Ask any marketing expert, and they’ll probably tell you that sprucing up your ad copy is one of the best things you can do to boost your overall marketing strategy. After all, it only takes a few words to help someone make an informed buying decision within seconds.
Unfortunately, ad copy is what most of us struggle with more than other aspects of marketing! Browse Facebook for a while, and you’ll probably see several examples of less-than-appealing ad copy on sponsored posts. Writing copy doesn’t come naturally to most people, which is why it’s often something that companies invest money into to hire an advertising copywriter or marketing team. But if you want to learn more about creating successful ad copy for a more DIY approach, you’ve come to the right place.
8 Ad Copy Tips and Best Practices That Will Take Your Marketing to a New Level
The following tips and examples will help you tighten up your ad copy to get more clicks and conversions every single time:
1. Know Your Audience
First of all, you’ll need to know exactly who you’re marketing to. You might have several different audiences, depending on your product. But each ad should be highly targeted toward the audience you’re trying to appeal to.
This ad from Hulu is an excellent example of targeting. It focuses only on businesses rather than its customer base of streamers to tell them about their advertising options on the platform.
Screenshot via Hulu on Facebook
And then there’s this ad from Monday.com, a project management and workflow tool. It targets marketing teams with this particular ad, explaining a few key things that Monday.com can help them with while also offering a free trial.
Screenshot via Monday.com on Facebook
2. Show Urgency
Successful ad copy often displays a sense of urgency, meaning that it expresses that an offer is only for a limited time or that a product is close to running out. When someone knows that a promotion is about to be over, it could trigger them to make their decision quicker than they normally would.
This quick, simple ad copy from ABCmouse, an educational learning program for kids, demonstrates this well:
Screenshot via ABCMouse.com on Facebook
Misfits Market, which sells non-perfect-looking produce, also uses this technique with the following ad, which notes a limited time offer:
Screenshot via Misfits Market on Facebook
3. Appeal to Their Emotions
Ad copy that resonates with people usually contains some sort of messaging that appeals to a person’s emotions. It can make them feel nostalgic, excited, or some other type of way, but when an ad draws an emotion, it can stick in one’s memory easily.
Pampers knows that parents want the best for their babies. Seeing “#1 Pediatrician Recommended Brand” in the ad copy can hold a lot of weight for parents because it appeals to their emotions as a loving parent who trusts a doctor’s advice. Adding that one simple line to this ad likely made it more memorable to parents than it would have been otherwise.
Screenshot via Pampers
4. Use Ads to Nurture the Relationship
Ad copy isn’t all about selling, selling, selling. Your marketing strategy should also contain ads that help build the relationship to the point of someone having enough trust in your company to buy your product or service. Sometimes, ad copy comes in the form of giving rather than expecting something in return.
For example, this SmartAsset ad points people to a retirement quiz that they can use to decide whether they need to make some tweaks in their retirement strategy. It’s concise and clear without convincing anyone to buy anything. Instead, it offers something for the customer, for free, while subtly building its trust factor as a go-to financial resource.
Screenshot via SmartAsset
This Apple ad is similar, letting viewers know that it’s easy to trade in a device with Apple to save on a new one. There’s nothing to buy from the ad, but Apple knows that if a person gets the right price from their trade-in offer, they might be likely to buy a new device from the company.
Screenshot via Apple
5. Make It About the Customer, Not Your Brand
The more your ad copy explains how your product or service can help your customer, the better. This ad from Progressive is an excellent example. In just one line, Progressive makes the ad all about the customer.
Screenshot via Progressive
6. Give All the Information They Need to Make a Decision
If you’re using an ad type that allows for a bunch of information, use that space wisely. Carousel ads from Facebook are perfect for this, allowing for a few images that give plenty of space to release enough information for a customer to make a buying decision.
This Volkswagen ad leaves just one line of copy in the description area, but uses each slide to add new information about the Tiguan. By the last slide, you know about its best features and how much you can expect to pay each month.
Screenshot via Volkswagen on Facebook
7. Show Off Your Brand Voice
Your brand voice helps people instantly recognize that an ad is for your company. Charmin, Nike, Dollar Shave Club, and The Walt Disney Company are a few examples of companies that you can recognize by their voice. Bring your brand’s voice into your ads to continue growing a community around your brand.
Coca-Cola, for example, uses words like ice-cold and game day in a lot of its ads, like the one below, because many people enjoy their beverages cold and while watching games. These words have become somewhat synonymous with the company, and when used in ads, draws audiences even closer to the brand.
Screenshot via Coca-Cola
8. Explain Benefits Instead of Features
If an ad simply lists the features of a product or service, there’s a good chance viewers will scroll right past it. But if it lists the benefits of the product or service — as in, how it can help the customer, specifically — it can draw more interest.
Take the Ibotta ad below as an example. Ibotta tells new customers exactly what its extension can do for them: give them cash back, right from the computer, while showering them with a $20 welcome bonus.
Screenshot via Ibotta on Facebook
Nailing down these ad copy tips can improve your customer acquisition cost and lead to a more productive ad campaign. If you’re running targeted advertising, you’re probably collecting information about your website visitors – and that means consumer privacy regulations come into play. Play it safe and keep your website compliant with ShareThis’ Consent Management Platform. This easy-to-use platform helps you collect clear and informed consent to collect data on your website visitors for compliance with regulations like GDPR and for improved transparency about how you use your visitors’ data.
