How Mars runs ads: the 30-question quiz funnel
Mars sells men's vitality with an enemy-led hook and an unusually deep 30+ question quiz - the friction is the point. Completionists convert at 70-80% because the quiz manufactures buy-in.
Quiz length
30+ Qs
intentional friction
Completer CVR
70-80%
of quiz finishers
Tone
Bro, not doc
friend-to-friend trust
Checkout
$80 gifts
+ slashed pricing, sweepstakes
How Mars (men's health) actually runs ads
Mars sells supplements for men's energy and vitality.
Their ads pick a villain - 'your grandpa had more testosterone at 60 than you do at 35' - and blame things like cortisol instead of just a bad diet.
Then they send you to a really long quiz (30+ questions) about personal stuff. It feels like a lot, but finishing it makes you feel committed - so most people who finish actually buy.
The funnel
Walk the funnel, stage by stage
Click through the four stages to see how the hook, destination, offer and retention chain together.
Pick an enemy, hit an emotion
Ads name a villain (low testosterone, cortisol, 'modern life') and frame the viewer's fatigue or weight as that enemy's fault - not their own failure. High emotional charge, low shame.
Signature move
Enemy-led hook
The angles
The enemy angles
Mars runs blame-shifting hooks that externalise the problem.
"Your grandpa had more T at 60 than you do at 35."
Why it works
The four levers behind the scale
The 30+ question quiz violates standard CRO on purpose. Each answer is sunk cost; by question 30 the user has built a story about their problem that the product resolves. Completers convert at 70-80%.
Steal this
The Mars (men's health) playbook
moves you're running
The takeaway
The funnel-depth variant
Mars is the case for going deeper, not shallower: a long quiz that manufactures intent and self-prescription, wrapped in shame-free, friend-to-friend copy.
It's the same congruency principle as Gruns - hook, matched destination, stacked offer - but the destination is a diagnostic, not an advertorial.
Sources
What we read to build this
Related Shuttergen reading
Where to go next
The connected pages that compound on this one.
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