🧑‍🔬 How To Hook Your Customers

Brand: Cerebral

Psychology Concept: Information-Gap Theory

Days Running: 410 Days
(This gives an indication of how it’s performing)

🧪 Information-Gap Theory

The Information-Gap Theory explains that people will seek to close the gap between what they know and what they want to know.

When people recognize a discrepancy between their current knowledge and a desired level of understanding, they experience an emotional response—typically curiosity—that motivates them to seek out the missing information to close the gap.

🤳 How Cerebral Uses The Information-Gap Theory

Cerebral’s ad uses the Information-Gap Theory to attract viewers who might be overwhelmed by the high costs of therapy.

By beginning the ad with the headline, “STOP Overpaying For Therapy With This,” it immediately creates an information gap. This statement hooks viewers, making them wonder what “this” solution could be, especially if they’re already feeling the pain of expensive therapy sessions.

By presenting a relatable problem—overpaying for therapy—and hinting at a cost-effective alternative, Cerebral uses this initial gap in knowledge to drive the viewer to want to keep watching.

🧠 How You Can Use The Information-Gap Theory

The key to leveraging the Information-Gap Theory in your next ad is to create a knowledge gap that your target audience feels compelled to fill.

Here’s how you can do so:

• Start with a Provocative Statement: Open your ad with a bold, curiosity-piquing statement or question that highlights a common pain point or desire within your target audience. This should be something they feel a strong need to know more about, like “Are You Wasting Money on Ineffective Skincare Products?”

• Present an Unmet Need or Problem: Identify a problem your audience faces but might not fully understand, such as high costs, inefficiency, or poor quality. The goal is to create a sense of urgency or dissatisfaction.

• Offer a Tease of a Solution: Give just enough information to suggest that you have the solution, but not enough to fully satisfy the viewer’s curiosity. For instance, “Discover the One Simple Change That Saved Me Hundreds on Car Insurance.”

Remember, after you’ve built up curiosity, reveal your product or service as the answer to the problem. Make sure to clearly state the benefits and unique value of your offering.

Here’s a ChatGPT prompt to help you create compelling headlines that’ll get people watching and clicking (use them for static ads, hooks for video ads, or headlines for landing pages!):

I'm creating an ad for [brand] and need help with a compelling headline for an ad.

[explain brand in one sentence]

The target audience is:
[list target audience]

The pain points it solves is:
[list customer pain points]

The current solution to this problem is [list a current solution] but [explain why it's not a good solution].

The main unique selling propositions (USPs) compared to the competition are:
[list USPs in bullet points]

Can you please help in creating 20 headlines that use the Information-Gap Theory?

The goal with these headlines is to evoke a sense of curiosity and compel the customer to click on the ad or continue watching if it's a video ad. Make sure it addresses the customers' pain points and get them curious to know more.

Note: The more information you can fill in the first half of these prompts (info about your brand, pain points, USP, etc.), the better the output will be. Hopefully with this you get a few great headlines out of the 20 it produces!