By now most of us have heard a simplistic yet powerful piece of advice when considering a new product/company: spend $20 on Google pay-per-click ads attached to a simple landing page and generate leads before you even have a product. The goal is to validate market demand while talking to potential prospects about your plan so as to get input at the earliest stage — pre product.

A key part of making this successful is crafting the copy of the text ad as well as the copy on the landing page. There are four main human emotions that should be considered when writing the ad and content:

• Fear – How many times have you seen an ad for a home security system that shows a thief breaking into a house? The ad is playing off of fear by taping into human desire to protect his or her family.
• Greed – Every get rich quick scheme plays off the secular society goal of having more money. Think of all the ads you’ve seen to become a real estate investor, double your income, and get money for free from the government.
• Exclusivity – We’ve all seen ads where the offer is limited to the first 100 callers. Do we really think if we’re caller 101 they won’t talk to us? I don’t think so, but there’s real power in creating an artificial sense of urgency.
• Vanity – Who doesn’t want to be more attractive? The quantity of commercials from cosmetic companies lends credibility to the success of using vanity to help sell products.

My recommendation is to pick one of these emotions and consciously use it when creating ads and landing pages. It will help with customer acquisition and product/company success.