12,000 shoppers showed us how to supercharge Search ads ~ Alistair Rennie, Sian Davies

We discovered how to help shoppers make purchasing decisions in our ‘Decoding Decisions’ research, and now we’ve applied these insights to Search ads. We ran 96,000 simulations with 12,000 shoppers across 12 products to understand what makes brands — and their ads — stand out on a Search results page.1

Be present where people are searching

The new research mirrored something we saw in our original findings: you can capture consumer preference just by showing up as people are searching. This might sound obvious, but to isolate the impact we simulated the search results when using identical ad copy for both the shopper’s favourite and their second favourite brand.

The effect is significant. For example, when shoppers in our study were searching for moisturisers, we introduced their second favourite brand into the Search results and it immediately captured 31% of ad clicks, despite ranking third on the page and appearing below their favourite brand.

Takeaway:?You don't have to appear at the top of the page to be considered — just being present can make a difference.

Applying behavioural science principles to Search ads

In our research, shoppers were shown three different ads on a simulated Search page that looked just like one in the real world. It featured ads for their favourite and second favourite brands, alongside a fictional brand in the same product category.

We used the following five?behavioural science?principles to alter the ad copy, in an attempt to move consumer interest away from the favourite brand:

1. Power of free:?Free items, offers, and vouchers with a purchase can be a big motivator.
2. Authority bias:?When brands, products, and services are backed by experts and trusted sources, they stand out from the competition.
3. Social proof:?Reviews, recommendations, and highlighting a popular choice within a relevant reference group can be very persuasive.
4. Framing:?Changing the frame of reference can help people reconsider the value of a product or service. For example, framing can highlight benefits such as convenience or time-savings.
5. Costly signalling:?Demonstrating the premium nature of a product through premium associations, such as an ad during the Super Bowl.

One at a time, we altered the ad copy of the brands to test the effectiveness of the different principles (also known as biases). By doing so, we were able to shift preference away from the shopper’s favourite brand. Even though, in some instances, the shopper had never even heard of the brand as it was a fictional one.

Takeaway:?When used intelligently and responsibly, behavioural science principles are powerful tools to win and defend consumer preference in the “messy middle”.

Supercharging ad copy with all biases

Applying one or more of these biases shifted brand preference, but the best results came when we ‘supercharged’ our second favourite and fictional brands with the most effective versions of ecreativity to drive results.