Social comparison advertising is a marketing communication strategy commonly used by enterprises. This study mainly discusses the matching effect between, and the potential mechanism under the advertising strategy and consumers’ different self-awareness states. Four experiments show that: (1) when consumers experience the state of objective self-awareness (OSA), downward (vs. upward) social comparison ads work better by lessening people’s self-threat perception; (2) when consumers experience the state of subjective self-awareness (SSA), upward (vs. downward) social comparison ads produce better advertising effects by stimulating people’s greater motivation for self-improvement. The current research advances knowledge of how consumers in different self-awareness states respond to social comparison advertising and carries important implications for marketers and policymakers to optimize advertising strategies.