Persuasive vs Informative Advertising: What’s the Difference?

Persuasive and informative advertising share the same goal: to persuade audiences to embrace certain attitudes and behaviors. This can be to stop drinking and driving, to vote for a certain politician, or to buy a specific product. Informative and persuasive advertising leverage different tactics to achieve the same end goal. Persuasive advertising appeals to emotion, while informative advertising is about education. However, many times these methods are combined. 

In an age where ads have become little more than white noise, standing out is marketers’ number one priority. A blended technique can help you do that. Understanding the basics of both persuasive and informative advertising can help you determine how to make your messages and products memorable and desirable.

What is Persuasive Advertising?

Persuasive advertising aims to convince its audience of a certain belief that leads to action, often resulting in purchasing products. Persuasive advertising uses various techniques to appeal to the logical, emotional, and ethical sides of our decision-making process. Both B2C and B2B companies use persuasive advertising techniques to appeal to the multifaceted nature of their audience. Persuasive advertising revolves around the idea that purchasing a product or service is not always a perfectly logical process. A classic example of this is the “Ed’s Heinz Ad”, which uses brilliant, persuasive advertising through a narrative. This ad looks like a movie clip more than an ad. For this reason, organizations must walk the line between efficacy and ethics. 

Persuasive Advertising Techniques

Humans respond to many different methods of persuasion, and advertisers have learned how to incorporate these techniques into their ad campaigns.

Reciprocity

When people receive something free from others, they feel like they have to give something back. In the B2C space, this could look like discounts and rewards, driving customer loyalty. Not only is there increased incentive to buy, but consumers feel like they have received something valuable, a token of brand goodwill, so they should spend some more money at the store.

When it comes to B2B software companies, many have poured their resources into content marketing. When websites offer valuable advice for free, readers feel a connection or loyalty to these websites. They feel like they can trust these vendors to be knowledgeable about a particular strategy or vertical, and they want to invest their money in a platform or service that’s going to be helpful and continue sharing strong industry guidance.

Authority creates influence.

Many people stick to a car brand they know and like, or have a favorite grocery store. You have almost certainly experienced this yourself. We humans bond with nearly anything. As an organization, if you can build brand loyaltycreate this bond, you can create more reliable, repeat customers.  These individuals can even be a great source of advertising material themselves. They can share their experience with your brand on social media, promote it within their own networks, and more. 

This kind of marketing is central to the inbound marketing philosophy, which stresses relationship building with customers. Organizations create free, genuinely helpful content to nurture a relationship with their customers. In time, customers feel a sense of loyalty and even attachment to the company. You can learn more about inbound marketing, and its inverse, outbound marketing, here.

Authority Figures and Influencers

People simply do not trust advertisers, marketers, or anyone selling anything. This is why advertisers need to partner with authority figures to convince buyers that the product is what it says it is. Authority figures can be highly educated professionals, like doctors, lawyers, scientists, or they can be celebrities and influencers.

Lionel Messi Partners with Lay’s on Their Limited-Edition ‘Greatest of All Time’ Collection

For the general consumer population, celebrities are huge influencers when it comes to increasing the popularity of a product. Individuals look up to celebrities for their beauty, fame, fashion choices, and lifestyle. If individuals see their favorite star wearing a certain brand or aligning themselves with a certain product, they are more likely to embrace the brand as well.  

Doctors and scientists have a form of this, because we all know what “a doctor” is. A perfect example of this at work is in non-FDA-approved supplement commercials. Adding a figure in a white lab coat, who, for some reason, has a stethoscope, adds authority because we trust these figures. We have a willingness to accept information from “experts”.

In the B2B world, influencer marketing is a bit different. Like celebrities, influencers have leverage over the opinions of their engaged audiences. (And, like celebrities, it is often based on their ability to make money and achieve status). Unlike celebrities, business influencers have more of a niche following. They have gained respect for their success and innovation in a particular industry or department.

B2B influencers are perceived as more intentional when they advocate for a brand — typically, they or their clients have worked with this brand to achieve demonstrable business results. B2B influencers are perceived to share only brands that they actually believe in and have experience with, rather than being paid millions of dollars to take a picture with a water bottle. Rather than posing for something like an Instagram ad, B2B influencers may agree to speak on a panel at an event, host a webinar, or write a post on LinkedIn.

Emotional Tactics

People are often motivated by pleasure or fear nowadays. If your product brings delight to consumers, advertisers can highlight this pleasure with upbeat, positive, or sentimental ads. Additionally,  ads can also lean into the fear of missing out (FOMO) by focusing on what you’ll miss out on by not purchasing the product.

Fear, on the other hand, highlights real risks and challenges that individuals face. Persuasive advertising taps into psychology to create urgency and fear of missing out. By leveraging scarcity, time-sensitive offers, and social proof, it motivates consumers to act quickly—often driving higher conversions and sales.

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These emotional plays should be used responsibly and with restraint. They should have a basis in a genuine feature of the product or service, rather than in fear-mongering or sensationalism. Advertisers have a duty to ensure their own ethical marketing practices.

Humor

Everybody loves to laugh. When an advertisement makes individuals laugh, it brings them joy. And joy is memorable. It’s also shareable! We’re much more likely to share a funny advertisement with friends or seek it out to show them. Especially in a world where consumers are bombarded by advertisements at every turn, humor is a welcome break from the mundane.

More dangerous still, humor can be offensive. Some of the most effective advertisements in the world play with humor. Some of the worst come from poor attempts at humor. In your organization, make sure you cultivate an environment where humor can be openly and freely assessed. Even an intern should have the ability to say “that’s not funny”. 

Organizations should have a diverse group of individuals looking over content, and be wary of any one person speaking for a community. In summary, use humor carefully, skillfully, and with plenty of review.

People Want to Join the Bandwagon

Most people follow crowds. This is why more people in a new area will choose an unknown restaurant that has a long line, versus an unknown restaurant that has no current customers. Even though the line causes inconvenience, you know the food must be good, because that’s what everybody is eating.  People trust brands that already have a large following. It triggers the fear of missing out (FOMO). It taps into the innate fear of missing out and the urge to belong. By prompting quick, impulsive decisions, it shortens the research process. Scarcity and exclusivity elevate perceived desirability and value.

Social proof is a good way to show potential customers that your brand is trusted and respected. Whether you’re in B2B or B2C advertising, gathering customer reviews and highlighting customer testimonials can be a good way to showcase how your product has impacted the lives of other customers.

A real-world example is the growing popularity of AI tools and growing trust in content created with AI. Based on our research, occasional AI use increased from 17% in 2024 to 30% in 2025, and non-use has decreased. Buyers also report increased trust in AI tools, with 80% of buyers in 2025 reporting that they trust AI tools at least sometimes, a 19% increase from 2024.

Review from a real buyer on the role of AI in the buying journey and why they do (or don’t) trust it:

“I have seen a lot of Google AI results with bad info. It’s still new, and I would want to vet and verify any data from any source with multiple sources.” —Individual contributor at an enterprise company (1,001-5,000 employees)

The Scarcity Principle

People love to have what others can’t have. Flash sales and limited offers can create urgency in shoppers. When items are limited in quantity or have a discounted price for a limited time, consumers feel the pressure to buy before missing out on the opportunity. 

These types of deals enable shoppers to boast to their friends, “I got the last one available” or “only the first twenty people got 50% off.” They can pride themself on their special deal. For many people, this feels like a rush and makes the shopping experience more exciting and rewarding.

In a B2B context, you can think of this as the desire to be innovative and get ahead of the curve. Companies want to have a competitive edge. They want to get there first. They also want to work with partners and vendors who are innovative, pushing for growth and change. Not everyone can have white-glove service or help shape the future of their industry. Many businesses respond well to the idea that they are somehow elite, with an advantage over their competitors. Many B2B companies also offer discounts on hardware and software products to help sweeten the deal. This helps incentivize B2B buyers to move faster and decide to make the purchase. 

Persuasive Advertising for B2B

Even though business software advertisements tend to focus on features and use cases, creative B2B marketers are finding fun and innovative ways to capture audience attention and influence buyers just like their B2C counterparts.

1. HP’s secure printers, as told by Christian Slater

HP crafted a short video on “The Memo: HP All-In Plan (HP Envy Inspire)” projecting the new all-in plan printer with a 24/7 support system. Using a unique storytelling method, HP challenged the notion that B2B companies need to keep advertising relevant and relatable to the users.

2. Cute and funny visuals give a taste of life with Slack

Slack is a SaaS company that knows that professionals have emotions, too. With its advertising campaign, Slack shows how much happiness this software can bring to the workspace. Slack offers powerful solutions, but instead of focusing on features in a dry way, this company effectively communicates the feelings those features add up to. What a person gains emotionally from this software is just as compelling, if not more, than the percentage of increased productivity.  Reviewers of Slack agree that its cultural contributions are a huge part of what they like about the software.

3. Consensus knows you can relate

Consensus is a sales enablement SaaS solution that uses humor in its ads. This video captures viewers’ attention by highlighting a challenge B2B salespeople experience. Using humor to showcase what benefits this solution offers makes the ad memorable to viewers.

What is Informative Advertising?

Informative advertising is also designed to persuade viewers to adopt a certain belief and take desired actions, but the methodology is completely different. Rather than appealing to emotions and subconscious desires, informative advertising relies on facts and figures.

Companies use informative advertising to educate consumers. Alcohol companies can cite statistics on the harm of drinking and driving. Anti-smoking campaigns can inform viewers of the health risks associated with tobacco. Software companies can cite what features have been updated and how they function, and efficiency metrics or impacts on the bottom line.

Information in these types of ads must be accurate and valuable to viewers. Inaccurate or misleading information can cause a backlash and damage the company’s reputation. “Fake news” is basically informative advertising gone wrong.

Just because informational advertising is more fact-based, this does not mean that ads need to be dry. Informational advertising needs to be just as attention-grabbing as persuasive advertising, but it needs to be based on clear, valid information, rather than emotional ploys. Trust is key to informative advertising.

Successful informative ads have a strong base of genuinely useful, attention-getting facts to work with. Look at your product or service to determine which may be the most striking and relevant information to a customer. Facts may be useful, but this is still advertising. There is a reason car commercials are not lists of technical specs.

Informative Advertisement Examples at Work

Informative ads educate viewers on a number of things — nutritional information, health risks, the right way to complete a project, etc. In B2B, informative ads may cover software features and benefits, provide ROI metrics (like “30% lift” or “4x faster”), or highlight industry research.

1. SAP explains how its Sales Cloud works

SAP keeps one of its ads straightforward. This overview takes viewers through how SAP’s Sales Cloud works and what features customers can use to boost customer experience through SAP Sales Cloud.

2. Microsoft Walks You Through Its Customer Experience with AI agents

Microsoft, with its new ad on how to transform customer experience with AI agents, shows how AI helps in building a satisfying customer experience.

Persuasive and Informative Advertising Work Best Together

These two forms of advertising do not need to be carried out separately. Elements of both forms can be woven together to make compelling messages. You’ve probably already noticed persuasive elements in the informative examples above, and informative elements in the persuasive examples!

When integrated smoothly, persuasive and informative advertising materials can be very compelling. Throw Throw Burrito (from the creators of Exploding Kittens) is a great example of this from B2C. This new dodgeball card game was recently launched on Kickstarter.

Hitting over a million dollars in funding within the first few days of uploading, these creators know what they are doing. Their Kickstarter video combines fast-paced artwork and humor with a very clear explanation of the game.

The Power of Advertising

Be it informative or persuasive, a rightly scripted advertisement always accurately reaches its target audience. The true power of advertising lies in its ability to inspire action and build lasting brands. By creating awareness, sparking emotional connections, and influencing decisions, advertising helps businesses grow while shaping cultural values. Persuasive storytelling and consistent messaging make brands unforgettable, though the industry continues to face scrutiny for sometimes promoting unrealistic ideals or unnecessary wants.

This article from TrustRadius brings in-depth information on how informative as well as persuasive advertisements make their way to their audience. To continue your research on different products, read verified reviews, and find the solutions that best fit your needs, you can start exploring our software categories here.