Speaker A
Nine out of 10en creative strategists are going to use this word several times a day. Yet they have it totally wrong and it is costing them [music] results.
Tiana Asperjan explains how to write a unique mechanism for Facebook ads using a two-part formula: the mechanism of the problem and the mechanism of the solution, with examples and a four-step researc
Key Takeaways
- A strong mechanism pairs a simple, visual root-cause explanation of the problem with a direct solution that sounds new.
- Mechanisms should be understandable to a fifth grader in seconds and feel like a fresh discovery in saturated markets.
- Research the root cause first, then show how the product uniquely solves it, and only then write the ad copy.
- Adjust mechanism complexity and skepticism handling to the audience's market sophistication stage.
What the video covers
- The video targets creative strategists who misuse the term 'mechanism' in ad copy.
- A mechanism, as defined by Eugene Schwartz, is the unique method by which a product delivers its benefits and differs from alternatives.
- Every mechanism has two parts: a unique mechanism of the problem (the real root cause) and a unique mechanism of the solution (the direct answer to that cause).
- Good mechanisms are extremely simplified, visually easy to picture, and sound like a new discovery.
- Examples include tooth decay caused by a hidden toxic bacteria, weight gain from inflamed fat cells, and razor burn from microscopic steel shards.
- A four-step research process: identify the main problem, find its root cause via Google or ChatGPT, research how the product addresses that cause, then fill in the formula.
- Mechanisms can be inserted into video ads, static ads, and other formats, usually as a few lines of copy that explain the cause and the fix.
- Example ads show a 'slow gut' mechanism for men's weight loss and a GLP-1 hair loss mechanism that uses gummies with hair nutrients.
- The speaker advises against over-clever mechanisms and recommends matching the mechanism to the audience's stage of market sophistication.
- Building a repeatable mechanism process helps strategists consistently produce winning ads and fill creative gaps.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and why mechanisms matter
- 00:54Defining the mechanism
- 01:44Two-part mechanism formula
- 02:40Examples of problem and solution mechanisms
- 03:43Characteristics of effective mechanisms
- 04:44Four-step mechanism research process
- 06:40Inserting mechanisms into Facebook ad examples
- 09:05Static ads and mechanism placement
- 12:07Market sophistication stages and closing
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
They don't actually know what a mechanism is, when to use it in their ads, or why it is such a critical part of persuading people to buy in ads. So, in this video, I'm gonna break it all down for you. I'm [music] going to give
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you my two-part mechanism formula. The same one that I have personally used over and over again [music] to write high converting ad copy that's still carrying eight and nine figure ecom brands even years after I first wrote it
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into an ad script. [music] Plus, I'm going to show you real life examples so that you walk away feeling crystal clear about how to build mechanisms into your creative strategy this week. Let's get into it.
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As Eugene Schwarz put it, a mechanism is the unique manner or method that allows a product or service to deliver [music] the desired benefits, which is just a very fancy way of saying, how does your product or service work differently from
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alternative [music] solutions? And my guess is that you've heard this term thrown around a lot. Maybe you've even added mechanisms into your ad copy [music] before. At least you think you did. But do you actually know [music] how to write a persuasive mechanism? Do
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you actually know how to insert it into an ad in a way that's going to propel people to buy? And do you actually know which types [music] of ads need a mechanism and which ones do not? So, in
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this video, I'm going to [music] cover all that for you. First, I'm going to give you my two-part mechanism formula.
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Then, I'm going to give you examples. Then I'm going to share three [music] things that your mechanism needs to do in order to be successful. Then [music] I'm going to give you a four-step research process uh for developing your
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unique mechanism. And finally, I'm going to show you with real ad examples across multiple niches how to actually [music] insert your mechanism into your ads. Are you ready? Let's get started. There are two parts of every mechanism. And here
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is the formula. We have unique mechanism of the problem and we have a unique mechanism of the solution. So let's go through both of those pieces. The [music] unique mechanism of the problem explains the real root cause of the
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problem. So you had 99% of the answer, but you're missing this one little percent of information. The unique mechanism of the solution is the direct answer [music] to that. So now that you know this real root cause, this is the real and only
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true solution to this unique problem. And when you put them together, they sound like this. [music] Let's do a couple examples. Tooth decay. There is a hidden toxic bacteria that's dissolving your tooth enamel. Scientists just discovered it. Brushing is not going to
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reach it. Toothpaste can't break it down. You need to cleanse that toxic bacteria out of your mouth every [music] night, which is why you need our antibacterial mouthwash. How about weight gain? It's not your diet. It's not your exercise. Your fat cells are
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inflamed and swollen. You need to shrink your fat cells back down to their natural size. Thankfully, that's exactly what the ingredients in this new formula are designed to do. How about horrible razor burn every time you shave? You
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don't just have sensitive skin. The problem is that most razors leave behind these microscopic steel shards like slivers [music] that irritate the skin.
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What you need is to use a ceramic blade that's not going to break down, which is exactly why we created the first ever EasyGlide ceramic blade razor. Now, there are three things that you may notice about all those examples we just
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went through. Number one, [music] they are extremely simplified. These ideas need to be so [music] dumbed down that a fifth grader would understand it immediately in like [music] 2 seconds. Okay? So, I don't need a full scientific explanation. I
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just need enough logic that's going to make it make sense to me immediately. Number two, they also make visual sense, as in I can easily and immediately picture it in my mind. So, the mouthwash cleanses away this toxic bacteria. The
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formula shrinks the fat cells and the razor's blade glides over my skin and it doesn't leave any shards behind. Okay.
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Number three, they sound completely new. So this is kind of the whole point of a unique mechanism, right? So as markets become more saturated, which pretty much all markets are now, we need to work harder to differentiate our product from
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everyone else's product. So it needs to sound like some kind of new discovery, new invention, new information that's being revealed. Now [music] the next question and this is an important one.
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How do you actually come up with a [music] strong mechanism? So here is the very simple four-step research process that I go [music] through. Step number one, first identify, get clear on the main problem that you're going to
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address. Is it tooth decay? Is it weight gain? Is it razor burn? Is it bloat? Is it bad breath? Whatever. Step number two, Google or just ask chatbt what causes this problem. That is how you're going to narrow in on a unique cause of
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the problem, that root cause to write your unique mechanism of the problem. And then step number [music] three, research how your product solves that specific root cause. And perhaps it's a specific ingredient [music] or uh the material that's used or the unique way
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it's engineered or the technique that is used. Whatever it is that is going to become your unique mechanism of the solution and then you can simply step number four [music] fill in the formula.
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Okay. Now that you have established your mechanism, you know the logic, the next piece of the puzzle here [music] is how do you actually insert the mechanism into your Facebook ads. So this is the part that does take some copy chop. So
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the easiest way to go through this is just looking at some real life ad examples together. So let's watch this ad.
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I drank this for 7 days and it drained 14 lbs of fat off my dadbod. No diets, no heavy weights. I literally just drank this smoothie for seven days straight and watched my gut melt away. I know it
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sounds nuts, but it's called prebiotic collagen protein. It was created by this German nutritional scientist who cracked the code on men's weight loss when he [music] discovered that the number one cause of dadbod and beer belly has nothing to do with laziness or having
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beer with the guys. It all comes down to a slow gut, which is when digestion slows down so much. Food gets stuck in the gut and turns to visceral fat, which is the hardest type of fat to lose.
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Hello, slumped shoulders, exhaustion, and being the guy in the room who no one respects. Prebiotic collagen protein is scientifically proven to speed up a slow gut. So, the body starts burning fat on autopilot while you watch TV, work, or
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drop the kids at school. It's only been 7 days. My t-shirts fit better. I feel like myself again, [music] and my wife is all over me. Try it today. Over 84,000 men agree it works.
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Okay, did you catch it? Just a few simple little lines that were inserted in there. Here's the mechanism of the problem. It all comes down to slow gut, which is when [music] digestion slows down so much that food actually gets
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stuck inside the gut and that turns to [music] visceral fat. And here is the mechanism of the solution, a direct answer to that. [music] Collagen protein is scientifically proven to speed up a slow gut so that your body starts
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burning [music] fat on autopilot. Let's do another one. [music] [music] Did you catch it this time? The mechanism of the problem. Rapid weight loss from GLP1 drains these healthy hair nutrients from your body. The mechanism of the solution is that [music] runes
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contains those healthy hair nutrients that you need in one very convenient yummy [music] gummy. Let's do another one. Stop using plastic cutting boards in your kitchen. Every time you cut on plastic cutting boards in your kitchen, you're shedding toxic microplastics into
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your food. I knew I needed to make the switch immediately. I love using my cutting boards from Caraway. They're made from FSC certified wood and they look beautiful in my kitchen. I love to leave them out in their organizer on the
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counter and they just make prep so much easier. It's time to ditch the shedding microplastics and upgrade to carowway.
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Today you see it. The mechanism of the problem is every time you cut on plastic cutting boards in your kitchen, you're actually shedding toxic microlastics into your food. The mechanism of the solution is they are made these boards
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are made from FSC [music] certified wood no plastics. So what about static ads? How do we put it in those? So do you see how the mechanism is baked into this ad copy? [music] Uh here mechanism of the problem we have
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chronic stress burns through your nutrient stores. The mechanism of the solution is beef organs replenish them.
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Here's an interesting example in the mental health niche. The mechanism of the problem is [music] you feel like this insecure nice guy because of root cause childhood trauma. And the mechanism of the solution [music] is you need to understand and work through that
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childhood trauma. And would you look at that? Thankfully, they have this new easy simple plan to help you do that.
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[music] And here's a really interesting example because here I want you to see how once you have this logic, [music] you can bake your mechanism uh into any ad style. You just need to establish it and get clear on it first with that
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formula [music] we learned at the beginning of this video. So this is an ad from JumpSeep, which is an app that helps you learn new languages. The mechanism of the problem is that most language apps only train your brain to
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understand the words but not to produce them, not to say them aloud. So the mechanism of the solution is that you need to produce the words as you learn them as in speak out loud. And JumpSpeak is the only app [music] that makes you
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speak out loud, speak the language as you actually learn it. So you can see hopefully that your mechanism can and should be extremely [music] extremely simple. You do not need to get clever.
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In fact, I really urge you to resist getting too clever uh with these things.
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You don't want it to be clever. You want it to be clear and you just want it to sound new enough. So the next question is, does every ad have to include [music] a mechanism? When I covered this topic
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inside the Copy First Live, uh, which is a weekly call for [music] Copy First Pro members, which is anybody who joins the creative strategy master class, 99% of the students on that call said, "Yeah, you need a mechanism in every single ad
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that you write." But actually, you don't. If you scroll through any ad library, you're going to find plenty of winning ads that do not include a mechanism at all because different ads are engineered to target and persuade different [music] types of buyers. So,
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here's the easiest way to think about this through the stages of [music] sophistication. And if you don't know what those are yet or you don't feel like you have a firm grasp on [music] that concept yet, just watch my earlier
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video when you're done this video because there I break down this whole thing uh with lots of examples for [music] you. And that is a super important concept to understand as a creative strategist because [music] it's going to influence your creative
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strategy quite a bit because if your target audience [music] is in the first stage beginner or the second stage, the explorer, they're actually pretty optimistic [music] that they can solve their problem. And maybe that's because the problem is just pretty new [music]
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in their lives or because there's just not a lot of competition in the market and no one else has tried to solve [music] this problem before. Either way, you just kind of need to raise your hand and say, "Hey, I can help you solve that
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problem easily." [music] However, if their skepticism is a little bit higher, if they are in that third stage and [music] they're a researcher, if they're in the fourth stage, they're a full-on skeptic, [music] or if they are fifth stage and they're
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feeling pretty hopeless about solving their problem, this is where a strong mechanism [music] can become a very, very powerful way to cut through the noise and sound like a brand new solution that's unlike anything else that they have ever heard
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of before [music] that's going to help you climb over that wall of skepticism. We covered a lot in this video. We covered some pretty big concepts. So, let's recap this. Okay, a mechanism is the unique manner or method that allows
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a product or a service to deliver the desired benefits. There are two parts to a mechanism. [music] We have the unique mechanism of the problem and the [music] unique mechanism of the solution. The four-step process for coming up with a mechanism is
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[music] first identify the problem. Then Google what causes the problem. Then research how [music] your product solves that very specific root cause of the problem and fill in your formula. Easy peasy. When you do fill in that formula,
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make sure that it is simple, that it makes visual sense, and that it sounds [music] new. And remember, not all ads you write need a [music] mechanism, but if you are specifically targeting prospects who are in that third, [music]
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that fourth, or that fifth stage of sophistication, you should absolutely include one in your ad [music] copy. All right. If this video was helpful, but it also made you realize you have a long way to go [music] or if you are struggling to scale on
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Meta because all of these creative strategy [music] concepts feel very overwhelming to you. That is exactly why I built the copy first creative [music] strategy master class. It is a step-by-step system that is going to help you and your [music] team move
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through your creative strategy week after week after week. It's going to be easy to follow and something repeatable for [music] you. It's going to help you consistently craft winning ads. It's going to help you fill any creative gaps
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that are in your account right now. And it's going to help you finally scale more predictably on [music] Meta. And now is a very good time to join because huge news. I just opened up these copy first live weekly [music] training calls
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for all master class members where we actually deep dive into creative strategy topics like this one together on a Zoom live. and you have the chance to actually ask me any questions that you have about these topics directly
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[music] face to face. So, uh I hope to see your face on the next call. And until then, please hit like. Uh please hit subscribe for me if this was [music] useful. Um if I know they're useful, I'm going to keep
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making these videos for you. And please also drop me a comment and let me know what is it specifically that you are struggling with when it comes to your creative [music] strategy. What do you want me to cover
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inside of the next video? and I will catch you then. [snorts]
Topics:unique mechanismFacebook adsad copywritingcreative strategydirect response marketingmechanism of the problemmechanism of the solutionEugene Schwartzad researchmarket sophistication
