Even is a Fintech company that allows employees at large companies to access their wages before payday.
Although Even’s pay-on-demand model is a better alternative to costly payday loans, employees weren’t taking advantage of this workplace benefit. We needed to increase usage by optimizing our social media ads at the top of the funnel.
That expression, “If you build it they will come” may work in the movies, but in real life you need a bit more strategy. This is especially true when you’re trying to get people to try something new. We tested several frameworks and released campaigns on social media to overcome the status quo bias and generate real engagement.
When we looked at their ads, we noticed Even was only talking about features. Right away we knew they’d benefit from two Behavioral Science principles: Narrative Bias and Social Proof. Narrative Bias uses storytelling to relay information instead of stacks of features. Social Proof refers to the principle that when making decisions we tend to look to others for guidance.
We found that people often needed between $200 and $400. People use Even to get paid weekly, making it easier to budget for groceries, gas, and pay bills. So as we designed the ads, instead of talking about features and discounts, we showcased these benefits as used by peers.
We created and tested 2 different ads: a control which talked about features vs ads that combined Narrative Bias + Social Proof. The ad with storytelling and Social Proof stories showed examples of how Even’s solution would make sense for “people just like me.”
Experiment 1
Control vs Social Proof vs Narrative Bias
Control
Social Proof
Narrative Bias
Testing showed that the Narrative Bias + Social Proof ads performed much better than the control: a dramatic 90% increase in installs and a 34% increase in click-through rates. We deployed these results with confidence, creating new social media campaigns proven to help more employees do the right thing for their financial health.
