The Persuasion Engine
How Any Business Can Use AI-Powered Neuromarketing to Understand and Win Customers
1st Edition
Published on 30. April 2026
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-394-38325-2 (ISBN)
Description
Tap into your customers' unconscious minds with cutting-edge AI and neuromarketing techniques
The Persuasion Engine, by neuromarketing and behavioral science expert Roger Dooley, solves the most pressing challenge faced by every marketer: how to figure out why customers make the decisions they do when 95% of their thought processes occur at an unconscious level. Dooley explains how artificial intelligence democratizes sophisticated neuromarketing tools that were once available only to Fortune 500 companies, making powerful customer insight and persuasion techniques accessible to businesses of any size.
The book walks you through the evolution of traditional neuromarketing into "Neuromarketing 2.0," where AI-powered tools eliminate the need for expensive lab studies and human behavioral science experts. It offers a comprehensive roadmap for implementing eye tracking, facial coding, biometrics, implicit testing, and advanced AI behavioral techniques that dramatically improve marketing effectiveness while reducing costs and time investment.
Inside the book, you'll find:
Revolutionary AI prompting strategies that bring world-class behavioral science expertise to your desktop
Practical frameworks for leveraging attention, emotion, credibility, and decision architecture to boost conversions
Step-by-step guidance for implementing biometric tools and implicit testing without laboratory resources
Advanced techniques for creating scarcity, urgency, and FOMO that drive immediate customer action
Comprehensive methods for auditing and enhancing empathy in customer communications
Perfect for marketing professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs, and anyone with a stake in customer acquisition and retention, The Persuasion Engine provides actionable strategies that will transform your approach to marketing. Whether you're working on a shoestring or managing enterprise campaigns, you'll discover how to use your customers' non-conscious motivations and create compelling marketing that work on real people in the real world.
The Persuasion Engine, by neuromarketing and behavioral science expert Roger Dooley, solves the most pressing challenge faced by every marketer: how to figure out why customers make the decisions they do when 95% of their thought processes occur at an unconscious level. Dooley explains how artificial intelligence democratizes sophisticated neuromarketing tools that were once available only to Fortune 500 companies, making powerful customer insight and persuasion techniques accessible to businesses of any size.
The book walks you through the evolution of traditional neuromarketing into "Neuromarketing 2.0," where AI-powered tools eliminate the need for expensive lab studies and human behavioral science experts. It offers a comprehensive roadmap for implementing eye tracking, facial coding, biometrics, implicit testing, and advanced AI behavioral techniques that dramatically improve marketing effectiveness while reducing costs and time investment.
Inside the book, you'll find:
Revolutionary AI prompting strategies that bring world-class behavioral science expertise to your desktop
Practical frameworks for leveraging attention, emotion, credibility, and decision architecture to boost conversions
Step-by-step guidance for implementing biometric tools and implicit testing without laboratory resources
Advanced techniques for creating scarcity, urgency, and FOMO that drive immediate customer action
Comprehensive methods for auditing and enhancing empathy in customer communications
Perfect for marketing professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs, and anyone with a stake in customer acquisition and retention, The Persuasion Engine provides actionable strategies that will transform your approach to marketing. Whether you're working on a shoestring or managing enterprise campaigns, you'll discover how to use your customers' non-conscious motivations and create compelling marketing that work on real people in the real world.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
532 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-394-38325-2 (9781394383252)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Roger Dooley
The Persuasion Engine
How Any Business Can Use AI-Powered Neuromarketing to Understand and Win Customers
E-Book
04/2026
1st Edition
Wiley
€20.99
Available for download
Roger Dooley
The Persuasion Engine
How Any Business Can Use AI-Powered Neuromarketing to Understand and Win Customers
E-Book
04/2026
1st Edition
Wiley
€20.99
Available for download
Person
ROGER DOOLEY is a globally recognized expert in applying neuroscience and behavioral science to marketing, persuasion, and customer experience. He is a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. His bestselling book Brainfluence has been translated into 11 languages.
Content
Introduction
Part I the Future of Marketing Is Here 1
1 A Short History of Neuromarketing 3
Why Neuromarketing Is Important 3
Neuroscience and Marketing? 5
Neuromarketing Through the Years 5
Behavioral Science for All 6
The Pandemic Push 6
The AI Transformation 7
Neuromarketing 2.0 7
Part II the New Tools of Neuromarketing 9
2 Eye-Tracking Revolution 11
Which Book Cover Gets Attention? 12
My Experiment: Book Covers in Online Stores 12
Can Less Expensive, Faster Techniques Work? 14
The Experiment Continues: Device Camera Eye Tracking 14
Who Needs Humans? 15
Repeating the Book Experiment with AI Eye-Tracking Simulators 16
Book Experiment Takeaway 17
Remote Eye Tracking 17
Limitations of Remote Eye Tracking 18
How to Use Remote Eye Tracking 18
AI Eye-Tracking Simulators 19
Pros and Cons of AI Eye Tracking 21
Data vs. Guessing 21
A Big Caution 22
The Power of Fast Iteration 22
How to Get Started with AI Eye Tracking 23
What's Next 24
3 Facial Coding 25
Remote, Real-Time Facial Coding 25
Limitations of Device Camera Facial Coding 26
How to Use Facial Coding 27
What's Next 28
4 Biometrics Everywhere 29
The Wearable Revolution 29
The Advantages of Wearables 30
Barriers to Wearables 30
Immersion Neuroscience: Real-World Biometrics Made Simple 31
From DARPA Labs to Your Wrist 31
What Can You Measure? 32
How to Get Started 33
Limitations of Immersion 34
Pairing Immersion with Other Methods 34
What's Next 35
5 Implicit Testing 37
Limitations of Implicit Testing 38
How to Get Started with Implicit Testing 38
When to Use Implicit Testing 39
What's Next 39
6 Evolving Neuromarketing 2.0 Tools 41
EEG Testing 41
EEG Hardware Progress 42
Virtual and Augmented Reality 42
What's Next: From Insight to Influence 43
Part III Ai-powered Persuasion 45
7 Your AI Behavioral Science Dream Team 47
Your New Million-Dollar Team (That Costs Less Than Lunch) 48
It's Not About the AI, It's About the Expert 49
Generic Prompts Give Generic Results 50
A Quick Caution on All-Knowing AI 51
Building Your Dream Team 52
Behavioral Science and Persuasion 52
Customer Experience (CX) Experts 54
Copywriting & Communication Experts 55
Pricing Psychology & Strategy Experts 55
Sales Experts 56
Prompting Your Team 57
Testing Your Team 58
Single Expert vs. Multiple Experts 58
Different Specific Experts for the Same Challenge 58
Detailed Role vs. Specific Experts 59
Different AI Models with the Same Expert Prompt 59
Making Roles Work: Best Practices 59
Put Your Team to Work 62
What's Next 63
8 Advanced Prompting 65
Frameworks Add Structure 66
RACE (Role, Action, Context, Execute/Expectation) 66
AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) 66
APE (Action, Purpose, Expectation) 66
Tag (Task, Action, Goal) 67
Six Rules of Thumb for Prompting AI Models 67
Rule #1: Be Ridiculously Specific 67
Rule #2: Give AI Everything at the Start 68
Rule #3: Trust but Verify 68
Rule #4: Save Your Best Prompts 68
Rule #5: Introduce the Unexpected 69
Rule #6: Kaizen Your AI 69
Meta-Prompting: Let AI Build Better Prompts 69
Share Your Knowledge: Add Context 71
Start with Your Customers 72
Customer Profile Framework 72
Your Business and Your Brand 73
The Industry and Competition 73
Let AI Unlock Your Knowledge 74
The Interview Approach 74
Missing Context? AI Can Help 76
The Gap-Filling Framework 76
The Iteration Approach 77
Deep Research for Deep Insights 77
Create Your Customer Profiles 78
Researching Your Industry and Competitors 80
Reality Check 82
Learning from History 83
Reusing and Updating Your Knowledge 84
Projects and Custom GPTs 84
Update Frequently 86
Case Study: The Power of Iteration 87
Overnight Success? Nope 88
The Lesson: Iterate, Iterate, Iterate 89
Making It Work in Practice 89
The Multiplier Effect 90
Your First Mission 90
Your AI Changes You (in a Good Way) 91
A Quick Word About Ethics 92
Your Persuasion Control Center 92
What's Next 94
9 Quick Wins to Get Started 95
The Five-Minute Behavioral Audit 95
Go Deeper When It's Important 97
Get a Second Opinion 98
Score a Quick Win with a Better Headline 100
Headline Makeover: Loss Aversion in Action 101
Stack Your Triggers 102
Your Next Quick Win: Level Up Your CTA 102
Another Quick Win: Social Proof Power-Ups 105
Compound Your Quick Wins 108
Try It Out 108
What's Next 109
10 Attention and Emotion 111
Cognitive Overload 111
The Simplicity Paradox 112
Visual Complexity 114
Color Your World 115
Open the Curiosity Gap 116
Pattern Interruption to Get Attention 117
Emotional Triggers That Drive Results 118
Pro Move #1: Build on What You've Learned 120
Pro Move #2: Get More Powerful Insights with Deep Research 120
Emotional Copy Persuades 122
Keep Readers Moving Forward 123
The Attention-Emotion Feedback Loop 124
Your Attention Audit 124
What's Next 125
11 Close the Credibility Gap 127
The Neuroscience of Trust 128
Digital Trust 128
Getting Started: A Trust Audit 129
Use an Agent or Deep Research for a Thorough Trust Audit 130
The Social Proof Spectrum 132
Authority: The Expert Effect 133
Microcommitments to Build Trust 134
Anti-Trust Signals: Find Your Credibility Killers 136
Trust Transference Strategies 137
Trust Transference Example 138
Trust Transference Example with Deep Research 138
What's Next 139
12 Decision Architecture and Pricing 141
The Choice Paradox in Practice 141
Gemini on Gemini 143
The Decoy Effect: Steering Preference 143
Default Power: Frictionless Choice 144
Anchoring in Action 145
Example: Pricing Page with Five Choices 146
Example: Single Product 146
Loss Framing vs. Gain Framing 147
Temporal Framing: "When" Beats "What" 148
Choice Architecture and Pricing Psychology Audit 149
What's Next 150
13 Scarcity, Urgency, and FOMO 151
The Psychology of Scarcity 151
Scarcity's Dark Side 152
Find Your Scarcity 153
Example: Ad Agency 153
Example-Luggage Brand 154
Authentic vs. Artificial Scarcity 155
Urgency Without Anxiety 156
The Scarcity Spectrum 157
Power Up Scarcity with Social Proof 159
Ethical Scarcity 160
What's Next 160
14 Advanced AI Behavioral Techniques 161
Multi-Expert Panels: Beyond Single Perspectives 161
Food Fight: Make Your Experts Disagree 164
Mobile-Specific Behavioral Psychology 165
B2B Behavioral Differences 166
Fear as a B2B Motivator 167
Competitive Behavioral Analysis 168
Building Your Behavioral Prompt Library 171
Wrapping Up Part 3 172
What's Next 173
Part IV Empathy, Emotion, and Communication 175
15 AI Adds the Human Touch 177
It's Humans That Lack Empathy 178
The High Cost of Lacking Empathy 178
Cruising Toward Disaster 179
Royal Caribbean's Great Adventure 180
The Empathy Failure 181
Loyalty, Shmoyalty 181
Permanent Debarkation 182
AI Could Have Warned Them 183
The Hidden Cost of Emotional Blindness 183
Closing the Empathy Gap 184
The Emotional Multiplier Effect 184
What AI "Empathy" Actually Means 185
Scientists Compare AI and Human Emotional Intelligence 186
What's Next 187
16 Auditing for Empathy 189
The 60-Second Emotion Check 189
Step 1: Set the Context 189
Step 2: Assess the Emotional Impact 190
Step 3: Suggest Improvements 190
The Empathy Audit: Seeing Through Your Recipients' Eyes 191
The Empathy Audit Framework 192
The AI-Powered Empathy Check 193
Why Comprehensive Analysis Matters 194
The Power of Segment Analysis 196
Making It Actionable 196
What's Next 197
17 Practical Empathy 199
Customer-Facing Communications 199
Internal Communications 200
Crisis Communications 201
Personalized Emotional Intelligence 201
Segment-Specific Empathy 201
AI-Powered Emotional Personalization 202
Building Your AI Empathy System 203
Starter Prompts for Emotion and Empathy 203
Customer Reaction Predictor 204
Empathy Rewriter 204
Cultural Sensitivity Check 204
Stakeholder-Specific Communication 205
Give Your AI Feedback 205
Set Up Your Workflow 205
Don't Forget It's AI 206
The Future of Emotionally Intelligent Business 207
Predictive Emotional Intelligence 207
Cross-Cultural Emotional AI 208
Multimodal Empathy 208
Is Artificial Empathy Ethical? 208
Transparency and Authenticity 208
The Manipulation Question 209
The Empathy Advantage 209
Conclusion 211
Appendix: Classic Neuromarketing 213
Notes 233
Acknowledgments 239
About the Author 241
Index 243
Part I the Future of Marketing Is Here 1
1 A Short History of Neuromarketing 3
Why Neuromarketing Is Important 3
Neuroscience and Marketing? 5
Neuromarketing Through the Years 5
Behavioral Science for All 6
The Pandemic Push 6
The AI Transformation 7
Neuromarketing 2.0 7
Part II the New Tools of Neuromarketing 9
2 Eye-Tracking Revolution 11
Which Book Cover Gets Attention? 12
My Experiment: Book Covers in Online Stores 12
Can Less Expensive, Faster Techniques Work? 14
The Experiment Continues: Device Camera Eye Tracking 14
Who Needs Humans? 15
Repeating the Book Experiment with AI Eye-Tracking Simulators 16
Book Experiment Takeaway 17
Remote Eye Tracking 17
Limitations of Remote Eye Tracking 18
How to Use Remote Eye Tracking 18
AI Eye-Tracking Simulators 19
Pros and Cons of AI Eye Tracking 21
Data vs. Guessing 21
A Big Caution 22
The Power of Fast Iteration 22
How to Get Started with AI Eye Tracking 23
What's Next 24
3 Facial Coding 25
Remote, Real-Time Facial Coding 25
Limitations of Device Camera Facial Coding 26
How to Use Facial Coding 27
What's Next 28
4 Biometrics Everywhere 29
The Wearable Revolution 29
The Advantages of Wearables 30
Barriers to Wearables 30
Immersion Neuroscience: Real-World Biometrics Made Simple 31
From DARPA Labs to Your Wrist 31
What Can You Measure? 32
How to Get Started 33
Limitations of Immersion 34
Pairing Immersion with Other Methods 34
What's Next 35
5 Implicit Testing 37
Limitations of Implicit Testing 38
How to Get Started with Implicit Testing 38
When to Use Implicit Testing 39
What's Next 39
6 Evolving Neuromarketing 2.0 Tools 41
EEG Testing 41
EEG Hardware Progress 42
Virtual and Augmented Reality 42
What's Next: From Insight to Influence 43
Part III Ai-powered Persuasion 45
7 Your AI Behavioral Science Dream Team 47
Your New Million-Dollar Team (That Costs Less Than Lunch) 48
It's Not About the AI, It's About the Expert 49
Generic Prompts Give Generic Results 50
A Quick Caution on All-Knowing AI 51
Building Your Dream Team 52
Behavioral Science and Persuasion 52
Customer Experience (CX) Experts 54
Copywriting & Communication Experts 55
Pricing Psychology & Strategy Experts 55
Sales Experts 56
Prompting Your Team 57
Testing Your Team 58
Single Expert vs. Multiple Experts 58
Different Specific Experts for the Same Challenge 58
Detailed Role vs. Specific Experts 59
Different AI Models with the Same Expert Prompt 59
Making Roles Work: Best Practices 59
Put Your Team to Work 62
What's Next 63
8 Advanced Prompting 65
Frameworks Add Structure 66
RACE (Role, Action, Context, Execute/Expectation) 66
AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) 66
APE (Action, Purpose, Expectation) 66
Tag (Task, Action, Goal) 67
Six Rules of Thumb for Prompting AI Models 67
Rule #1: Be Ridiculously Specific 67
Rule #2: Give AI Everything at the Start 68
Rule #3: Trust but Verify 68
Rule #4: Save Your Best Prompts 68
Rule #5: Introduce the Unexpected 69
Rule #6: Kaizen Your AI 69
Meta-Prompting: Let AI Build Better Prompts 69
Share Your Knowledge: Add Context 71
Start with Your Customers 72
Customer Profile Framework 72
Your Business and Your Brand 73
The Industry and Competition 73
Let AI Unlock Your Knowledge 74
The Interview Approach 74
Missing Context? AI Can Help 76
The Gap-Filling Framework 76
The Iteration Approach 77
Deep Research for Deep Insights 77
Create Your Customer Profiles 78
Researching Your Industry and Competitors 80
Reality Check 82
Learning from History 83
Reusing and Updating Your Knowledge 84
Projects and Custom GPTs 84
Update Frequently 86
Case Study: The Power of Iteration 87
Overnight Success? Nope 88
The Lesson: Iterate, Iterate, Iterate 89
Making It Work in Practice 89
The Multiplier Effect 90
Your First Mission 90
Your AI Changes You (in a Good Way) 91
A Quick Word About Ethics 92
Your Persuasion Control Center 92
What's Next 94
9 Quick Wins to Get Started 95
The Five-Minute Behavioral Audit 95
Go Deeper When It's Important 97
Get a Second Opinion 98
Score a Quick Win with a Better Headline 100
Headline Makeover: Loss Aversion in Action 101
Stack Your Triggers 102
Your Next Quick Win: Level Up Your CTA 102
Another Quick Win: Social Proof Power-Ups 105
Compound Your Quick Wins 108
Try It Out 108
What's Next 109
10 Attention and Emotion 111
Cognitive Overload 111
The Simplicity Paradox 112
Visual Complexity 114
Color Your World 115
Open the Curiosity Gap 116
Pattern Interruption to Get Attention 117
Emotional Triggers That Drive Results 118
Pro Move #1: Build on What You've Learned 120
Pro Move #2: Get More Powerful Insights with Deep Research 120
Emotional Copy Persuades 122
Keep Readers Moving Forward 123
The Attention-Emotion Feedback Loop 124
Your Attention Audit 124
What's Next 125
11 Close the Credibility Gap 127
The Neuroscience of Trust 128
Digital Trust 128
Getting Started: A Trust Audit 129
Use an Agent or Deep Research for a Thorough Trust Audit 130
The Social Proof Spectrum 132
Authority: The Expert Effect 133
Microcommitments to Build Trust 134
Anti-Trust Signals: Find Your Credibility Killers 136
Trust Transference Strategies 137
Trust Transference Example 138
Trust Transference Example with Deep Research 138
What's Next 139
12 Decision Architecture and Pricing 141
The Choice Paradox in Practice 141
Gemini on Gemini 143
The Decoy Effect: Steering Preference 143
Default Power: Frictionless Choice 144
Anchoring in Action 145
Example: Pricing Page with Five Choices 146
Example: Single Product 146
Loss Framing vs. Gain Framing 147
Temporal Framing: "When" Beats "What" 148
Choice Architecture and Pricing Psychology Audit 149
What's Next 150
13 Scarcity, Urgency, and FOMO 151
The Psychology of Scarcity 151
Scarcity's Dark Side 152
Find Your Scarcity 153
Example: Ad Agency 153
Example-Luggage Brand 154
Authentic vs. Artificial Scarcity 155
Urgency Without Anxiety 156
The Scarcity Spectrum 157
Power Up Scarcity with Social Proof 159
Ethical Scarcity 160
What's Next 160
14 Advanced AI Behavioral Techniques 161
Multi-Expert Panels: Beyond Single Perspectives 161
Food Fight: Make Your Experts Disagree 164
Mobile-Specific Behavioral Psychology 165
B2B Behavioral Differences 166
Fear as a B2B Motivator 167
Competitive Behavioral Analysis 168
Building Your Behavioral Prompt Library 171
Wrapping Up Part 3 172
What's Next 173
Part IV Empathy, Emotion, and Communication 175
15 AI Adds the Human Touch 177
It's Humans That Lack Empathy 178
The High Cost of Lacking Empathy 178
Cruising Toward Disaster 179
Royal Caribbean's Great Adventure 180
The Empathy Failure 181
Loyalty, Shmoyalty 181
Permanent Debarkation 182
AI Could Have Warned Them 183
The Hidden Cost of Emotional Blindness 183
Closing the Empathy Gap 184
The Emotional Multiplier Effect 184
What AI "Empathy" Actually Means 185
Scientists Compare AI and Human Emotional Intelligence 186
What's Next 187
16 Auditing for Empathy 189
The 60-Second Emotion Check 189
Step 1: Set the Context 189
Step 2: Assess the Emotional Impact 190
Step 3: Suggest Improvements 190
The Empathy Audit: Seeing Through Your Recipients' Eyes 191
The Empathy Audit Framework 192
The AI-Powered Empathy Check 193
Why Comprehensive Analysis Matters 194
The Power of Segment Analysis 196
Making It Actionable 196
What's Next 197
17 Practical Empathy 199
Customer-Facing Communications 199
Internal Communications 200
Crisis Communications 201
Personalized Emotional Intelligence 201
Segment-Specific Empathy 201
AI-Powered Emotional Personalization 202
Building Your AI Empathy System 203
Starter Prompts for Emotion and Empathy 203
Customer Reaction Predictor 204
Empathy Rewriter 204
Cultural Sensitivity Check 204
Stakeholder-Specific Communication 205
Give Your AI Feedback 205
Set Up Your Workflow 205
Don't Forget It's AI 206
The Future of Emotionally Intelligent Business 207
Predictive Emotional Intelligence 207
Cross-Cultural Emotional AI 208
Multimodal Empathy 208
Is Artificial Empathy Ethical? 208
Transparency and Authenticity 208
The Manipulation Question 209
The Empathy Advantage 209
Conclusion 211
Appendix: Classic Neuromarketing 213
Notes 233
Acknowledgments 239
About the Author 241
Index 243