Hey 👋 The Crew here.
Did you know that, according to PubMed, the number of scientific articles that use the term “delving into” went from around 100 in 2014 to more than 4100 in 2024?
Gee. We wonder what happened in the past 12 months that might’ve caused this…
Okay, back to psychology now.
Reading time: 4 minutes, 25 seconds
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How to stop the scroll with high-impact UGC ad scripts.
For social media ads, a 30% hook rate is good. But with most ads, even great ones, this figure starts to drop rapidly once you begin to scale.
This ad cranked it up to 50%, with over $115K ad spend, leading to a staggering 3+ Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).
Here’s the winning formula:
- Leverage a trusted source of social proof. In this case, The Today Show.
- Use specific numbers wherever possible, like “featured 15 times”.
- Iterate on winners until you discover what the audience really responds to. In this case, the storytelling format struck gold.
Curious to find out what 3+ ROAS ads could do for your brand?
Get a free script for your next UGC ad with Hustler Marketing.
The Zero Price Effect
If you have a sweet tooth, be warned:
The following story is about chocolate—and pricing psychology.
In 2007, a group of psychologists led by Dan Ariely set up a shop and started selling two brands of chocolate—Lindt truffles for 15c a piece and Hershey’s Kisses for 1c per piece.
76% of customers grabbed the Lindt truffles. After all, a quality treat at a significant price cut is a no-brainer, right?
But then, Arely reduced both prices by 1c. Now Lindt truffles cost 14c a piece, while Hershey’s Kisses were free.
The new result? 69% now opted for Hershey’s Kisses.
Bottom line: Despite the price difference being the same, we tend to discard logic when there’s something that we can get for free.
Free shipping, free gift, free anything.
And that becomes very obvious when you see other studies:
- Half of Amazon Prime users say they’ve subscribed due to free shipping.
- UK customers prefer free shipping over environmental causes.
- Numerous studies say deals that use the word “free,” like “buy-one-get-one-free,” “free shipping,” or “free gift,” can increase sales.
A magical pull, right? Let’s see how you can best use the Zero Price Effect in your campaigns…
Three ways you can leverage the Zero Price Effect
1) Add a free product to the offer
It might seem counterintuitive, but bundling products and adding free stuff can be a good thing.
Let’s say you bundle a product and throw in a little freebie.
You’re essentially increasing your average order value. You’re selling more and getting better returns. In other words, your cheap little free product is an investment in higher AOV.
Here’s another example:
In this case, the brand doesn’t bundle products but instead encourages a higher purchase by adding a gift to the offer.
The effect is the same: A bigger and better order.
2) Highlight free shipping
Free shipping is the holy grail of every customer.
You saw the stats we shared above. Most customers would rather have their product shipped for free than save the planet. It’s surprising, but it’s what the data shows.
For that reason you should always look to emphasize the free shipping offer… sometimes even more than you emphasize the product itself.
Check out this email:
The “free shipping” is the biggest, boldest part of this design.
We wonder why…
3) Adjust pricing to match the “free”
No matter what your offer is, you can always do the math so you don’t lose money.
Think of it this way: Generally speaking, people value a $760 hotel room with “free” water in the mini bar more highly than a $750 room with water bottles for $10.
You can do the same thing.
If your product costs $50 and shipping costs $10, it’s more effective to say the product is $60 but shipping is free.
Even if that’s not possible—like in the case of bundling products—you can always add the “free” part to the least valuable segment and write it off as an investment in higher AOV.
Now the only thing left is to whip out the calculator.
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MARKETING: It’s going down, down, down… Marketing budgets have tanked again in 2024 and now amount to only 7.1% of overall companies’ revenues on average, new research says. For reference, pre-pandemic averages were 11%. Uh-oh.
GOOGLE: Remember how Google introduced AI overviews just last week? Well, it’s already launching ads for the feature as well. The tech giant will start testing Search and Shopping ads in the US “soon,” the company said in its blog post. Better get ready.
CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION: Did you know that an effective upselling and cross-selling strategy can boost your revenue by up to 30%? That’s not coming from us, but from other merchants and advertisers. Don’t believe us? Check out this article for more data.
*This is a sponsored post.
ICYMI, last time we looked at the Center Stage Effect.
The “Freebie” Crew
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