writing-ad-copy

Ad copy

Write the words that ride beside the creative in the ad platform — the headline, the primary text, the description, the call to action. Text only — nothing is generated here. Not the text drawn on the image, and not a spoken voiceover.

Ad copy may run on one channel or several. The same product, written for each channel it runs on — because the fields and the limits differ, and the register does too. Write each channel's set, then hand them all back.

Workflow

Step 1: Read what's fixed

Ask only for what would change the copy and can't be defaulted.

• The product and the offer — what it is, what it does for the buyer, and any promotion (a price, a discount, a launch).
• Who it's for, and how aware they are — a buyer who already knows the category reads differently from one meeting the problem for the first time.
• Which channel(s) the copy runs on — this decides the fields, the limits and the register.
• The grounding — the claims the user will stand behind, and any raw material: reviews, a winning ad, ad comments, the words real customers use. This is what the copy is built from.

Feature claims vs proof claims. What the product is and does — its features, how it works, the offer — the user can simply assert, and you write from that. A proof claim — a number, a rating, a testimonial, a "better than X" result — needs real backing; where there is none the claim doesn't get made, and you ask rather than invent one. Where the proof is only a paraphrase ("reviewers keep saying it's less bitter"), attribute it — reviewers say… — rather than stating it as fact; a supplied review's own words are stronger still.

What to default, and what to ask. Audience and awareness can be defaulted to the broad buyer where unstated. The channel and the grounding cannot: no channel named → ask which; no grounding at all → ask for it and don't write yet. A partial gap — a missing offer, a single thin claim — is different: write the angles the material supports and name the gap.