Viral Creative Breakdown

Hey there,

For this email I'm going to do a more in-depth breakdown of a format of ad that's working really well.

Feel free to reverse engineer it for your own brand and push it.

It's the ad from this tweet here: https://mobile.twitter.com/PaulNiklas8/status/1622005594906566656

Because there's no character limit I'm going to go into a bit more detail on each section, as there were some pretty crucial points that were missed.

Structure of the ad -

1. Hook

2. Lead (must tap into existing belief)

3. Mechanism of problem + agitate

4. Comparison to inferior solution #1

5. Comparison to inferior solution #2

6. Introduce solution (with authority)

7. Build credibility

8. Mechanism of solution

9. Testimonials

10. End result

11. Address objections

12. CTA

Let's start with the hook -

We found the best text hooks were:

1. Why people with X problem are switching to X solution.

2. Eliminate X problem in 30 days or your money back guaranteed.

We didn't introduce the product or give any clue as to what the solution was in the visual/text, and this means that the prospect must keep watching to figure out what it's going to be.

For the visual hook, we showed a very graphic visual of the problem (and made sure it was with our main customer avatar - a Female, aged 35)

Then, we move onto the lead/mechanism of the problem.

For this it is crucial you tap into an "existing belief" of the marketplace. For our offer (a neck pain relief device), 90% of people answered "text neck/desk work" when asked what they believe the root cause of their problem is.

We tapped into that with the lead and simply explained in detail what was happening to their neck as they did that.

Finally, we also used a metaphor (visual + text) to make it easy to understand.

Agitation -

After carefully explaining the mechanism of the problem - we agitate it.

Meaning we tie it into how it is impacting their day to day life, as well as the emotional state they are in AND how it could get worse if they continue to ignore the problem (this is important).

For this marketing campaign, the biggest sector of people aren't going to have debilitating neck pain, they are just going to have "nagging neck pain" - so we need to speak to these people and explain why it is crucial to act now, and this opens up the biggest sector of the market and allows scale.

IF we just went with a horror story targeted at people with debilitating pain:

1. The claims are unjustified/unethical

2. You narrow it down to fewer people, and your creative won't scale.

Comparison to inferior solution -

After the agitation, we want to alleviate the customers of ALL FAULT.

We might script a line like - "But it's not your fault, because the common solutions just don't cut it"

Then we talk about inferior solution #1.

Explain a small benefit of the inferior solution (to legitimise the claim we are about to make)

And then follow up with an explanation about why this solution is inferior.

Again, we want to tap into existing beliefs - so we are getting the painpoints/grievances of these solutions FROM the customer.

We repeat this for inferior solution #2.

Introduce with authority -

Once we're done comparing, we want to bridge to our solution, and introduce it with authority OR some interesting story (this is why having a face of brand OR partnership OR cool background story is powerful)

One thing which I believe would crush is actually introducing the mechanism of the solution first & before the offer/product.

When you have introduced the offer, you want to build credibility.

Build credibility -

This is where you build up the offer - talk about how many iterations it went through, lab tests, trials, $ spent, etc.

Be careful with claims here, you don't want to fabricate anything because it can land you in hot water especially if you scale and we don't want that.

Mechanism of solution -

Finally, we explain the mechanism of solution.

This is crucial: if you are in a crowded/saturated market - you need a "unique mechanism". E.G - the mushroom market is flooded right now and everyone has the same blend of lion's mane and whatever else...

You could expand here and talk about the blending process, where the mushrooms were grown, pairing it with a crucial ingredient anything to get your offer to stand out in a sea of the same.

I shot a loom on this here:

Testimonial -

I find the ideal testimonial structure is:

1. Talk about problem (match with target customer - in this case nagging pain)

2. Talk about what prompted action taking (if it's pain relief/weight loss/something that gets worse with age, I find a line talking about how they saw their mother/father go through the same thing is very relatable) - I had this idea because I look a lot like my Dad who has awful posture/forward head. I can literally SEE me getting his posture, as a result I am hyper sensitive of this problem and am conscious of it.

3. Product discovery (recommendation from expert friend is powerful to use here "e.g - my friend who's a physical therapist gave it the tick of approval")

4. Small fault with product

5. Benefit

6. Recommendation (with the recommendation you want to acknowledge skepcitism, especially if you are promising a big transformation OR it's in a market that has tried numerous solutions)

Another hack for testimonials is to talk about status increase in the eyes of others.

"even my husband noticed my mood has improved"

After the testimonial focus on end result & future pace -

Talk about how life will change

Talk about end emotion/state once problem is solved.

All the secondary benefits

Address any skepticism head on AND give a no-brainer offer -

Literally script a line saying something like "Now, I understand the skepticism"

With this you should be trying to address the biggest objection head on with a very specific and strong guarantee.

Finally, you close the ad with scarcity and urgency.

Some additional notes:

This ad was delivered as a spokesperson; we split tested about four and the two best had the following attributes:

1. Male

2. Symmetrical/trustworthy face

3. Reasonably handsome BUT not 8/10+

4. Delivery/set up was fairly low spec.

Some things I would split test:

1. Delivery from someone with authority

2. Higher spec set up (better camera, professional shoot)

3. Multiple spokesperson/mashing up the two winners

Spokesperson DOES matter - I highly advise testing new concepts as voiceovers because a poor delivery or spokesperson that doesn't resonate can really crush conversions.

That's it!

Hope you enjoyed.