Struggling to create Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok ads that people remember long enough to buy from you? Wondering how consumer psychology can tell you why your winning ads work and how to repeat that success?

In this article, you'll discover how to use behavioral science and consumer psychology to create social ads by deciding how to deliver a message, who to aim it at, and where it fits in the customer journey.

This article was co-created by Sarah Levinger and Michael Stelzner. For more about Sarah , scroll to the end of this article.

Sarah Levinger says the biggest misconception about ads is that every ad is supposed to sell. Conversion matters, especially in e-commerce, but for most brands, the core job of advertising is to build recall. A customer who doesn't remember a brand exists has nowhere to convert to and ends up buying whatever shows up in their feed.…