Information Bias
Why people seek unnecessary information even when it won't help their decision, and how to use information bias in your marketing.
In this issue
Happy Thursday.
We’re back. Caffeinated, opinionated, and running on data.
This newsletter is about a bias that makes you feel busy while accomplishing nothing. You’re welcome.
Reading time: 5 minutes, 02 seconds
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You’ve read 14 articles about the best email campaigns to run in Q1. Watched 6 YouTube comparisons. Bookmarked 3 Reddit threads.
You’ve got a folder full of email swipes. Your browser has 23 open tabs.
Yet you haven’t sent a single campaign.
That’s information bias: the tendency to seek more data even when it won’t change your decision.
Research backs this up. A study published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found people request useless diagnostic information even when it’s irrelevant to the outcome.
The brain confuses research with action. Gathering data feels productive, so we keep consuming instead of executing.
Marketers exploit this constantly. E-commerce brands load PDPs with specs, size guides, fabric breakdowns, and “why us” sections. SaaS companies offer comparison tables, ROI calculators, and 47-slide decks.
Ever spent hours comparing two nearly identical tools? Or reading case studies instead of launching your own test?
That’s the bias doing its job. Now let’s put it to work and also learn when to shut it off.
Three ways to leverage the Information Bias
Feed the hunger with comparison content.
Buyers crave more data before purchasing. Give it to them strategically.
Klaviyo does this brilliantly with its comparison pages against competitors like Mailchimp and Brevo.
Each page is loaded with feature breakdowns, pricing tables, and migration guides.
They don’t just say “we’re better.” They hand you a research rabbit hole that always leads back to their checkout.
If you sell anything with competitors, build comparison pages. They satisfy the bias while quietly steering the decision.
Stack proof until objections collapse.
Sometimes more information actually closes the deal, when it’s the right information.
Notion stacks its landing page with use-case breakdowns, team size filters, and customer logos segmented by industry.
They don’t rely on one testimonial. They pile on proof until hesitation feels irrational.
For e-commerce, Ridge Wallet layers material specs, durability tests, and 50,000+ reviews on every product page.
The strategy is simple: overwhelm doubt with structured proof, not noise.
Stop hoarding marketing tactics and execute
Now, a hard truth for many of us marketers. Information bias doesn’t just affect your customers. It paralyzes marketers too. We are incredibly guilty of this bias in our own daily work.
We spend weeks reading SEO case studies, downloading PPC guides, and analyzing competitors. We trick ourselves into thinking this is work.
It isn’t. You don’t need another course on Meta Ads to launch your campaign. You just need to launch it.
More information won’t prevent failure, it just delays the start. Close the tabs, stop researching, and test something today.
Stop drowning in AI information overload
Your inbox is flooded with newsletters. Your feed is chaos. Somewhere in that noise are the insights that could transform your work—but who has time to find them?
Replace hours of scattered reading with five focused minutes. While others scramble to keep up, you’ll stay ahead of developments that matter. 500,000+ professionals at top companies have already made this switch.
OPENAI: ChatGPT’s ad era is here. Ads with brand favicons and “Sponsored” labels are now showing up for signed-in US desktop users, on the very first prompt, not after long conversations.
THREADS: Meta’s 400M-user platform just made cross-posting frictionless. You can now share a Threads post directly to your Instagram Story without ever leaving the app. It’s a small UX tweak, but a smart growth play that turns Instagram’s massive audience into a direct pipeline for Threads.
META: Forget your dedicated rep. Meta’s new U.S.-only “Agency Growth Collective” replaces single-point contacts with a shared alias and rotating specialists. No minimum spend yet, but agencies that don’t engage risk removal. Translation: Meta needs your bigger budgets to fund its AI roadmap, and this is how it plans to get them.
INSTAGRAM: Two months after its Fire TV debut, Instagram’s TV app is now live on Google TV devices in the U.S. Reels play automatically, organized by topic, and the app is personalized to your existing account. Instagram is clearly gunning for YouTube’s couch-viewing dominance, one remote at a time.
ICYMI, last time we looked at The Peanuts Effect.
The “Always Reading” Crew
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