Should you scare your customers? Should your sales copy persuade visitors by attempting to scare that they are missing something vital without your product or service.

Machiavelli was an Italian renaissance author who wrote a work called the "the prince". His book was intended to instruct the young Italian rulers of various city states how to govern. One of the main points of the work was the conclusion that it is better to feared than loved.

Could you use fear to persuade your customers to buy from you?

Much of the sales copy in AdWords ads today focuses on making the consumer either curious or greedy. This is particularly true in the ads for internet marketing. Most of them make an outrageous claim, like "see how I'm making x dollars a month". This ad is designed to appeal to marketing consumer by appealing to his greed. Plus, the more outrageous the amount, the more curious the consumer is to see how the advertisers is doing it.

This is a very good tactic. Appealing to these two emotions is a great way to approach sales copy.

But, in a column of AdWords ads, you want your ad to stand to out. You should always strive to stand and be noticeable in the crowd. So, if other advertisers already advertisements of this type, could you profit from a different tactic.

As Machiavelli discovered, consumers also respond to fear. In recent years, political campaigns have tried, or accused each other of tried, to use fear to get candidates elected.

You could appeal to a fear your consumers have in the first line of ad. Your second line then informs them that your product or service provides a solution. This will compel your consumers to click your ad.