Targeted ads, which have become increasingly popular due to social media, have proven to be very effective due to the use of implied social labels (Summers, Smith, Reczek, 2016). Contrary to advertisements that target heuristic processing, where consumers are unaware of any persuasion, targeted ads take advantage of consumer persuasion knowledge. In targeted advertising, consumers perceive that “the marketer has made an inference about their identity” (Summers, Smith, Reczek, 2016). Consumers then internalize this identity analysis and change their behavior to better match the ad. This slight change in behavior prevents consumers from experiencing cognitive dissonance relating to their self-perception, and as the marketer’s would hope, often leads to the purchase of a product. However, one important aspect of targeted advertising is that it only increases purchasing if the consumer feels that the ad is a plausible match to their behavior. To better understand this phenomenon, here are two examples of advertisements targeted towards me:
The first ad advertises a flat brim hat made by a brand that is popular in the cross country ski world. I can recognize that it appeared in my feed because I have bought products from this brand before. It matches my behavior. It also influences my self-perception. I am an avid skier and hiker, and this brand sells products for outdoorsy, active people. When I see this brand, it reminds me of these aspects of my identity, and may even cause me to place greater emphasis on my outdoorsy side. This subtle reminder and shifting of identity is what could ultimately persuade me to buy a hat. There are two other very important pieces related to the effectiveness of the first advertisement. Both are small yet powerful details; within the ad, I can see that the brand being advertised is followed by people that I follow on social media, and I can also see that thousands of other people follow this brand. These two details provide two more psychological tools: normative influence and, within this, peer endorsement. It is clear that this brand is popular, and importantly, it is popular among my friends. Knowing that many other people, including people within my social circle, endorse this brand provides strong persuasion that buying this product is not only very common, but could increase my belonging and connection with peers and within my specific cross country ski community.
The second advertisement, however, is one for a glucose tracking app for people with diabetes. I do not have diabetes. My behavior and identity are so very far from this product that I would never buy it, so the advertisement does not work. It doesn’t provide an implied social label that makes sense to me. On the other hand, there is advertising that adapts to a consumer’s personality and goals, called message tailoring. This strategy tailors persuasive messages towards each of the Big Five personality dimensions; extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. By doing so, advertisements are more likely to align with the goals and motivators of each personality type thus making the message more effective since they are processed more positively. For instance in a study titled Personalized Persuasion: Tailoring Persuasive Appeals to Recipients’ Personality Traits, five different advertisements were made to appeal to each personality type. For each dimension, the text on each of the five varied to appeal to their assumed motivations. The participants then ranked the effectiveness of each advertisement. In the end, the advertisements that targeted a specific personality type were found to be the most effective. This strategy would work best on a personalized platform or app, such as Instagram, where each of the advertisements are customized to the user. This way a product, service, or idea can be successfully sold.
The social status of a brand sponsor also affects the way an individual responds to advertisements. In an article titled The interplay between endorser social status and normative appeals on the endorsement effectiveness of pro-environmental behaviors, explains this theory. Endorsers with high social status are most persuasive when they employ the use of injunctive norms (by telling others what products they should be buying), while ordinary consumers best persuade others when using descriptive norms (explaining what it is that others already do) (He, Fu, Li, Guo, 2019). Brands employ both of these methods. Celebrities often appear in commercials, which signals that consumers should buy a product, while ordinary consumers can become brand ambassadors, which signals to consumers that other people within their social circle are buying a specific product, so therefore they should too.