Boost the Results of Your Advertising Content by Using Consumer Psychology Models

This is a blog by Mark Verzijl, Consultant at Sciential.

Thanks to years of research in psychology, there are many validated consumer psychology models you can use to improve the outcome of marketing campaigns. One of my go-to models is the so-called theory of planned behavior (TPB) from Icek Ajzen. Ajzen's theory states that conscious behavior arises directly from the intention to perform the behavior. According to Ajzen, intention is determined by three elements:

𝘈𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦
Attitude deals with a person's attitude toward the behavior. When the person has a positive attitude toward the behavior, the person is more likely to intentionally perform the behavior.

𝘚𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮(𝘴)
The subjective norm is about what the person thinks others - in his immediate environment - think of the behavior (to be performed) and how they judge it. When the person thinks others consider the behavior to be normal or good, the person is more likely to consciously perform the behavior.

𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭
Perceived behavioral control is about the extent to which the person believes the behavior is easy to perform. This involves both the person's own skills and the environmental factors that promote or hinder the behavior. When the person believes that behavior is easy to perform, the person is more likely to perform the behavior consciously.

Relating this to digital advertising, you could for example apply the following improvements to your ad copies and visuals to boost results:

💡clearly state the advantages of your product or service;
💡demonstrate social proof by referring to satisfied clients; and
💡lower the threshold to engage with an easy call-to-action.

Obviously, they are plenty more use cases you can think of since we know how we can steer behavior.