Ads that are grounded and relatable convert better.

An odd thing I do for fun is watch ads.

I skip them like most sane individuals.

But if I’m somehow hooked into the ad within the first five seconds, I see how much longer the ad can keep my attention.

Again, when I get the chance to do so, I skip, say, 95% of all ads, be it podcasts, videos, or shows.

This one ad that I came across on Instagram caught me.

Not because I was the ideal customer, but because it was in the way they presented their offering.

While I’ll get into the brilliance of this ad in a moment, let’s address the common framework used in most ads.

Within the first five seconds, most offerings ask the audience some rhetorical question relevant to the customer’s pains or desires, followed by who they are and why they have any credibility, followed by some secret formula, framework, or knowledge that’ll cure your ailments.

The ads will promise you the moon and stars, like showing screenshots of Stripe accounts with millions collected and pills promising to shred all your body fat and build muscle.

The thing is: we’re promised the moon and the stars all the time.

And if everyone is promising you the moon and the stars, then you start to question how legit the ad is.

In a world full of snake oil salesmen, the ad I saw promised not the moon and stars, but rather how to go from zero dollars to a hundred, or how to go from never losing weight to losing your first five pounds.

They didn’t throw at their audience how to go from zero to infinity.

They simply shared on how to go from zero to one.

And zero to one is a lot easier to wrap your head around versus zero to infinity.

While both outcomes are possible, one is way more grounded and relatable.

— George