Businesses are in a constant race to compete for consumers’ short attention spans today. One way they do it is with killer advertising copy — the carefully crafted text that promotes a company’s products or services, designed to capture attention, communicate value, and drive action, usually sales or subscriptions.
Global ad spending is expected to cross the $1 trillion mark for the first time this year, with 75% of those dollars going toward digital ads, according to a report from eMarketer. With stakes so high, your brand needs to nail ad copy with effective, clear messaging. Here’s a look at why ad copy is important, how it’s used, and how to write ad copy that makes your brand unforgettable.
What Is Ad Copy?
From headlines and body text to calls-to-action (CTAs) and taglines, ad copy is everywhere. The No. 1 purpose of ad copy is to persuade the reader, viewer, or listener to take a specific action, whether that’s making a purchase, downloading an app, subscribing to a service or newsletter, or just learning more about what a brand has to offer.
Good ad copy isn’t just pretty prose that’s there to inform — it has to engage, persuade, and align with a brand’s voice and values. It shows (not just tells) the unique selling proposition (USP) of a product or service while addressing the audience’s pain points, and how it can solve them. Strong ad copy tells a compelling story with limited space, creating an emotional connection while selling a specific solution to a specific problem.
Why Is Ad Copy Important?
Here’s a look at why ad copy can make (or break) a brand’s reputation and trust with potential customers:
1. Drives Conversions, Revenue
Ad copy directly correlates to conversion rates and, ultimately, revenue. Well-written messages that resonate with your target audience can lift campaign performance and move the needle for your advertising efforts. In digital advertising, it’s even more critical that your brand’s ad copy gets it right the first time: The average cost per action in Google Ads across all industries is about $49 for paid search and $75 for display ads, which adds up fast. Meanwhile, 61% of businesses pay $0.11 to $0.50 per click on Google Ads.
2. Creates Brand Awareness and Recognition
Nike’s “Just Do It” and “Run Like A Girl” slogans and accompanying ads have made it a household name in sports apparel. Consistent, memorable ad copy doesn’t always need to be splashy to work: Through repeated exposure to bespoke messaging, consumers become familiar with a brand’s voice, values, and offerings. This recognition builds trust and credibility, which sets your brand apart from competitors and helps your business grow over the long term.
3. Differentiates From Competitors
In saturated markets, ad copy can make your brand stand out from a sea of sameness where other players are hawking the same products or services. By using ad copy that emphasizes the problems you can solve for your target audience, the ad becomes less about your company and more about the consumer you want to transact with. That’s how you differentiate yourself from the pack.
4. Targets Specific Audiences
Impactful ad copy speaks directly to specific audiences — their needs, wants, dreams, fears, and pain points. It just gets them. Tailoring your messaging to different demographics or buyer personas shows that your business understands its target audience, helping it build relevance and engagement, and helping drive higher conversion rates. In turn, this leads to more revenue.
How Is Ad Copy Used?
In the digital space, ad copy appears across numerous formats and channels, including:
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search ad revenues climbed to $102.9 billion in 2024, up nearly 16% over the previous year, making it the top player in online ad spend. Search ads rely heavily on concise, keyword-rich ad copy that aligns with user intent. Google Ads, Bing Ads, and other search platforms display text ads alongside search results, requiring copywriters to create succinct messages that pack a punch with limited characters.
Social Media Advertising
Social media ad spend trails just behind search at $88.8 billion, but saw 36.7% YoY growth. This explosive surge in social ad spending coincides with the rise of popular platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Each of these major social platforms has its own ad formats and audience preferences, which require platform-specific copywriting approaches. Fun, short-form videos that have spawned TikTok trends, for instance, don’t necessarily translate as well on LinkedIn, which is more text-dependent for a professional audience.
Display Advertising
Display ads combine visuals with copy, appearing on websites, apps, and social media platforms. Display ad copy has to complement design elements to capture attention and drive clicks, often with limited real estate to get the job done.
Despite a clear shift toward digital ads, traditional advertising channels are still relevant for many brands. These include:
Print Advertising
Newspapers, magazines, brochures, and direct mail all demand tailored copywriting approaches that match the medium’s audience and reading experience. For instance, many luxury brands invest heavily in sleek, sexy ads in high-end publications, because they know their target audience of affluent, high-net-worth individuals reads them.
Broadcast Advertising
Radio and television commercials depend on clever scripts that engage listeners or viewers within short timeframes, often under a minute. For example, look at brands that soar (or flop) with their Super Bowl ads. While the upfront spend on those campaigns reaches the millions, the ROI can be incredible for a brand that gets it right.
Out-of-Home (OOH) Advertising
Billboards, transit ads, and other outdoor formats also demand ultra-concise copy that people can digest quickly while on the move. Travel to any big city and you’ll be bombarded with OOH ads that have the power to stop you in your tracks.
How to Write Great Ad Copy
Most copywriters have formal training in a writing or creative field, but some of the best copywriting doesn’t require intensive education or a fancy pedigree — it simply requires solid research and putting yourself in the audience’s shoes. Here are some tips on how to write ad copy that converts:
1. Understand Your Audience
Effective ad copy starts with taking the time to know your audience. Research their demographics, pain points, desires, buying behaviors, and language preferences. Create detailed buyer personas to guide your copywriting messages so they resonate with the intended audience.
2. Highlight Benefits, Not Just Features
Too many companies get wrapped up in tooting their horns and espousing cool features of their service or product, but that’s not what consumers care about — they want you to make it clear what’s in it for them. Focus on the value of your product or service, such as how it solves problems, fulfills specific needs, or makes life easier. Translate technical jargon or specs into tangible benefits that speak directly to your customer’s needs. Be relatable!
For Facebook ads, for instance, give someone three major benefits, each one building on the last one, and add some sort of performance guarantee to drive the value home, says Jon Benson of Sales Copy Secrets.
3. Write Compelling Headlines
Headlines should grab attention and keep your audience wanting more. Think of them as the gateway to your ad content. Use strong action verbs, pose questions, include numbers, or create a sense of urgency so consumers engage quickly. Roughly 80% of people will read a headline, but only about 20% will keep reading the rest of your copy, so make your headline do the heavy lifting: “Your first line needs to be a reality pattern interrupt,” Benson explains.
4. Use Clear, Concise Language
Unlike content marketing, which relies on long-form educational or explanatory content, smart ad copy is straightforward and typically short. Avoid jargon, complex or run-on sentences, and unnecessary words. Aim for simplicity and clarity, especially if you have less space to work with.
5. Include a Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)
Every piece of ad copy needs a clear call-to-action that tells the audience exactly what to do next. Whether you want them to shop, sign up, read more, or get started, your CTA should be compelling, action-oriented, and create a sense of urgency where it makes sense.
“It needs to be a two-step closer,” advises Benson. “First, get them to agree to a simple truth, then give the clear call-to-action. That gives it just a little bit more kick.”
How to Test Ad Copy
A/B Testing
A/B testing involves creating two or more versions of an ad with some slight tweaks in the copy elements, such as the headline, body text, or CTA. Once you send out the different versions, you can then measure which one performs better. This data-driven testing method helps you improve your messaging based on actual audience responses rather than guessing what will perform well. This is why it’s worthwhile to work with ad platforms that offer AI-powered A/B testing, allowing you to continuously test and optimize in real time.
Multivariate Testing
More complex than A/B testing, multivariate testing looks at how multiple factors interact with each other. This approach helps you see the most effective combinations of copy elements that will result in the desired outcomes.
User Testing and Feedback
Getting direct feedback from your target audience can offer valuable insights into how your ad copy lands (or misses) with customers. You can gather this feedback through surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one interviews to gain qualitative data about your messaging’s impact.
Performance Metrics Analysis
Track key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge how well your copy performs in the wild. This includes measuring click-through rates, conversion rates, search rankings, cost per acquisition, and return on ad spend to understand if your ad copy is moving the needle. These metrics can help you find trends and optimize your messaging backed by data.
How to Improve Ad Copy Performance
Use AI and Automation
A recent HubSpot survey found that 43% of marketers now use AI to write copy, create images, and generate new ideas, but be aware that while AI tools can help you ideate and fine-tune your copywriting strategy, the copy they generate can often sound generic. AI automation can certainly help you generate variations, though, as well as predict performance and find opportunities for improvement, enabling marketers to create more compelling messages at scale.
Incorporate More Video and Visual Content
Visual formats, including short-form video, images, and live videos, have outsized popularity and preference. They also generate high ROI for marketers when done right. Using strong visual elements with your text helps your brand create more engaging and memorable ads that have the potential to go viral.
Personalize It
Creating personalized ad copy — with a little help from AI to coordinate work across platforms — can lead to a 35% lift in marketing performance. And, according to Attentive’s 2025 Consumer Trends Report, 96% of consumers say they’re likely to purchase from brands that send personalized messages. In other words, the more you tailor your message to your audience, the more engagement you’ll see.
Optimize Copy for Voice and Visual Search
AI voice assistance and visual search tech is gaining popularity, so your ad copy needs to be responsive to conversational queries and visual search patterns. Consider how people speak informally when they use voice assistants, and which visuals will light up image recognition.
How to Match Ad Copy to Audience Funnel Stage
There are three main funnel stages, and your ad copy needs to meet your audience where they’re at in each stage of their journey. You should also work audience segmentation into the mix as you write copy for each funnel, considering audience segments based on demographics, interest, behaviors, or previous interactions with your brand.
Top-of-Funnel (TOFU) Copy
Awareness-stage copy should focus on addressing pain points, introducing your brand, and providing information of value. At this stage, it’s not about the hard sell: Aim to educate and engage potential customers who don’t yet know that your product or service can solve a problem they may have.
Middle-of-Funnel (MOFU) Copy
This is called the consideration stage, and copy should detail your unique selling proposition, showcase how your solution outperforms your competitors, and give evidence of your claims through testimonials, case studies, or data points. MOFU copy aims to nurture leads who are actively considering potential products or services. The goal is to keep driving them down the funnel.
Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU) Copy
Decision-stage copy creates urgency, addresses potential objections, offers incentives, and issues strong calls-to-action that result in immediate purchase decisions. BOFU copy targets prospects who are ready to buy but may need a final nudge to get off the fence, so your word choices matter more than ever at this stage.
Key Takeaways
Memorable ad copy combines persuasive language with clear value propositions to drive specific actions from your audience. Remember, understanding your audience and their pain points is fundamental to creating copy that resonates and converts, and that testing and optimizing your copy across channels is an ongoing process, not a one-time deal. Different funnel stages will require different copywriting approaches and messaging strategies that meet your customers at various stages in their journey.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are examples of effective ad copy?
Compelling ad copy is clear, benefit-focused messaging that addresses specific customer needs. It doesn’t trumpet features, but emphasizes benefits and how it solves problems. It also needs a strong call-to-action, an authentic brand voice, and concise language that grabs (and keeps) attention. Nike’s “Just Do It” is a prime example of simple yet effective messaging, as is Dollar Shave Club’s “Shave time. Shave money,” which touches on the dual benefit of convenience and saving money.
What is the PAS formula in ad copy?
The PAS (Problem-Agitation-Solution) formula is a copywriting framework that follows a simple three-step sequence:
- Problem: Identify a problem or pain point your target audience regularly experiences.
- Agitation: Elaborate on the negative consequences of the problem, deepening the emotional connection with the audience.
- Solution: Share how your product or service is the ultimate solution to the problem, and why.
The formula works because it taps into our psychological triggers. First, it establishes relevance by acknowledging the reader’s challenge, then intensifies the emotional response before finally offering relief through your brand’s solution.
What are the best tools to optimize ad copy?
There are a variety of tools to help marketers create, test, and fine-tune ad copy, including AI writing assistants (Copy.ai, Jasper, and ChatGPT), A/B testing platforms (Optimizely, VWO, and Google Optimize, Realize), SEO tools (SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz), emotion analysis tools (IBM Watson Tone Analyzer and Grammarly), which evaluate emotional tone and copy impact, and heatmap/user behavior tools (Hotjar and Crazy Egg), which reveal how users interact with ad copy on landing pages. The best tool for your business to sharpen your ad copy depends on your industry, tech capabilities, and budget.
