The Digital world is changing within the blink of an eye. With new mediums emerging every now and then, digital marketers are constantly inventing new strategies to catch up with this never-ending chase.
But there is one element that has remained constant in the last century of advertising and marketing, regardless of tools, platforms and technological advancements – writing an ad copy.
Writing an ad copy is made to look deceptively easy;assuming that anyone could write those bunch of words and add a compelling call to action button.
But it takes special efforts, creativity, practice and consistency to create ad copy that impacts the audience and trigger them to make a buying decision.
Here I have compiled a list of 8 tactical tips to write an effective ad copy to boost your sales and conversions.
Know Your Audience
It is impossible to write an effective ad copy if you don’t know who you are writing for. Knowing your audience thoroughly will help you comprehend their perspective and the level of understanding.
This tactic will let you tailor your approach to address the specific needs of your customer. You can use data from your previous marketing campaigns to understand your audience.
If your business is new and you’re relatively new to your target audience, create buyer personas. Basically, buyer personas are semi-fictional characters representing your target audience. It is built using market research, demographic research, consumer studies and more.
Know Your Advertising medium & channel
It is very important to know the channels and medium you are using while creating an Ad copy. A Print ad copy (i.e. Newspaper ad, Magazine ad) must be written differently from a Facebook ad copy.
Recognizing the channels will help you choose the language and tone of your writing. Even if you are writing website content, the words used to describe a product must be different than the words used to describe your landing page offer.
Knowing your advertising channels is the most important step since the needs of an audience change according to the platform they are using. For example –
A user searches information on Google only when they are aware of a product or service and hence the AdWords copy must compel them to choose and visit your website. While browsing Facebook a user is not necessarily looking for information and hence the ad copy must entertain and intrigue your target audience.
Spend Time to Create Magnetic Headlines
“We should not judge a book by its cover” but people do judge an ad copy by their headlines. According to research, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline while only 2 out of 10 people actually click the ad. The more magnetic your headline is, the more chances it has to attract your audience.
Try to use emotional triggers in your headlines. This is the principle which makes click baits so effective. The emotion you use depends on your brand message and the perception you want to create among your audience.
Also Read – How to optimize mobile lead forms and boost conversions?
Chop Redundant Words
When it comes to ad copy, each word matters. You only get few words to create an impact and this is what makes ad copy difficult. More than eloquence, what matters in an ad copy is how you convey your message and trigger a response.
People are not fan of reading online copies and hence you need to revamp your ad copy until it conveys its main point with minimum words.
Use Urgent Call-to-Action Buttons
One of the biggest mistakes, content writers do is they focus on writing an ad copy but don’t invest their time in designing an effective call-to-action. Your reader may like your offer but they will never take any action on their own and hence providing a call-to-action button is necessary. Your CTA should prompt the user to take further action. Use action-oriented verbs and try to create a sense of urgency.
With CTA’s there is no-one-size-fits-all approach, your actions may differ based on the inbound funnel and the buyer stage your audience is currently in. The only way to get this right is by experimenting with different approaches, not only with words but in terms of design, texture and colour.
Use Power Words
Words are like human beings, some sound weak, some strong and as a copywriter, you should have an intuitive sense to understand the power that each word carries. In copywriting, each word matters and it is necessary to use those words judiciously to evoke strong emotions.
According to research, ‘You’, ‘Free’, ‘New’, ‘Now’ are the most powerful words in advertising. But these are not the only words available. There are numerous words available to choose from. Marketers have only a few seconds to grab attention and so it is important to choose words which connect.
Write How You Can Help Them
No matter how awesome you project yourself, your audience will not interact with your business if it doesn’t find your content helpful. Before you set out to write an ad copy, note down how your business is going to solve the problem and how you are going to leverage this while writing your ad copy. Each and every word you write should add value to your reader’s life.
Test Your Ideas
At the end of the day, Copywriting is art meeting science. It is both creatively driven and also backed by data. There is no perfect formula for creating an effective ad copy; you need to develop your intuition by testing various ideas. You may write the most eloquent lines but what matters is how well they are contributing to boosting your sales.
There are many methods and parameters to check when optimizing your ad copy. Headlines, character limit, emotional words, time of uploading your ad copy and the tone of writing are some of them.
Writing great ad copy needs practice, however the points mentioned above will give you an effective mindset to begin. There are countless ways and best practices, but none of them is as useful as the real world data. You need to test your theories in the real world and interpret the result.
Copywriting isn’t a one-time process; the ad copy which you find great today may feel redundant after a few days. Use the above guidelines to avoid pitfalls and create a compelling ad copy to see a better ROI from your spend.
