No one likes to feel left out. 

This is why FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out, is one of the most successful psychological triggers used by marketers to close sales.

If you’re using social media, you’ve most certainly experienced FOMO too. With a whopping 69% of millennials (and 56% of all social media users) basing their purchase decisions on FOMO, you can’t really afford not to use this powerful sales tactic in your advertising.

But how can you use FOMO to supercharge your ads on Facebook and Instagram? With Socioh’s Branded Catalogs, you can set up and test different FOMO campaigns within a matter of minutes. 

That's right. No more plain, boring dynamic ads, but a product feed that is consistent with your branding.‍

Excited to see what you can do? Here are 16 different ways to use FOMO messaging in your Facebook catalog ads:

‍1. Retarget high-intent users with scarcity

Retargeting is a tried and tested strategy. With Meta’s dynamic ads format, your website visitors are shown the products they’ve already viewed/carted. This serves as a powerful reminder for your visitors to complete their purchases. 

Why not combine these with FOMO to tell your visitors that their favorites are selling out?

How about using a full-shop catalog that uses FOMO for retargeting your most recent website visitors on Meta? Use messaging such as “Selling Out”, or “Limited Stock” in your bottom of the funnel DPAs to retarget your most recent high-intent visitors. 

2. Highlight low-inventory items with rule-based automation

Create rule-based automation to highlight products that have low inventory. You can even map the exact quantity in stock. For example, add a badge saying “Last 10 pieces” to any products that have less than 10 order qty in stock, or show the exact number of items in stock for products with 5 or less qty in stock. 

‍TIP: Fear is a powerful emotion, use it minimally. Do not inundate your users with constant pop-ups or misleading numbers.

3. Show your shoppers products that are popular 

Don’t underestimate the power of showcasing your bestselling or most-loved items. An under-utilized tool, a catalog that shows off your customer favorites has the added advantage of offering your customers more choice while subtly letting them know that these products aren’t going to stay on the shelves too long. A win-win!

4. Run a catalog with ‘Back in Stock’ products  

Show users products that were sold out, but have now been restocked. Your shoppers will automatically know that these are fast-selling items and they need to hurry if they’re not to miss out!

TIP: Add a second message to highlight “limited stock” in the caption or the first card of the catalog creative. 

5. Show a discount that won’t last

Did you know that if offered a 30% discount, 66% of millennials said they’d switch brands? 

Plus, there’s nothing quite like a deadline to speed things up! 

Create urgency by highlighting a limited-time deal. After all, which one of us hasn’t bought something because we were worried the discounts would run out? 

‍NOTE: End the offer when you say you will, or your customers will figure out they’re being manipulated. ‍

TIP: Use Socioh’s Smart Switch to switch to a different offer or catalog design when the offer is over. Another way to ensure this is by choosing your audience very carefully: for example, show an offer only to 30-day cart abandoners, and exclude 7-day cart abandoners so anyone other than that does not see your offer. 

6. Countdown to add urgency to your offers  

How about if you could highlight a limited-time offer and add a countdown to your catalog ads? Impossible? No!

Use Socioh’s Smart Loop to change your catalog design at your scheduled times. Change the date/number of days for every design and we’ll switch your catalog design as scheduled:

7. Highlight your ‘Deal of the Day'

Automate badges based on tags in your store. Add conditional mapping so a “Deal of the Day” badge shows up only when a product has a specific tag. We'll automatically show up the deal on the correct product every time your store is re-synced.

8. Create offers around 'Free Shipping'

90% of online shoppers claim they do so because of free shipping. Combine Free Shipping with a limited-time offer, or offer it on orders over a certain order value to drive more sales. Highlight this offer on all your catalog ads so users don’t miss out.

BONUS: Use “Smart Switch” to return your catalog to the pre-offer design at a scheduled time. 

9. Offer a sweet deal to the early-bird

You’ve probably seen offers that promise discounts or freebies to the first 100 purchasers and wondered whether these work. The answer is a resounding yes - the reason you never seem to get your hands on one is that these are oh-so-popular. 

‍TIP: Make the offer worthwhile for it to matter. 

10. Leverage your reviews 

User reviews and testimonials go a long way in generating trust. Knowing that others are buying a product or service makes us want to try it too — so that we aren’t left out — classic FOMO! 

With Branded Catalogs, you can showcase your product reviews right on your product - all it takes is a 3-click integration with your review platform or CSV.  

11. Have great PR? Use it to create buzz

Has your product got good press? Highlight your media features on your catalog ads. After all, we follow trends precisely because we don’t want to miss out. Show your shoppers that shopping from you is not only in their interest - but trendy!

12. Use influence

Have great content or a collaboration with an influencer? Now you can use it in your catalog ads with custom images and text highlighting the collaboration.

TIP: Use a first card to showcase the collaboration

13. Use customers' images

What’s even better than user reviews? Users' images with reviews! Upload UGC or users’ images against each product to create a catalog that uses these with their reviews. And voila! You are no longer selling a product, you’re selling an experience. By vicariously enjoying your products, potential shoppers will feel even worse about missing out!

14. Use lifestyle images

Don’t have user images or want to showcase your product in use? Use your lifestyle shoots and images.

People shop for experiences. This is why travel, parties and events, and food tend to be the biggest FOMO creators among millennials. Tell them how buying a product will make them feel. 

Create a catalog with secondary images from your product feed to create an experience that users won’t want to miss. 

15. Highlight freebies or giveaways

Who doesn’t like a chance to get something extra? Highlight freebies or giveaways on your catalog with relevant messaging or rule-based automation. 

TIP: In addition to creating FOMO, such offers can be used to increase to average order value.

16. Run a 'Limited Edition' catalog

People love exclusivity. Create a catalog of limited edition pieces to highlight scarcity and incentivize purchase. You can even add a first-card to your catalog to explain what’s so special about your products and stress how they’re one-of-a-kind pieces that will sell out soon.

Which of these would you like to try for your store? Tell us in your comments below!

Want to see how successful stores are using Branded Catalogs for their ads? Check out our gallery page here.

‍