JOIN OVER 500,000 OF YOUR PEERS

On the #1 Brain Training Newsletter
in the World

Email Address

achieve goals

Four Reasons Your Digital Marketing Returns Disappointing Results

Author:NeuroGym Team

Digital Marketing Not Working? Here’s Why, and How to Fix It

Before the rise of the Internet, it was a lot harder to spread the word about a new business. If you were selling a new product or service, and if you couldn’t afford television or radio advertising, you were pretty much limited to posters, flyers, and billboards. Nowadays, almost anyone can advertise online—but that doesn’t mean they get better results.

The world of digital marketing is highly competitive, and tiny differences in strategy can mean failure or success. In order to make sure your product comes out on top, you need to be in on a secret: The key to successful digital marketing is neuroscience!

Don’t believe us? Neuromarketing, or the art and science of using neuroscience to appeal to consumers, is a fast-growing, cutting-edge department of the advertising industry. Some advertisers even hire experts to help them get their message out in a way that appeals to their target audience’s brain wiring!

Neuromarketers use neuroscientific research to design ad campaigns that grab consumers’ attention and hold on! They review the data on which colors, sounds, formats, and strategies get the best results, and which generally fall flat. The goal is to promote the release of serotonin and other “happy chemicals” in the brains of consumers, so they associate your product with that happy feeling and become more likely to buy it!

Digital marketing

As one expert explains, neuromarketers use neuroscientific research to “help inform creative advertising, product development, pricing, and other marketing areas.” But before spending thousands on a neuromarketing consultant, try reading this article first!

In this article, we’re going to go over four signs that your digital marketing campaign isn’t working, and how you can use neuroscience to start raking in profits in no time!

Want to learn even more about how you too can use neuroscience to boost your business’s success? Download our new ebook, The Art and Science of Neuromarketing, to learn how! Don’t wait—grab it TODAY!

Reason #1: Return vs. Reward

If you’re a business owner, you already know you have to spend money to make money. You have to pay for a marketing campaign in order to show your product to people who might want to buy it! But sadly, this doesn’t always work out.

It’s disappointing to continue seeing more spending than profits when you’ve been running a digital marketing campaign for some time. You don’t want to keep hemorrhaging money without results—not if you want to keep your business above water!

What’s Going on Here?

If your ad campaign isn’t giving you the bang for your buck you were expecting, it might be because it fails to appeal to your customers’ brains!

Human brains are programmed to notice salient stimuli—bright colors, movement, and attention-grabbing phrases like “Hey! Stop scrolling. You don’t want to miss this!” Sometimes, a digital marketing campaign isn’t working because in an attempt to make the ads “professional,” the marketer accidentally made them plain and boring!

You also might be failing to hold customers’ attention. Using things like storytelling, humor, and references to topical issues and pop culture will convince your target audience to keep watching long enough to hear about your product!

An ad campaign that is both funny and eye-catching will also cause the release of serotonin or other neurotransmitters that humans associate with warm, good feelings. As a result, viewers will hopefully start associating your product with that happy feeling—something you definitely want!

What Can You Do About It?

Neuromarketing doesn’t mean you have to turn your ad campaign into a series of cheerful, bouncy cartoons to be successful—you just have to create eye-catching ads that appeal to your target audience! Here are some neuroscience-backed ways you can do that:

  • Consider the colors and imagery associated with the group of people you want to appeal to.
    • If you’re making a toy for toddlers, you’ll want to use bright, cheerful colors, imagery of happy children, and narration that appeals to parents.
    • If you’re making boots for hunters and fishermen, opt for nature imagery, forest green tones, and narration that explains how your product will help them conquer the outdoors.
  • Don’t assume people are going to keep watching of their own accord—convince them!

Digital marketing

Reason #2: Competition is Clearly Excelling

There’s nothing more disappointing than getting poor results from your own digital marketing campaign, especially when a competitor’s company is clearly thriving. This gets even more discouraging when your rival starts running even higher quality ad campaigns, because it demonstrates they have the money to do so!

What’s Going On Here?

If your competitor’s digital marketing strategy is working but yours isn’t, they’re probably using a digital marketing strategy customers find more appealing.

Video ads on social media and YouTube are the most salient, but there’s also image ads, social media posts, search engine optimized articles, sponsorships, and more! Your competition may be doing better because they are focused on a different strategy or have a more diverse repertoire of strategies.

Another neuroscience-based reason your competitor might be doing better is because they’ve built a loyal audience. Human beings are creatures of habit, as we’ve demonstrated on this blog time and again! If we’re going to choose something unfamiliar over something familiar, we need to be convinced.

What Can You Do About it?

Have a look at your rival’s digital marketing campaign and see whether they’re doing better from a neuromarketing perspective:

Compare their video and image advertising to yours. Does it do anything to appeal to your target audience that your ads don’t? For example, is it making more references to inside jokes and lingo? Customers are more likely to respond when they feel like the makers of an ad “get” them and understand their lives.

What if you think the competition has built up a loyal base of returning customers? This is trickier to overcome, but the science shows you still can!

People’s brains are wired to be more receptive to information that confirms their views and experiences. Read negative reviews for your opponents’ product. If you see one problem mentioned over and over, use your ad to explain why your product doesn’t have that issue!

Want more inspiration for how YOU can rise above the competition in the marketing game? Learn more when reading our NEW ebook, The Art and Science of Neuromarketing! Download your copy NOW!

Reason #3: Small Adjustments Aren’t Changing Your Outcomes

Sometimes, a small adjustment to your digital marketing strategy is all it takes to turn things around. For example, if customers can’t read your logo, if your ad isn’t eye-catching because the background is too dark, or if a video ad opens with loud music, this is a relatively quick fix!

But if you’ve tried tweaking all the potential issues and your marketing campaign still isn’t returning the results you want, the issue might be something bigger.

You might have to hit reset on the entire campaign if you don’t want to keep wasting money—letting go of a failed marketing strategy is easier than letting go of your business!

What’s Going On Here?

It’s possible that your customers are being turned off by your ads, in that they find the entire thing unsettling, offensive, or unappealing. It’s also possible that you’re advertising in the wrong format, or on the wrong platform.

According to the principles of neuromarketing, if customers associate an ad campaign with negative feelings (like irritation, annoyance, or offense), they’re much more likely to scroll past your ad than to hear you out!

Social media and other popular Internet platforms give viewers a pretty constant supply of dopamine, serotonin, and other happy chemicals, and trains them to scroll past anything that doesn’t elicit that reaction!

Digital marketing

What Can You Do About It?

Finding out that customers dislike your entire digital marketing strategy can hurt, but having your business go under would hurt even more! If small adjustments don’t help, it’s time to put the brakes on the entire operation and re-evaluate. Here’s what neuromarketing suggests reviewing:

  • Is your marketing strategy reaching your actual target audience?
    • If you want to appeal to older adults, marketing through Facebook posts and ads inserted into news articles is best.
    • If you’re marketing to teens, you should probably try sponsoring popular creators on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube that appeal to your target audience! For example, if you’re making a watch for athletes, try sponsoring creators who post motivational fitness content.
  • Ask for feedback from people you know who might use your product.
    • If you know someone more familiar with the target audience than you are, you can ask them if they can see what part of the digital marketing campaign is turning people off.
  • Is there something that makes your customer associate your ads with bad feelings?
    • For example, if your ad makes offensive jokes or depicts groups of people in an insensitive way, customers might be turned off even if they aren’t the butt of the joke.
    • If you think this might be the issue, give your next campaign a new (and more appealing) look in order to entice customers to give you a second glance!

Reason #4: You Are Attracting Leads but They Don’t Convert

Sometimes, you get plenty of ad clicks, bringing viewers to your business’s website, but these don’t turn into paying customers. Seeing that customers are viewing your online business but then deciding not to buy can be even more disappointing than having them scroll past your ad in the first place!

What’s Going On Here?

Digital marketing doesn’t end when a customer clicks on your ad. You need to appeal to them on the website as well. Remember: An ad doesn’t usually convince a customer to buy a product—only to check it out further. What they see when they get to your website will make or break the deal.

Like other forms of neuromarketing, the user interface of your website needs to be visually appealing, interesting, and convince your customer that your product will solve their problems and make their life more convenient than your competitors’ will!

What Can You Do About It?

Go on your business’s website on different devices and go through it like a customer would to make sure it doesn’t run afoul of any of these neuromarketing principles:

  • Make sure your website is as mobile compatible as possible. Much of today’s internet usage happens on smartphones. If a customer on a smartphone finds your website hard to use, they’re more likely to look at something else than to find a bigger screen!
  • Make sure your website is user-friendly and easy to navigate! The harder it is to buy your product, the less likely customers will have the patience to stick it out.
  • If your website and digital marketing campaign are incongruent—for example, if the campaign misleads viewers about how much the product or service costs, or what it does—customers will feel annoyed and be less likely to buy from you in the future!

Digital marketing

Final Words

The Internet burst onto the media landscape and took it by storm over a span of only a few years. As a result, the world of marketing has changed faster than ever. Neuromarketing will help you get ahead of the game.

Why is neuromarketing successful marketing? It’s the most science-backed, data-driven method of choosing a digital marketing strategy out of hundreds of possible options. If your digital marketing campaign isn’t giving you the return you want, the key is to appeal not just to your audience, but to their brains!

Want to know even MORE about how neuromarketing can skyrocket your business’s success? Learn it from our LATEST ebook!—The Art and Science of Neuromarketing! Download your copy NOW!

About The Author

NeuroGym Team

NeuroGym Team: NeuroGym’s Team of experts consists of neuroscientists, researchers, and staff who are enthusiasts in their fields. The team is committed to making a difference in the lives of others by sharing the latest scientific findings to help you change your life by understanding and using the mindset, skill set and action set to change your brain.

Sign-Up For The NeuroGym Newsletter And Join The Innercise Revolution!

    We value your privacy and would never spam you.

    Join the Conversation