Advertising copy: the eighth wonder

Advertising copy is a form of persuasive sales copy used in advertising to convince users to purchase a product and to promote products or services. Similar to copywriting or copy (consisting in content written for advertising purposes), it is a marketing strategy for writing content that convinces the reader to take a specific action, such as: click on that buy button. The copywriter writes copy (this is what the text is called) with a persuasive approach that is designed to arouse the interest of the potential customer. Today we will focus on copy in the world of advertising, which focuses on selling products and services through the use of carefully-chosen words.

What is advertising copy?

No one clicks on an ad because they think: "Wow, this ad is cool." They click because they want to get something or maybe resolve a problem. To get them to do this, one of the most effective content strategies is to reflect the user's objective in the text of your advert. This is exactly what advertising copy does.

Copywriting (or copy) is a term which is directly linked to marketing and advertising. It is a strategy that involves creative writing that is designed to inspire action.

The difference between copywriting and informative writing such as news or articles, is basically that advertising copy motivates the reader to perform a specific action, which could be to buy or download something, take out a subscription, etc. Whereas traditional writing has the function of reporting or communicating, advertising copy uses calls to action and other strategies to optimise content.

Copywriting is about creating attractive texts to stir up emotions, engage and convince the reader or capture a customer: ultimately, it's text that sells. As you well know, over the course of a day we all see and read on the internet hundreds of sentences, thousands of words… Everything is online and standing out equals mission impossible… unless that is, browsers find distinctive content that will attract their attention and compel them to keep reading.

What should my advertising copy include?

Firstly, it is important to take the following elements into account to ensure that your advertising copy generates an impact.

Define the objective of the copy

What is the purpose of the text that we are writing? What action do we want our users to take? Once these points have been defined, we can get to work with our creative writing.

Who are we addressing?

Who are we trying to reach? This is the question that you must keep in mind at all times. Imagine you are writing to a specific person who, incidentally, is your perfect customer. What problem do they need to solve? How can you resolve it with your services and/or products? Convince them that your product/service is the best solution. Here is an easy example: if you have ever sold a car, you will know that it's no easy task and it usually comes with its own set of worries. Imagine that you google "sell my car" and this ad pops up:

You want to sell your car, and we want to buy it. We pick up your car and you don't have to lift a finger. We deposit the money immediately. Don't worry about a thing! Our reviews average 4.8 stars.

A clear, concise ad that resolves many of the seller's doubts in three short lines: "I need another car to deliver mine to the buyer", "when will I receive my money?", "who takes care of the name change?", "how can I be sure that this company is trustworthy?".

No one cares about what makes your company so incredible. What matters is that you can make the life of your potential customer easier.

Benchmark

Your competitors have probably also discovered the wonderful world of advertising copy and have begun to use it in their marketing, so it's worth keeping an eye on what they are doing! Remember that you should never copy, in fact you should be doing the opposite! It is important to be creative and innovative to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Advertising channel

The style and size of the advertising copy will depend directly on the channel in which the text will appear. Therefore, it is important not that you don't write a generic text, but adapt your message to the relevant style and register of the channel. There is no doubt that copy for a LinkedIn ad shouldn't feature the same content as one for Instagram.

Tips to make your advertising copy unforgettable

Tips for writing lead-generating advertising copy:

Reflect the user's objective

What are your users looking for? Write texts that directly appeal to their needs. Get to the point, without going around the houses.

Include numbers or statistics in your ads

The use of real figures is incredibly convincing. Most potential customers have an idea of how much they are willing to pay for something long before they think about clicking on an ad, so including figures in your adverts will help them make their decision when comparing your ad with those of your competitors.

Our feelings motivate us

There is nothing that encourages people to act more than a powerful emotional reaction, particularly when it comes to the internet. This same principle is what makes clickbait so effective; people read content, experience a strong emotional reaction to it, and then go ahead and click. "Read this and you'll never travel by train again." "You won't believe what happens every time you drink a glass of wine." We've invented these particular phrases, but if you've seen something similar on the internet, then you've been in the presence of the famous clickbait.

This technique is one of the most effective when it comes to advertising copy. You don't have to make your readers cry! On the contrary, positive emotional triggers, such as the use of a sense of humour, can be very effective when it comes to prompting people to click on ads.

Pre-empt the most common objections

Even if your company operates in a saturated market with many competitors, the choice between buying from you or from a competing company will often be based on one of these two concepts: how much it will cost and how much effort it will require. Fortunately, you can anticipate these two objections with a little forward thinking and an intelligent text. Imagine you are looking for home insurance and you find this ad on Google:

€97 for comprehensive home insurance / Why pay more for your home insurance? / Forget your worries for just €97!   

Obviously, there are dozens of large companies that offer home insurance, so differentiating ourselves in this particular market could prove quite complicated. However, it is possible with suitable advertising copy. In this case, the first text states the price (€97) and can help to overcome any potential laziness on the part of the customer who might otherwise have to contact the company, let a salesman return the call and ask a bunch of questions, only to then send over a higher quote than expected.

Focus on the benefits

Last but not least, it is important to focus on the benefits our service or product offer the potential customer. If we ensure all of the above but forget to consider this, our text will lack strength and will not achieve the expected result.

Make your ads irresistible thanks to effective advertising copy 

Do you want your ads to finally get real results? We'll work on the concepts, ideas and words we're going to use. And we can go one step further. Once we've drafted your creative texts, we can translate them — or even transcreate them so the words have the same "miraculous" impact on your readers wherever they are in the world.

Discover our copywriting service and watch your business take off to the next level!