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Do 40-minute long ads work on Facebook?
What we can learn from Mindvalley's education-led ads.
Aazar Shad
February 26, 2023
What's up, Marketers! This is Aazar.
This newsletter is about leveling up your paid growth marketing skills by analyzing the best brands' paid strategy, tactics, positioning, and value props.
This newsletter is divided into:
Sharing what I've learned
Sometimes sharing some other performance marketers’ lessons with you
And I analyze the best ads on the internet (this issue)
Estimated read time: 4 minutes, 43 seconds
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This week, we’ll cover Mindvalley’s ads.
For those who don’t know about Mindvalley. It is an innovative personal transformation learning platform covering all the essential life skills that regular education ignores. It’s about personal growth — the topics are divided into mind, body, soul, entrepreneurship, career, and relationship.
This time I am analyzing their ads. Additionally, I am inviting their head of marketing, Tyler, to my mastermind group (The Performers). Together, we will dig deeper into their paid social marketing tactics & strategies. So, if you want to join the session, apply for the mastermind now.
Why is Mindvalley interesting?
Vishen Lakhani, the founder, built this huge brand in Malaysia, not the US.
Vishen Lakhani’s founder brand is probably the best playbook of how founders should lead their marketing (he used to do marketing himself in the early days). He is mostly the face of their ads.
And I love his/Mindvalley’s storytelling skills that they run in their ads.
Mindvalley also does whitelisting ad strategy with their coaches phenomenally.
One of my LinkedIn followers bought their program because of their ads. So, it’s just not me.
The Positioning
Their positioning is: Step into your greatness — The most effective life transformation platform in the world.
Their promise is simple: You’ll have a magical transformation if you try Mindvalley.
They collaborate with famous mindset gurus and coaches to work together on getting their content in front of a big audience.
Ads analysis
Note: Some of their ads were 40+ minutes long. I didn’t watch it entirely, but I found good gems for you. I am only evaluating videos that are still active and launched before December 31, 2022, so we know these ads are STILL performing well.
Important: For a better understanding of the ads, I recommend watching the ads first. All these ads are hosted on Foreplay (It helps me to save ads for inspiration even if the brands delete them. They also have a discovery feature where I find good ad concepts to steal). Oh, by the way, I have a 50% discount for 3 months, if you want to try this tool — reply to this email).
What immediately stands out:
This ad is 46 minutes long (OMG!).
The hook: There is no such thing good or bad memory. This hook opens so many questions I want to continue watching.
Jim Kwik, in the video, reframed the concept of trained vs. untrained memory. And this leads me to watch what he means — the open loop is working.
At 11 seconds, Vishen tells Jim Kwik’s story and hooks me with a memorable open loop — The Boy With The Broken Brain.
I ended up watching the full ad, and I have to say the script is a masterpiece:
Vishen points out the challenges Jim had — It’s an underdog story. We all like a relatable underdog story. It felt like a movie.
He tells how he overcomes his shortcomings with his mind.
And then he connects it to Mindvalley.
The CTA of the video at the end is Jim Kwik’s superbrain Mindvalley membership. It connects the hero with the product.
In short, it’s the hero journey storytelling that we can learn from this ad.
The hero’s journey chart
So, what can we steal from this ad?
Sometimes customers aren’t the best storytellers (not saying that Jim also sucks, actually he is really good). But you can use their good soundbites (like Jim used in this ad) and tell your customer story in your ad.
Like Masterclass, they also use the “stage effect” to get the hook.
The ad copy could also be interesting for you:
If you just had ONE wish, what would you wish for? Probably more wishes, right? The same thing goes for (insert your product theme)……..
Here’s what I am still confused about and going to ask Tyler:
How do these long videos perform?
Are they retargeting based on watch time?
How were tests with Jim selling vs. Vishen selling Jim’s Mindvalley membership, if there were any?
Ad # 2 — How To Access Superhuman Abilities
What immediately stands out:
The AIDA copy in this ad:
Education-led hook: This technique….. can help you flourish your creativity and intuition (everyone wants to know secret techniques).
The hook seems to have a robotic voice-over, how we usually see these days on TikTok. This is new to me, but it makes sense because now we are accustomed to such voicer-overs.
Vishen later says, “I spend a lot of time going and working with neuroscientists to hack my brain…”. This is pure psychology at play. He uses a psychological principle called the escalation of commitment, which leads to credibility.
At 32:00, he explains how to order the membership to make it super easy for prospects to take the next step. How often do we tell our prospects in our ads how to buy? I think this is a good tactic.
CTA: Vishen says, “You deserve a life that is nothing less than magical; click the link below”. And further stresses, “Now it is up to you. You can carry on as you always have been, or you can try Silva Ultramind. Risk-free for 15 days. You have absolutely nothing to lose and a whole new incredible magical life to gain.” DAMN! I feel guilty about not taking the next steps.
So, what can we steal from this ad?
CTA that makes you feel guilty about not taking the next steps in a persuasive manner.
The psychological principle of escalation of commitment.
AIDA copy that starts with a question — “What if….?” I think this is a good copywriting tactic.
Make it super easy in your ads to tell how to buy your product if you are using a long video like Mindvalley.
Ad # 3 - Achieving Higher Productivity
What immediately stands out:
The video is short (I picked a short one to see if there is a difference). And it is used for the free masterclass (webinar), not their main subscription. Vishen is selling the masterclass (webinar), not the Mindvalley membership.
The thumbnail with an authority figure (Nir Eyal), not Vishen. Here’s a good example of them leveraging their coaches well.
The first line of primary text copy is steal-worthy: If you really want to ______, tear up your (most commonly suggested advice).
The video hook starts with: “Okay you, come over here, and I want to show you my to-do list…”. And then Vishen shows his calendar in a native-looking video office environment. This is a counter-intuitive visual element that I have seen for the first time.
When Vishen explains the optimized calendar concept, it gives you the Aha! Moment. He gives you the solution already but does not tell you how. But the details come in the free masterclass.
So, what can we steal from this ad?
First line copy — I believe we should all steal this one: If you really want to ______, tear up your (most commonly suggested advice).
Addressing your viewer “you”. Marketing research journals tell us that using ‘you’ in your copy boosts results. Second-person pronouns (e.g., you, your, you’ll) make readers feel more involved. People will likely engage with you and feel more positive toward your brand. Read this post to learn more.
Make the common piece of advice your enemy. Start with that but then teach them why that’s bad advice (to-do list vs. calendar blocking).
In education, the webinar funnel simply just works. The webinar is like an hour-long trailer for the full membership.
TL;DR
First-line copy is still important. Use “if or what if” to get your prospect's imagination.
Use long-form video ads to educate your audience and build trust.
Make the common piece of advice your enemy. Start with that but then teach them why that’s bad advice (to-do list vs. calendar blocking).
Study the hero’s journey and effectively use it to tell a story.
Sell the transformation with an underdog story and connect it with your product/course and how your audience can achieve it.
This newsletter is two-part series, so I am deliberately keeping it short. Let me know how you feel about the length of the newsletter:
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The tools I use & recommend
Foreplay: Save ads, build briefs and produce high converting ads at scale without compromising quality. I have a 50% off discount for 3 months if you want to use it. Reply to this email, I’ll share it with ya.
Adbox: Swipe file for ads. Whenever I am short on ideas, I always check Adbox. They curate the best ads.
Hyros: HYROS is the highest level of Ad Tracking & AI Optimization tool for digital businesses. I use it for accurate attribution tracking and pixel training for FB ads.
Pencil: Pencil is the AI Ad Generator that helps brands & agencies create new ad variations 10x faster.
Happy Growing with Paid Social,
Aazar Shad
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