Marketing Examined - 🔍 How To Write Persuasive Ad Copy

My marketing fam - today's issue is a long one. I'm talking Lord of the Rings long. So, buckle up and remember to hit "view full message" at the bottom if needed.

But today, we're covering how to write compelling ad copy.

Let me introduce you to a library of goods that will enhance your marketing videos…on the house. My friends at Wistia put together a library of royalty-free music tracks, color presets, and webinar graphics, and that’s just a glimpse.

Assets like these help you take videos from a five to ten.

From adding motion graphics to help engage the user, or music that helps set the tone, and color presets that make your videos pop - all for free.

All royalty-free.

All at your fingertips.

You can download the library here.

Part of writing excellent ad copy is knowing who you’re writing for.

Another important factor is knowing what stage that person is at along the customer journey.

Knowing that stage identifies their level of awareness.

So, when writing copy, you need to consider five levels of awareness.

These levels of awareness will structure how you message your product, its value proposition, and its benefits.

Every individual who consumes a piece of content relevant to your product falls into a level of awareness.

But each is different.

Some are aware of you, some are aware of your products and your product's benefits, or some don’t know who you are, what you offer, or how you compare to others.

This matters because this influences how an individual perceives your messaging.

These are the five levels of awareness:

How you address a level of awareness through your copy is also influenced by the channel you’re running paid social on.

We then determine how to write copy based on if we’re writing ads for a behavior-based targeting platform vs. a profile-based targeting platform.

With Behavior-Based Targeting, we can identify the level of awareness by the keywords the individual searches.

For example, someone who searches “Mailchimp Alternatives” is solution aware, so, therefore, your copy should match that need.

So your ad copy is more straightforward, like “The Best Mailchimp Alternative.”

Because based on the user behavior, your copy can be more direct.

Profile-based targeting is the inverse, there is no keyword data and therefore we can’t identify the level of awareness.

So, here you rely on social profiles, engagement, and interactions to help guide the consumer down the ladder.

And unlike Behavior-Based targeting, being as direct isn’t the best option — it’s better to focus on educational copy that helps the consumer work their way down each level.

Knowing this, we’re going to follow frameworks to write ad copy for each level of awareness - excluding completely unaware.

Your goal here is to help the consumer realize the problem and cement it in their mind.

Without one, they're not going to search for a solution.

Ask a relatable question that puts the problem into perspective.

Make it obvious. Make it relatable. Make them confront it.

State the problem the customer faced until they found a solution.

Your goal here is to ensure a solution exists and form an opportunity to introduce your product.

Take their goal and put it in arms reach.

If you can tell your story, you can sell your story.

You’re the best social proof.

We help you do X to achieve Y ( X = Value Creation) & ( Y = Results)

The goal here is to cement that you're product is the best option and

the right fit.

Establish the benefit but let them know if it's not for them, then that's okay.

Before, customer A was using product A, and now customer A is using product B and achieved X.

On average X% of customers achieve Y in this Z time frame

Lastly, the most ware consumers. The goal here is to inject the last bit of confidence needed to take action.

Answer all their unasked questions.

Share customer case studies and testimonials.

Replace your adjectives with data. And let the results for your customers speak volumes.

This was a long one. But I hope this is a useful resource moving forward to inspire your ad copy.