Growth Newsletter #237

If you're running ads, use these to help inform both your ad copy, creatives, and landing pages.

1. Virtual Influencers vs Human Influencers 🤖

Okay this is both slightly horrifying and cool. AI influencers can sell tech better than human influencers. For example, Lil Miquela:

Takeaways:

• If your product is tech-related or innovative, use with AI-generated influencers (but make sure to disclose it’s not real).
• If your product involves the human body (cosmetics, hygiene), stick to human influencers.
• Results from a study showing participants ads for a Samsung speaker or a Calvin Klein cream, paired with either a virtual or human influencer:
  • People were more likely to buy the speaker when it was paired with the virtual influencer.
  • People were more likely to buy the cream when it was paired with the human influencer.

This may be a short-lived phenomenon while AI influencers are still novel.​

The generalizable takeaway is that if you sell tech or innovative products, use innovative forms of marketing.

2. Be careful where you put the price💲

‍We talked a lot a couple of weeks ago about how the presentation of a price can significantly impact someone's perception of that price. Here's one more:

‍Below the product = perceived as cheaper.

• A $2.49 dental floss felt 9% cheaper when the price was below.
• Liquor store sales were 35.2% higher when prices were below bottles.

3. Slow vs. fast ads 🎬

‍I'll let Science Says' great graph do the talking here:

Slow-paced = better for benefits & quality messaging.

• A benefit-focused ad rated 32.8% higher when slow .

Fast-paced = better for price & features.

• A price-focused ad rated 24.7% better when fast.

If you sell Prada bags, do it slowly. If you sell knockoffs, do it fast.

4. Rule of 3 in persuasion 3️⃣

Three positive claims = most persuasive than any other number of claims.

• A cereal ad was most effective with 3 key benefits—adding more made it less convincing.
• Note that this only applies to marketing (likely due to people’s natural skepticism). Neutral reports become increasingly more persuasive with more claims.

5. Dynamic vs. static ads 🎞️

‍Static ads are easier to make and experiment with, but are they significantly better or worse than motion and video ads? That depends:

• For hedonic products (fashion, travel, high-end items), use video & GIFs to sell more.
  • People were willing to pay $43.39 for a fancy coffee maker when shown dynamically vs. $29.91 with a static image.
  • 81% picked a premium hotel room when shown in a video vs. 52% with a static image.
• If using static images, add descriptive language to help viewers imagine using the product.
• For utilitarian products, static vs. dynamic doesn’t matter as much.

6. Vertical video > horizontal video 📱

‍The vast majority of ad viewers these days are on phones, so this one is likely not a surprise, but in case you need justification:Vertical videos outperform horizontal on mobile.

• 57% vs. 43% views to completion in a Facebook A/B test.
• 55% vs. 45% engagement.
• Younger audiences (Gen Z) prefer vertical.

I can see why. Check out this image from Science Says showing how the same video looks on mobile phones:

Bonus tip: High-quality audio is incredibly important. They'll think better of you in every possible way. Invest in a quality microphone for ads and even Looms and ZOOMs.

7. Smaller units = more credibility ⏳

‍We buy from companies and people we trust and deem credible & competent.So, it may be surprising that the unit you use in your statistics can have a profound impact on how they perceive your credibility:

• People believe a “180 minutes” battery lasts longer than “3 hours.”
• A construction project seemed 46% faster when framed as “52 weeks” instead of “1 year.”
• Works best for time estimates but also applies to client count, reviews, etc. (ex: ‘34 happy clients’ vs. ‘dozens of happy clients’).

8. Too many features can backfire 🧨

‍Science Says summarized this perfectly, so I'm going to quote it:“

An iPod was be promoted as either:

A) iPod + Free cover + 1 free song download
B) iPod + Free cover

When asked in an experiment, 92% of participants (posing as marketers working at Apple trying to decide what to promote) chose option A. But how do consumers see it?

Potential customers were willing to pay $177 for option A. But for option B they were willing to pay $242.

People would pay 36.7% more for the option that offers less.

Takeaway: Too many features can dilute perceived value. Focus on your top benefits only. Don’t overload or dilute it with progressively weaker features and value props.

9. Eye gaze in ads 👀

‍We've previously talked about the power of faces and eye gaze. Here's research on when it's best to use Direct Eye Gaze or Averted Eye Gaze:

• For hedonic (pleasure-based) products: Model looking away increases sales.
  • A sun hat ad saw a 30% sales boost when the model looked away.
• For practical or serious topics: Direct gaze increases trust.
  • A domestic abuse petition got 75.2% sign-ups with a direct gaze vs. 53.8% with an averted gaze.

10. Fonts matter 🔣

‍This is a combo of three different pieces of research related to fonts:

1. ​Italicized fonts signal urgency and a limited-time offer. Research shows that 3 times more people clicked an email and were 31% more likely to say they would buy from a Mexican restaurant if they contained with an italicized font versus regular fonts.
2. ​Rounded fonts (vs sharp-edged fonts) sell better for pleasure-based products. When ads used a rounded font (vs a sharp-edged font), people liked:
   • Mobile games 26% more
   • Soda 24% more
   • Milkshakes 11.2% more
3. To build off #2, use handwritten fonts if your product is pleasure-based (candles, food, fashion, experiences). Use machine-written fonts if your product is functional (insect repellant candle, home repair, accounting).

Here are the fonts used in the study:

Summarized takeaways

• Use AI influencers for tech products and human influencers for human-related products.
• Put prices below products to make them feel cheaper.
• Slow-paced ads for quality & benefits, fast-paced for price & features.
• Stick to 3 key selling points—more isn’t always better.
• Use motion for hedonic products. Static is fine for functional products.
• Vertical video > horizontal on mobile (and most people are on mobile)
• Use smaller, more precise units to boost credibility.
• Highlight your best features. Don’t overload with unnecessary ones.
• Eye contact builds trust; looking away builds aspiration.
• Fonts matter—use the right type for your product.

​Of course, this only scratches the surface of all the best practices for creating and running ads well. We nerd out, research, and apply this stuff daily for our clients so they don't have to.​​

‍We're opening up a new pod for our ads agency and opening up to five new clients this month. If you want startup experts to run your ads, either reply to this newsletter or reach out to us here.