Don’t use percentages

This is the biggest, most important tip.

The problem with percentages? They’re abstract.

They require potential shoppers to pause and mentally calculate risk or value, which most won’t do.

People would rather decide based on the raw numbers they see, not the probability behind them.

So if you want your message to feel more persuasive, show the numbers, not the math.

As you may have noticed in the beans example above, you feel an emotional pull towards larger numbers, even when they lower your chances.

So make the ratio visual and concrete.

Case in point: McDonald’s ran a successful promotional campaign for years using Monopoly game pieces. Rather than framing odds in percentages, they showed real, countable prizes:

1 in 4 chances to win. Not a 25% chance. This makes the sweepstakes feel winnable.

Even if the reward was just a coupon for free fries, the psychological nudge was powerful enough to drive millions to keep playing. And spending more…

Use Ratio bias in negative framing to amplify risk or scarcity

Our brains are wired to respond emotionally to absolute numbers—and even more so when they imply loss, danger, or missing out.

That’s mostly due to another bias: Loss aversion.

In short, people are often more likely to avoid losing something than pursue a benefit.

For example, if your product helps customers with reducing cart abandonment, it’s better to say “7 in 10 customers abandon their carts,” not “70%…”

This makes your target audience feel like they can save up to seven customers.

A few more examples:

• Instead of saying “20% of visitors bounce from your website” you can say “20 out of 100 leave your website instantly. Our product helps you lower this number.”
• Instead of “only 20% left in stock” say “only 20 out of 100 left” to make it visual.

You see healthcare brands doing this a lot. They don’t say “4% develop this illness,” they say “over 300 million people in the world will be diagnosed with it this year.”

It hits harder, doesn’t it?

Visualize ratio to guide perception

A little biology lesson: We evolved by spotting patterns. Math came second.

With that in mind, you should know people count better when they can see what they’re counting.

This engages the emotional, automatic part of our brain.By showing instead of telling, you let people feel the ratio rather than calculate it. And feelings drive action.

How can you do this? For one, you can use icon arrays, progress bars, or people figures. For example, you can show “7 out of 10” as seven colored figures and three grayed out figures.

Color coded ratios also work. Highlight the “good” numbers in green, the “bad” ones in red.

Pharmaceutical companies do it all the time:

Much more compelling than saying “10% of people,” right?