Let’s be honest.
It’s a miracle anyone clicks your ads at all.
Here’s what you’re up against:
- The average person sees 10,000+ ads per day.
- Ads usually get one-third of a second of attention.
- Most people can only focus on 4 to 7 things at once (yes, that’s why phone numbers are short).
- The average brain processes 70,000 thoughts per day.
- And let’s not forget selective attention—the subconscious habit of filtering out irrelevant information. (Hello, banner blindness.)
Your ads aren’t just competing against other ads.
They’re competing against everything.
So the real question is:
How Do You Make an Ad Important Enough to Get Noticed?
First, let’s define important.
According to Harvard’s Gerald Zaltman, 95% of decision-making happens subconsciously—and most of it links to survival.
That doesn’t mean someone buys your new app because they’ll die without it.
It means humans are social animals. We’re wired to align with the group. If most people lean toward a trend, tool, or product, we instinctively want in.
So, how can you tap into that primal survival instinct?
The Answer: Show Faces
Yes—faces.
Here’s the science.
Psychology professor David Alais put it best:
"We are such a sophisticated social species, and face recognition is very important… Faces are detected incredibly fast."
Humans evolved to detect faces instantly. Why?
Because knowing who’s a friend or foe is essential for survival.
Including faces in your ads triggers that primal recognition system. It forces the brain to pay attention—even for that precious one-third of a second.
Proof That Faces Work
Researchers at the University of Salento ran an experiment:
They presented participants with ad pairs. One ad in each pair featured a face. The other didn’t.
Then they measured three things:
- Awareness: Which ad got noticed first
- Recall: Which ad people remembered later
- Preference: Which ad people liked more
The results?
- In 44 out of 48 pairs, ads with faces got more attention.
- 67% of brands in face ads were remembered.
- 62% of face ads were recalled later.
- In most cases, people preferred the face ads.
And here’s the kicker—when researchers swapped faces for face-like imagery (patterns that look like faces), the results still held up.
Your brain isn’t just wired for faces. It’s wired for anything face-like.
Where Should the Face Be Looking?
A follow-up study at the University of Sussex answered that.
Participants viewed two versions of the same ad:
- In one, the model looked directly at the viewer.
- In the other, the model gazed toward the product.
Heatmap tracking revealed:
When the face looked at the product, viewers spent more time focusing on the product itself—and were more engaged overall.
How to Use Faces in Your Ads
Step 1
Use faces in your ads, social posts, and other creative to stop the scroll.
Step 2
Direct the gaze. Faces should be looking at what matters—your product, CTA, or testimonial.
Step 3
Remember, faces grab attention. But great copy and strategic design keep it.
And that’s where DolFinContent leads the industry.
Trust Us: Faces Work (We’ve Tested It)
At DolFinContent, we ran a real-world experiment.
We took a successful animated ad and updated it by adding a face and voiceover.
The result:
- 48% higher click-through rate
- 62% lower cost per click
More clicks. Less spend. Real results.
Don’t Let Your Ads Get Ignored
If your team is out of time or stretched too thin, DolFinContent can help.
We pair businesses with elite ad designers who create scroll-stopping creative that doesn’t just look great—it performs. And we do it fast and without hassle. That’s why DolFinContent is ranked #1 for ad creative solutions.
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