Hello my nerdy friends,
If you use UGC or influencers in your ads, this can make them more persuasive.
The study:
Researchers ran three video-ad experiments to test how gestures affect persuasion.
They looked at how the person in the ad moved: either using energetic, open gestures or slower, more controlled gestures, and how that interacted with the angle of the message.
Some ads focused on gains, like enjoyment or benefits. Others focused on avoiding problems, like protection or safety.
They also tested whether this worked differently depending on whether the person in the ad was familiar (a celebrity) or unknown.
After people watched the ads, the researchers asked viewers’ mindset to rate the brand. (Ono & Ono, 2024)
🧪What they found:
Energetic gestures worked better for messages about gains (promotion).
Controlled gestures worked better for messages about avoiding problems (prevention).
But this effect was much stronger when the person in the ad was familiar to the viewer.
Why?
Controlled movements feel like the way you move when you are being careful to stay safe and avoid problems.
Energetic movements feel like the way you move to try to achieve something.
So seeing these gestures get us into a certain mindset, either promotion or prevention.
If the ad matches our mindset(created by the gestures), it becomes easier to process, and as usual, if something is easier to process, our brain likes it.
Familiar people also make this effect much stronger, because when you recognize the person in the ad, their movements are easier to read and, again, our brains like when we make the job easier for them.
Caveat
The studies used university students in one country. The final product was a fictional sunscreen brand, and the main outcome was brand evaluation, not real sales or conversion data.
💡Takeaway
If your ad angle focuses on results or benefits, use creators with more open and energetic movements.
If your ad angle focuses on safety or avoiding a problem, use creators with slower and more controlled movements.
If possible, use people your audience recognizes to magnify this effect.
Stay awesome,
Ksenia (the biggest nerd)
P.S. a word from today’s sponsor, Viktor!
Your ads ran overnight. Nobody was watching. Except Viktor.
One brand built 30+ landing pages through Viktor without a single developer.
Each page mapped to a specific ad group. All deployed within hours. Viktor wrote the code and shipped every one from a Slack message.
That same team has Viktor monitoring ad accounts across the portfolio and posting performance briefs before the day starts. One colleague. Always on. Across every account.