitement, curiosity, happiness, negative feelings, hope, pride, urgency, surprise, sense of belonging, guilt, feeling of importance and more.
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