How to Use Emotions in Ads The Right Way

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 share some other performance marketers’ lessons with you

• And I analyze & compare the best ads on the internet (this issue)

📣 Announcements:

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• I’ll be taking some time off the next few weeks and I’ll be back in mid-January with a fresh newsletter. With that, I’d like to wish you an advanced Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 🙂 

I was about to do another paid social performance battle and found out this brand is actively running 5000+ ads (and its competitors, only 20 ads.)

I already knew the winner, so I thought why waste time here? 

The winner is Headway – a book summary app (not the first one but probably the first one with a great marketing team.) 

I use Headway and I also converted because of the ad. 

They’re the classic case of a good product (not great) but a great marketing team. This is my opinion. I think competitors like Shortform or Blinkist have a better product.

Here’s why they are interesting:

• They are creative testing at scale

• They probably have the most creative static ads around. Even their competitors steal from them shamelessly (I looked at the other accounts)

• They have an interesting creative iteration strategy (more about that later)

• We can get inspired and probably make more ads similar to how they approach it

• They have clear enemies and we can probably learn from them too

Note # 1: This issue will focus heavily on static ads because that’s what we are almost always short on. One more thing, I only checked ads that have been running longer than 30 days. Most brands I try to evaluate do not pass this criteria. I only evaluate proven ads. 

Note # 2: For a better understanding of the ads, I recommend watching the ads first. These ads are hosted on Magicbrief (a platform that lets me save ads for inspiration even after the brands delete them. They also have a discovery feature where I find good ad concepts to steal.)

Ad # 1 - Life stage + Jobs to Be Done ads

This was interesting: I’ve rarely seen brands focusing on ‘life stage’ with ‘jobs to be done’ ads together.

Notice how they use the same copy but change the image in the ad. And all the ads are running and probably giving good ROAS.

Ad insights: 

This is the life stage after a break up. You go into self reflection mode. You seek help to heal and feel better. This is probably a time when you want to read. 

However, reading takes a lot of time. You can save time by reading Headway. 

Headline is clear, not clever.

Value prop evokes emotions: It addresses a common emotional issue—getting over an ex—and immediately offers a solution, implying a clear benefit to the target audience.

And the ad targets an emotionally relatable event in life to a very broad female audience.

Steal this:

Run the same headline and use multiple images. Just make sure the headline evokes an emotional response.

Ad # 2 – Call out your enemy

Similar headline but a slightly different visual that tells the same story.

Ad insights: 

• The ad exploits the hierarchy of information from the headline right down to the visuals

I am talking about this hierarchy as an example:

• The flowchart design visually connects related concepts (Productivity, Finances, Career, Business), which can help viewers make mental connections to their own goals

• Bold headline statement against the “enemy (podcast)” that it is better 

• Showing popular books with a 14 day plan makes it super easy to find an audience that wants to read for longer than 7 days. They have a 7-day free trial. Smart. 

• The ad's design is simple and clean, with a lot of white space, making it easy to read and understand quickly

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Ad # 3 – Before and After if you can’t show

I have a problem. I don’t sell skincare products where I can show before and after ads.

I did sell a dental brand and before and after worked well for them.

But what if you can’t show something like that?

Don’t worry, Headway has finally given us an idea.

Disclaimer: I personally don’t like this ad but I do feel we can use the principle. 

Ad insights:

• Exploit AI to your advantage to create an “after” life

• Use % and progress bars to illustrate your point

• Lead your ad with the aspirations your audience wants to have

Steal:

AI use for before and after.

Ad # 4 - Ask for help, but it is actually really selling

Ad insights:

• Urgency and exclusivity: By stating that they are looking for "10 people who NEED to improve self-growth this month”

• I’ve seen such ads before but this was smartly done

• They didn’t promise anything for free

• They didn’t ask for your details, instead ad sends them to the standard funnel

• Copywriting “we’re looking for…” has so much power that feels like a letter

• Clearly hitting the jobs to be done: Looking to improve self-growth 

Steal:

I’d definitely use the urgency and exclusivity tactic.

Ad # 5 – Creative iterations done well

All these ads are performing well with slight variations (the fifth one is my favorite).

• Iteration 2

• Iteration 3

• Iteration 4

• Iteration 5

 Ad insights:

• When you’ve found an ad that worked well, tweak it and rerun it. These ads are purely an example of that. (I’m going to create a brief for that right after this newsletter)

• If your headline works really well, this is how you iterate on it

Steal:

• The iteration formats are AMAZING! 

Ad # 6 – Reaction style ad

Another iteration is here.

Ad insights:

• I love this reaction style format, it exploits the existing ad 

• Mention your enemy and then immediately offer the solution

• Universally accepted concept: It’s so easy to get hooked on scrolling – this is something we all agree with and want to get away with it. So, the solution is obvious. Here’s why you should use universally accepted concepts in hooks:

  • Broad appeal

  • Instantly relatable

  • Emotional resonance with the concept

  • These ads ideas that have widespread acceptance come with a built-in level of trust and credibility

  • They are simple and clear

  • They fit into cultural narratives and societal norms

  • They are more likely to be remembered after the ad has been seen

  • Shareability: People are more likely to share content that reflects widely held beliefs or values, increasing the ad's reach and impact

Steal:

• Use universally accepted concept hooks

• Use reaction style ads, they look native

• Once you find a video, keep repurposing it

Ad # 7 – The Podcast Style UGC

• Iteration 2

• Iteration 3

Ad insights:

• Teach: Even I learned about “doom scrolling” from Headway

• Add social proof: “It’s buzzing all over the internet” (yes, because of your ads 😂)

• Gentle CTA with confidence: “I bet you already wanna download it” 

Steal:

• A simple UGC with a new format is my favorite

• I love how creator added two psychological cues: social proof + Nudge with that CTA (stealing those for sure)

I’m going to leave with you the most important lesson I learned from Headway. Although, they are attracting the widest possible audience. They still focus on:

• Life stages like breakups and pregnancy

• Aspiration category: The most interesting person and That girl

• Relationship category

• Single men

• And more

Just like there are so many book categories, they can focus on these to attract the right audience. And they will personalize the journey based on their onboarding and quiz. 

Here are the lessons from Headway:

• Creative testing at scale: I consult for publicly listed companies for paid ads, even if they can learn from Headway

• Focus on emotional & aspiration resonance with the visual and headlines

• Iterative creative strategy: I got so many ideas from it. I will never kill a winning video so early

• Exploiting Familiar Formats in Unique Ways: Headway seems to employ familiar ad formats (like reaction-style or podcast-style ads) but with unique twists that make them stand out. 

• Psychological and Life-Stage Targeting: This was pretty new to me, I’d use this for broader appeal.

• Leveraging AI for Creative Development: My AI ads sucked but they didn’t. I found a way to use this in the future.

• Never let go of your enemy in the ads: Social media and books. Enemy ads have served well me too.

Happy Growing with Paid Social,

Aazar Shad

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