The Ad Secrets Blinkist Uses To Drive Growth

Hey there!

Welcome to the first installment of Your Brain on Ads! Each week, we’ll dissect winning ads to help you become a smarter social advertiser.

This week, we’re focusing on an ad from Blinkist. At first glance, what do you notice?

The first thing that jumps out to me is the way Blinkist positions its product – as a way to become smarter and more successful.

The ad essentially says “If you want to be smart and successful, you’ll use our product to learn more in less time.”

This is primarily communicated subconsciously, though. Blinkist applies some good old-fashioned consumer psychology to push our emotional brain buttons.

Here are some other things I noticed:

What Makes This Ad Effective?

Headline Game Strong

Blinkist summarizes non-fiction books. But their ads don’t say “We summarize non-fiction books.” Snoozefest. That doesn’t get people to pull out their wallets. 

So Blinkist creates ads that say “This is how CEOs read 52 books a year.” People don’t want summaries of non-fiction books. They want to be smart and successful.

The headline also makes you want to learn more – you think “How do CEOs read so much?” So you click on the ad and boom! They have you.

Creative Targeting

The creative is the targeting. It’s clear what the product is, and who it’s for. The image, headline, and primary text all speak directly to the target customer. Here are a few different ad iterations that Blinkist tested. Each is slightly different, but all of them appeal to the same target customer.

Social Proof

Social proof is one of the most effective marketing tools around. When a friend recommends a product to you, chances are you trust their opinion. Well, according to Hubspot, 88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations. That’s a certified brain hack.

Blinkist leans heavily on this concept – dedicating the entire primary text section to a 5-star customer review.

Some Potential Improvements

I think this ad is fantastic and I trust they ran enough tests to work the kinks out. That said, here are a few test-worthy ideas:

• Rather than going straight into the app store review, they could use the first line of the primary text to summarize what the product is and why people should care. Something like: “Blinkist helps you learn more in less time.” This would quickly capture attention and give the reader context before reading the review.

• A few of the books in the background image have been repeated. It would be nice to see more unique titles to capture attention and showcase the wide range of titles available.

• I would try running variations of this ad in different niches. I would create separate ads aimed at different personas who are likely to be ambitious and low on time – like parents, salespeople, and executives. I’d create headlines like: “How Fortune 500 execs read 52 books a year.” “How busy moms read 52 books a year.” “How top salespeople read 52 books a year.”

How To Apply This To Your Ads 💰

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!

Sean

If you’d like help with your advertising, email me at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn. I run a marketing agency called PureFunnel that helps tech companies grow with Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads.