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What's up with the number 7?

by Christopher Fox
22 replies
Why is it that I see SO many info products priced $X7.00 or $XX7.00? Is it the new $X9.99? Is there a legitimate reason for this, validated with split testing, or is it a case of monkey see, monkey do? Not that I am calling any of you monkeys, it is just a concise way of expressing the thought.

Well, for those of you that price your info products at $17 or $27 or $37 or $97 or $137, etc., ya got good reason for it, one that others should follow, or are you just engaging in mimicry 'cause you see the 'gurus' doing it?

Is the pricing of your info product really that arbitrary? Or is there a sound, logical reason behind it that others who release an info product or ebook should consider when pricing?

Just curious ...
#number
  • Profile picture of the author Alminc
    In my case it's monkey see, monkey do

    I have no statistical data to back it up, but I don't think it would make any difference if you use 8, 16, 23, 39 ...(whatever) instead.
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  • Profile picture of the author contentwriting360
    Banned
    Hello Christopher,

    Perhaps, these resources below can do the talking for me.

    This very same question was raised in 2008 by a Warrior. See the thread here at 'Prices Ending in 7.'

    These are good to read, too.
    The Truth About The Fallacy Of "7"
    Pricing Your Products: Is The Number 7 More Magical Than Other Numbers?

    If you don't find the time to read, you may also watch this video.


    Now, since we're talking about this numeral '7' and 'pricing' at the same time, I just thought of including it here.

    7 Biggest Mistakes in Setting Prices


    I do hope I was able to help, Christopher.
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  • Profile picture of the author B3dj0
    I think the seller got C.Ronaldo Fever becoz of EURO 2012 LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author Alessandro Zamboni
    I usually sell with dimesales in which price grow up, but my latest WSO started from 9.95.
    So no 7s were involved recently You have my word.

    But sometimes I used that number on my old releases, including my best ever.

    See you soon,
    Alessandro
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      People copy other people.

      It's just like many other things in internet marketing, in that respect, isn't it?

      Someone once allegedly split-tested it with the menu prices in a pizza restaurant in the 1960's, and unfortunately one of the people present was a "marketer"; ever since then everyone's copied it because "it must work, otherwise people wouldn't be doing it, would they?"

      After all "IMers have tested it"!

      Not many people know which IMers have tested it, and when, and in what niche of which market and for what sort of product with which kind of traffic. But hey ... it was somebody whose cousin's friend's cousin's friend's cousin's girlfriend was in "IM" of some kind, and she said that, and anyway none of that stuff matters a damn, does it? The point is that IMers "have tested it" and "it converts better".

      Meanwhile, over the last three years, I've seen some real testing done by my own clients and former clients and I've discovered that:-

      (i) For a short report, $10 converted significantly better than $7 (I thought $12 might have converted better still, but I couldn't persuade the client to test it);

      (ii) For an e-book $39 converted slightly better than $37;

      (iii) For a video and membership package, $22 converted a lot better than $17.

      In each case, when I say "converted better", I mean more sales, not just more money, though that was obviously true as well.

      But the established wisdom is for prices to end in a "7", and it must work, otherwise "people wouldn't be doing it, would they"?

      In other words, it's just like so many other things in internet marketing (did I already say that?): it's right out of the Urban Myth School of Internet Marketing.
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      • Profile picture of the author Christopher Fox
        Great real world info to share, as usual. Thanks Alexa.
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        One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothing can beat teamwork.

        - Seldom Seen Smith
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      • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
        I'm curious if all these tests Alexa posted were ran just one time? Because I'd have to say the results would still be deemed inconclusive. There are too many confounding variables that may not have been controlled for. Was the number the ONLY thing that was manipulated? Were any new variables introduced aside from numbers? In marketing sometimes its very difficult to control for certain variables, like where your traffic is coming from. What segment of people you are targeting etc etc. Well not "difficult", I just can't assume that everyone is controlling for this stuff however.

        One thing I know for certain is the number 7 is a number that a lot of people feel comfortable with.

        Its also why Joe Polish uses the number so much himself, "7 ways to do ____" and so many other marketers like to use 7 on white papers and the like.

        Or the "7 habits of highly effective people".

        Or steve jobs "7 rules of success".

        Ask a person to guess a number between 1-10, 7 will be said the most often. We also researched this in our school and had conclusive results, people always tend to lean towards 7 in a social environment. I'm pretty sure I have research on my thumbdrive thats talks about a lot of the social conditioning behind the number 7.

        I could venture to guess why (has a bit to do with history) but thats irrelevant to draw conclusions from.

        When it comes to price however I think lots of rules change. I also have reasons to explain why, but it would take me about 2 pages just to explain.

        Online there does NOT seem to be any price conditioning going on. Go to sites like amazon, you see the number 5, the number 2, the number 0, the number 7, there is no rythym or rhyme.

        Offline there is rythym however, usually the number 9, then 7 for sales conditioning. Its what people expect to see. Change it to a 2, you will probably effect sales.

        Online, because so many different numbers are actually used, I think thats why you will always need repeated split testing. Marketers should have just agreed 10 years ago to always use the same number just to condition people online. But marketers will never be that organized imo.

        With that said, I'm selling an ebook right now that ends with the number 9, I have already broke my first thousand in sales a couple weeks ago.

        So maybe big businesses know what they're doing? I used the number 9 because it has some widespread credibility to it. Thats just my opinion. I have not split tested my ebook yet, but I will be soon, and I'll let people know how it goes.

        -Red
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by RedShifted View Post

          I'm curious if all these tests Alexa posted were ran just one time?
          Yes, one time each, albeit over statistically significant numbers.

          Originally Posted by RedShifted View Post

          Because I'd have to say the results would still be deemed inconclusive. There are too many confounding variables that were likely not taken into account. Too many variables not controlled for.
          Exactly the point of most of the rest of my post. Of course they're inconclusive. Each can't be more than one person's findings for that product, at that time, with that traffic source, and so on.

          Originally Posted by RedShifted View Post

          One thing I know for certain is the number 7 is a number that a lot of people merely feel comfortable with.
          We look at that differently. I think people don't really "know that for certain", in these contexts. I suspect they assume it, or at least are biased in its favor, because so many other people believe it that it's become self-perpetuating and mistakenly believed to be evidential of something important.

          I don't buy that.

          We all have our own perspectives on these matters, of course, and they're informed by our own experiences and beliefs. My own experiences with this have been limited to 3 serious, professional tests only, in all 3 of which the figure ending with 7 performed significantly worse. So, understandably enough, I'm a skepchick on this subject.

          I'm not for a moment trying to suggest that all figures ending in a 7 are bad, in this context. I'm simply saying that there's clearly evidence that they can be bad (and that that conclusion did actually seem to apply to all the evidence I've ever seen, myself, limited though it obviously is). As the saying goes (and this is the real point), "your mileage may vary".
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          • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            "your mileage may vary".
            Can't really argue with such a general statement so I won't even try.

            My final comment is maybe numbers have very little to do with it in the end. Maybe the real common denominator here is not numbers at all but how well the words or copy is written.

            Thinking about it realistically for a minute, if someone does a good enough job building value, do numbers really mean anything at that point? Numbers to me represent a more projected value, words seem to either reinforce that value, or take away from it. Overdelivering value may "nullify" the effect of numbers (if that makes sense).

            I don't honestly know. What I do know is this is becoming far too complex for my little brain to handle.

            So I'll leave it up to the more experienced marketers to make sense out of.
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  • Profile picture of the author realreview
    I thought something funny was going on as before I jumped on this thread it had 7 comments and 77 views!
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  • Profile picture of the author Anoosh Kashefi
    Copying, yes, probably.

    But, think about it. How much more does $19 sound than $17.. To me, I think it sounds like more. Same for $47 and $49. Yes, $2 and everyone knows that..

    But the psychology of it all. When you see $47 you don't say $50... You say $47..

    When you see $49, you say $50. Just my 2 cents
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    • Profile picture of the author Lance K


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  • Profile picture of the author footbag_man
    Originally Posted by Christopher Fox View Post

    Why is it that I see SO many info products priced .00 or .00? Is it the new .99? Is there a legitimate reason for this, validated with split testing, or is it a case of monkey see, monkey do? Not that I am calling any of you monkeys, it is just a concise way of expressing the thought.

    Well, for those of you that price your info products at $17 or $27 or $37 or $97 or $137, etc., ya got good reason for it, one that others should follow, or are you just engaging in mimicry 'cause you see the 'gurus' doing it?

    Is the pricing of your info product really that arbitrary? Or is there a sound, logical reason behind it that others who release an info product or ebook should consider when pricing?

    Just curious ...
    Monkey see monkey do for me anyway..

    I think most people's lucky number is 7 so it probably ties into that theory.
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  • Profile picture of the author manicmethods
    Basically the new $0.99 is $0.97

    Originally it was thought that 99¢ was deemed a price that sounded small and a price that enticed buyers to... Buy!

    However, after a lot of research, it was decided that 97¢ is more appealing and sounds far cheaper. APPARANTLY!
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  • Profile picture of the author louie6925
    Definately a mental thing for most people! 7 days of the week, seven sisters, seven dwarfs, lucky number 7, 7up, etc etc
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    As long as the price is nice enough to earn you some cool profits, and your traffic flow is good... i wouldn't obsess over a $5, $7, or $9 ending. Just go out and sell.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Keith
    I have been involved in numerous large studies involving tobii eye tracking technology.

    Often times the survey subjects are asked a series of questions about the web page they got to see for only a few seconds. The results are literally all over the map from offer to offer with things like fonts size and color often affecting the perceived price more than the actual price.

    What I mean by that is that in one series of tests, a big red $17 was more closely associated with the number $20 than $15 dollars. Thus making is seem more expensive.

    However a smaller black $17 was often times perceived to be closer to $15 than $20. The font size and color actually had a very statistically significant affect on the perceived cost.

    I realize I just took the conversation to a level in which most people can't easily test things.

    But my point in mentioning this stuff is that the numbers themselves may not even be the most important psychological cause of a price seeming higher or lower to your audience.
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    • Profile picture of the author Christopher Fox
      Originally Posted by David Keith View Post

      What I mean by that is that in one series of tests, a big red $17 was more closely associated with the number $20 than $15 dollars. Thus making is seem more expensive.

      However a smaller black $17 was often times perceived to be closer to $15 than $20. The font size and color actually had a very statistically significant affect on the perceived cost.
      There ya go David. Looks like you have the makings of a high priced WSO targeted to copywriters.

      Interesting info. Thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dave Espino
        Generally speaking, ending your prices in a 7 results in higher sales volume. This is as a result of a LOT of testing conducted by internet marketers who constantly test pricing and other variables across high sales volumes, so that's good enough for me!

        This is especially true in larger-dollar transactions such as: $297, $497, $2,497 and less so when selling lower-dollar items like $17, $27 or $47.

        I recently launched a newbie eBay coaching program at $497 and an advanced eBay coaching program at $2,497 and all my front-end (lower dollar) products end in 7, too.

        But the reason I end my lower dollar products in 7 is more due to personal preference than actual testing.

        I agree with some of the posts here that say that prices ending in a 7 "sounds" lower than 9.95.

        Dave

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  • Profile picture of the author Murdock Lois
    I was thinking the exact same thing. I seem to keep coming across offers at $197 or $47. Quite odd
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  • Profile picture of the author Resale Rights Ninja
    I invented it. If the product starts with a 7 then end it in a 9.
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    PM Me Now!

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