Does your audi­ence respond to ads that imply the prod­uct does things for them or that the prod­uct empow­ers them?

See which option had an 87% higher CTR.

One of the biggest ques­tions when writ­ing ads, head­lines, or any sales copy for that mat­ter, is whether your audi­ence desires pas­sive or active ben­e­fits. Do they want an “enabling” prod­uct, one that results in them doing some­thing bet­ter, faster, eas­ier, or some­thing that sim­ply  does it for them?

We tested this, and found some dra­matic dif­fer­ences for our audience.

In our case, the ad imply­ing empow­er­ment attracted far more atten­tion and interest.

Why?

We can’t know for sure, but our audi­ence is peo­ple look­ing for self-improvement and self-development, so they could be look­ing for products/services that empower them to cre­ate change within their lives. It is much eas­ier and desir­able to be proud of some­thing you your­self have done ver­sus some­thing a thing/service/product did for you.

Which do your cus­tomers pre­fer? Have you stud­ied it? The impact of this research could dra­mat­i­cally impact — and improve — your entire prod­uct cre­at­ing process, from con­cep­tion to delivery.

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike Reining

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