What people want vs what people need (6)
Yesterday I thought about this and that and then brainstormed a bit about different offer verticals/offers, how they work, why they work and all such stuff.
I also thought about different emotions and desires that can play a big role when it comes to offer promotions, there are many interesting things about it in "Ca$hvertising".
Then I tried to find out more about the driving forces that motivates people to convert (no matter if sale, lead or whatever) when it comes to what they want vs what they need.
One thing that I noticed is that by far most offers are rather about what people want and not that much about what people need.
For example there are many more iPhone or Samsung Galaxy SOI offers than life assurance offers or leadgens for a heart attack risk test altough the latter ones could be life saving and should be more important whereas the phone offers are not really needed at all, in the end a cheap China Android phone could do most of the things as well.
Usually I would think that people value things they need as more important than things they just want and although in theory this should be perfectly true the shopping/money spending behavior often shows a pretty different picture.
People often happily spend a fortune on overhyped and overpriced stuff *cough* Apple products *cough* whereas they often seem to be much more cautious about their money when it comes to things they really need or things that can be really important for them.
For a moment this behavior sounds pretty stupid for me because fullfilling our needs should always have priority over satisfying our primitive desires but when I thought more about it it seemed very logical for me.
In my opinion there´s probably one important reason that often explains such behavior:
Fear paralizes, happiness makes active
Probably we all know it, we try to ignore and postpone unpleasent things as much as we can even when we know that we have to deal with it anyway.
Instead of taking care of such things ASAP to get rid of it we often postpone it because such things just don´t give us a good feeling so we try to avoid them as long as possible.
On the other hand we are much more likely to do things we enjoy, no matter how stupid they are (like TikTok challenges) because such things can give a moment of happiness and let us feel good.
That´s what we´re looking for so that´s also what we want to do again and again.
Let´s check it in relation to offers now.
For the unpleasent side I will use the example with the heart attack risk test again.
Imagine you see an ad about a heart attack risk test , would you feel motivated to click it and fill out the lead form to get a check?
Mostly we probably just ignore the ad and move on but when we look a bit closer about the motives to ignore it there could be thoughts like „Well, this could be a very important test to do but maybe I don´t even want to know the possible outcome. What happens when they really find out that I have a increased risk of a heart attack?“
Pretty unpleasant feeling, huh?
Why should you expose yourself to such a situation if it´s not really needed?
When shit hits the fan you can still find a way how to deal with it but there´s no need to destroy the comfortable current situation with such stuff.
The outcome could lead to a worsening of your well being so your mind tells you to best avoid it.
On the other hand there are plenty of phone offers with all kind of conversion flows.
There are leadgens, CC submits, PIN submits and whatever but let´s start with the „free“ flows.
For every new phone model of the most important manufacturers you can also expect new offers and it doesn´t matter what phone or what conversion flow, these offers have one thing in common: They all work very good over and over again.
Do you really need these devices? - No
Do these offers give you a little adrenaline rush and some excitement when you imagine you can win there? - Yes
You can be sure that there are many people who not only try to win once but who try to get a free a prize again and again although they never won.
Just the short moment of excitement and adrenaline can already be enough to keep people filling out the lead forms.
Of course that´s not only true for phone offers but for all other kinds of sweepstakes as well.
At least for leadgens we could still say that there the users don´t have to pay any money so it doesn´t hurt them financially if they never win.
But what about CC submits?
Is it stupid to think that you can get a brand new iPhone 13 Pro Max for just $1?
Of course it is.
Nonetheless countless people are willing to pay for it without reading the fine print or even worse, they read the fine print but still enter their credit card details.
It´s probably too tempting so that they don´t want to waste the slightest chance to really get an iPhone 13 for $1, there the risk-benefit analysis tells „It´s ok, even when you lose that $1 there´s still a minimal chance that it really works“.
Let´s move away from sweep offers and have a look at health related offers.
As I already said above, people are often willing to pay lots of money for unnecessary stuff but on the other hand they try to avoid spending money for things that could be really important.
Let it be Acai Berries, Colon Cleanser or Green Tea offers; the typical CPA offers don´t provide much value for the user but they are still willing to pay lot´s of money for „2 bottles plus 1 bottle FREE“.
In the end it doesn´t even matter if the offers work or not because people already feel good when they think they´re doing something that makes them „better“ so they don´t waste the money, instead they rather see the products as a reward.
The feeling alone that you get when you think you improve your well being is already enough to spend money for such products.
Same as with sweep offers, there are more than enough people that not only buy one hyped diet product, they will buy the next one as well, no matter if they really lost weight from the previous product or not.
Then there´s another very effective driving force that motivates people to spend lots of money, no matter if they can afford it or not – Greed
There a prime example are Crypto offers.
They usually convert at $250 FTD but nowadays they are a very stable vertical to work with because there are enough people who will gladly fork out the $250 in hope to become the next Bitcoin Millionaire™ 
Forget about risks, becoming rich from the comfort of your how without lifting a finger for only $250 investment is absolutely worth it or not?
On the other hand there can be real helpful health related offers like the heart attack risk test from above, such offers could be more important users won´t take out their credit cards that easily for it or won´t even fill out a free lead form.
In my opinion this happens because there are basically 2 base situations.
1) A person feels healthy and wants to keep the status quo.
As already said above, users won´t risk to hurt their comfortable situation when they discover that their health is at risk so they try to avoid that unpleasent feeling.
2) A person is already in a bad health condition
When you are already in a bad health condition and don´t know what happens next you are much more likely to keep your credit tight to be prepared for whatever happens.
So we can say that for offers like CC submits or Nutra CPS it doesn´t really matter if the people can really afford the money or not because the good feeling they get is enough to justify the purchases.
On the other side it often doesn´t matter how much money a person has, when you are in a situation with an uncertain outcome you tend to be more careful with your spendings.
What is the wall of text good for?
I was thinking about what to run this year, maybe promoting something new or so.
For me personally it just gave me some nice food for thought in what direction to go.
Of course I already knew that such „entertaining“ offers are doing good, there´s a reason why you see more of them compared to more gravely offers but it was interesting to think a bit about why there are are more of such offers.
I am also a big fan of Ca$hvertising so thinking about emotional or psychological triggers in our funnel is pretty interesting anyway and can help alot to understand the driving force that lets users convert or not.
I hope you enjoyed the post, let me know when you would like to read more about some random brainstorm sessions 
Thought-provoking post!
I definitely agree with most of what you said. Below I'd like to offer another perspective on some of the points.
Probably we all know it, we try to ignore and postpone unpleasent things as much as we can even when we know that we have to deal with it anyway.
Instead of taking care of such things ASAP to get rid of it we often postpone it because such things just don´t give us a good feeling so we try to avoid them as long as possible.
Fear can actually be a powerful motivator for action.
There's a reason why the "your device is infected with a million viruses" angle works so well for antivirus.
In my experience, the following elements are beneficial when using fear to drive action:
1)Point out the unpleasant consequences (e.g. "your phone can suffer irreparable damage")
2)Remind that the consequence are imminent (e.g. "your phone can die as soon as minutes from now"; count down timers accomplish the same thing)
3)Make the audience feel like the situation applies to them 100%, i.e. that they're at risk (e.g. "your [brand] [model] has been infected")
4)Most importantly: Provide a quick and easy solution (e.g. "step 1: click on the link below; step 2: click on the "install" button on the next page)
1) A person feels healthy and wants to keep the status quo.
As already said above, users won´t risk to hurt their comfortable situation when they discover that their health is at risk so they try to avoid that unpleasent feeling.
2) A person is already in a bad health condition
When you are already in a bad health condition and don´t know what happens next you are much more likely to keep your credit tight to be prepared for whatever happens.
So we can say that for offers like CC submits or Nutra CPS it doesn´t really matter if the people can really afford the money or not because the good feeling they get is enough to justify the purchases.
On the other side it often doesn´t matter how much money a person has, when you are in a situation with an uncertain outcome you tend to be more careful with your spendings.
As you know, I'm an energy healer on the side. We have clients that are suffering from various stages of physical/emotional discomfort - some are even terminally ill (e.g. end-stage cancer).
Those that are starting to feel physical discomfort - joint pain, headaches etc. - are starting to realize that they need to invest in their health before it's too late.
Those that are very ill - will try anything and everything - because if they don't spend the money today, there may not be a tomorrow.
Of course, I don't doubt that there are people that fit your description as well.
As usual, every situation is different, and the devil's in the details.
This is why it's important to do extensive research into angles and audience, and to test multiple angles with every audience if possible.
Cause you just never know until you test.
The feeling alone that you get when you think you improve your well being is already enough to spend money for such products.
I wished more marketers would promote good products using "good-feeling" angles, instead of promoting scammy products using negative emotions like fear and insecurity.
Because good-feeling ads, if done right, can convert better. Plus build good karma by spreading good vibes.
Instead of having people see your ad and end up feeling worried and shitty all day.
Would love to hear other marketers' take on this topic!
Amy
There's a reason why the "your device is infected with a million viruses" angle works so well for antivirus.
I was probably thinking more of health related things or "real" worries in relation to paralizing fear.
Money related worries can also be a motivating factor to complete financial offers for example.
Those that are starting to feel physical discomfort - joint pain, headaches etc. - are starting to realize that they need to invest in their health before it's too late.
Those that are very ill - will try anything and everything - because if they don't spend the money today, there may not be a tomorrow.
I was thinking strictly in relation to affiliate offers regarding fear paralyzation so even when they would feel too depressed to take action and complete some offers they could still try everything to get well again with real help, one thing doesn´t rule out the other
And maybe when people cross that point they don´t care for anything anymore at all
Cause you just never know until you test.
Who knows, maybe our angles are just not geared towards such an audience and no one tests it but in reality it would be a fresh and non-saturated audience for our beloved CPA offers
I think that people don't buy things that they really need for a long time now. That's simply a characteristics of a modern era and everything that it brought to us. That's why opportunities for advertising have increased significantly over years and we have many chances to try out different things and target different types of audience. I personally don't see a problem with it, it's not always necessary to purchase things that have some usage or value, sometimes we buy something just for fun, or because it's trending. I actually like that about this period, as things are much fun nowadays, at least from this perspective.
This post can be applied to almost every aspects of life, not just AM.
Thank you Twinaxe
Originally Posted by duckling
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