What Is Availability Heuristic?
How Does the Availability Heuristic Apply to Marketing?
Henry Foster
December 17, 2020
Menu
Availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that assumes a product or an idea that comes to mind fast is more important than an idea that is not recalled as fast. This leads to a bias towards new news over timeless truths.
Vivid Stories and Hyped Media: A dull and boring event may be more common than a vivid and dramatic event. However, our brains are captivated by stories with high emotion. As a result, you are more likely to recall those stories.
Media publishers know this, and often exaggerate a story to make it more exciting. This can lead to an inaccurate guess at the potential likelihood and risk of an event.
The Power of Retargeting Ads: According to CMO.com, retargeting can bring the highest lift in brand searches by 1,046%. Retargeted visitors are 70% more likely to convert compared to ones who aren’t. One reason retargeting is effective is it applies the availability heuristic to marketing.
By showing the same ad to a potential buyer, they are more likely to recall your message over a competitor’s message. As a result, they will believe that your product is more important than a competitor’s product.
See Also: Affect Heuristic, Agenda-Setting Theory, Attribute Substitution, Confirmation Bias, Gambler's Fallacy, Illusory Correlation, Representativeness Heuristic, Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
Get the marketing strategy you need to scale your growth faster.
Know where to best invest your time and money to give you the highest ROI.
Partner with a product marketing agency that cares about the success of your product almost more than you do.
