Onderwerpen

1. Advertentie-copywriting - en ontwerp
2. Ladder van productbewustzijn
3. Copywriting
4. Copywriting: de cyclus voor advertentieoptimalisatie
5. Copywriting: het vierstappenproces
6. Copywriting: onderzoek naar ideeën
7. Copywriting: voorbeelden en tactieken
8. Copywriting: woordvolgorde
9. Copywriting: aanvullend sociaal bewijs
10. Copywriting: call-to-action
11. Advertentiemateriaal
12. Wanneer moet u kopiëren en creatief vernieuwen?

Advertentie-copywriting - en ontwerp

Deze pagina leert u hoe u online advertenties (bijv. Facebook, Instagram, AdWords) op professioneel niveau kunt kopiëren.

Het doel is eenvoudig: haal het maximale aantal klikken uit uw doelgroep.

Dit doe je met de reclame van exemplaar en creatief .

"Kopiëren" is een mooi woord voor  tekst.  Het onderscheid tussen kopie en dagelijkse tekst is dat de kopie zorgvuldig wordt geselecteerd voor een specifiek doel. Zoals een verkooppunt pitchen. Of iemand waarschuwen. Of ze laten klikken op een knop.

'Creatief' is ondertussen het mooie woord voor multimedia, zoals beeld of video. 

Kopiëren en creatief combineren om een advertentieblok te vormen : de advertentie die u op een kanaal ziet.

Boeiende kopij en creativiteit bepalen de klikfrequentie van uw advertenties. En zelfs een verbetering van de CTR van 25% kan winstgevende betaalde gebruikersacquisitie maken of breken . 

Dus ad-copywriting is cruciaal werk.

Yet most marketers wing their copywriting. As if they're naturally amazing at it. They're not. No one really is. You need a structured approach.

If you want to write well, understand that writing style is only 10% of it (tip: be concise). 90% is actually having something to say. Aim to think well first and foremost.

So that's what this page teaches you: Systematic copywriting tactics for generating compelling words every time. I'll walk you through designing ads too.

Ladder of product awareness

To write ads well, know who you're copywriting for. This makes all the difference.

Consider my Ladder of Product Awareness below. The LPA illustrates how aware and in need an audience is of your product. 

Everyone you advertise to will fit somewhere on this ladder:

Great storytellers have the ability to fascinate everyone with their material; they don't settle on relating only with their core audience.

But, the closer someone is to the bottom, the more time, energy, and money it’ll take to move them up the LPA so that they'd be receptive to your ads.

Only if you've already exhausted audiences on Levels 1-4 (unlikely) should you attempt moving people upward from the bottom. 

Until then, exclude bottom audiences from your ad targeting to the greatest extent possible. You're going to focus all your ad targeting and copy efforts on Levels 1-4.

LPA and ad channels

On Google AdWords (an ad channel), LPA identification is straightforward: You detect the specificity of a search by looking for its niche keywords. 

For example, a search may be for "used cars" or "used Toyota SUV's." The latter is higher up on the LPA. These people know specifically what they want. And it's easier to sell to people who actually know what they want.

These two queries — one broad and one specific — require corresponding ad copy.

If you're advertising Toyota cars, consider:

• "Used cars" should be addressed with copy explaining why Toyota is the best brand for second-hand car purchases. You need to move people up the LPA.
• "Used Toyota SUV's" should be addressed with copy highlighting specific product details that would grab the searcher's attention, e.g. "$18k gets you a 2014 Toyota with just 20k miles!"
  
  You don't waste words moving them up the LPA — you just grab their attention with the meaty details they're looking for.

You typically want to try running both types of ad copy. See how well the general public responds to your value props. If you can get them to click and convert, it drastically expands the size of your audience.

LPA and profile-based targeting

Beyond AdWords, however, non-search channels don't have keywords for you to clearly identify someone's LPA position.

In other words, when switching from behavioral targeting to profile targeting, you rely on profile details as a proxy to determine someone's LPA position. 

It's messy, and it requires a lot of experience to get great at.

For instance, how exactly would you distinguish whether a Facebook user who's suffering from male pattern baldness is or is not aware that drugs like Rogaine and Propecia help your hair regrow? 

There's no way to know unless they happen to Like Rogaine's Facebook Page or have shared Rogaine articles on their profile. Then you could target them based off this.

But very few people will do either. Most people don't share or Like company-related posts on Facebook. Most of what they share is personal (e.g. family photos) or cultural (e.g. inspirational videos and politics). 

So, on profile-based ad channels, like Facebook and Instagram, you'll often have no choice but to write more generalized copy. This means being wordier than normal in order to embed additional context for those lower on the LPA. You'll want to address:

• Why the problem they have is in fact worth solving.
• Why your way of addressing the problem is best.
• What enticing next steps they should take (to convert).

In other words, sometimes your copy will have to simultaneously address people on Steps 1 to 4 of the LPA.

Got it?

With that context, we're finally ready to dive into ad copywriting.

Copywriting

As a reminder, "copy" is just a fancy word for text.

When you refer to marketing text on an ad, page, or SaaS dashboard, refer to it as "copy" and treat it with the attention-to-detail it deserves. 

In growth, words are your most powerful weapon. Each one affects conversion. 

Copywriting: The ad optimization cycle

Here's the copywriting cycle as it applies to optimizing online ads:

1. In a spreadsheet, generate copy variations to pitch all your value props. Set low expectations and put ego aside. Prepare to be surprised by copy you think is great that performs terribly, and vice versa. 
2. Launch the most promising copy. Throw in some "out there" variations too.
3. Once you've assessed performance, pause variations that perform poorly.
4. Of the top performers, begin testing minor copy variations (such as differing word choice and phrasing). You want to find small tweaks that maximize conversion.
5. With your best-performing copy in place, test new copy on a regular basis. You're never going to land on the best variation from the get-go.

The above is specific to ads, but the process doesn't vary much for copy elsewhere.

Now let's learn how to write good copy variations for Step 1.

Copywriting: The four-step process

Here's how you write copy variations — in four steps:

1. Brainstorm value props and the audience's concerns
   
   This step generates worthwhile talking points for your copy.
   
   First, list out all your value props — what benefits does your product offer?
   
   Next, bullet point every trepidation, disbelief, and question your audience will likely have upon hearing your pitch.
   
2. Write copy that addresses your value props and concerns
   
   For each item in Step 1, write a dozen variations addressing it. Example.
3. Make the most promising copy concise
   
   Identify the copy you believe will most motivate conversion. Rewrite these as concisely as possible. Ads don't leave a lot of room for text.
4. Make your copy compelling
   
   Take your concise pieces of copy and — don't worry, you have my permission — make them a bit wordier by injecting compelling factoids. Factoids are your opportunity to really pique your audience's interest.
   
   You pique someone's interest by either:
   
   A. Making them curious by withholding information.
   
   B. Offering significant, inarguable value. 
   

This process is the most valuable advice in the entire handbook. Whatever you do, never wing copywriting. What comes off the top of your head will never be as good as what you'll optimize through this process. And if you can get an ad to perform even 15% better, that can make or break your profitability.

When writing ads for certain platforms (e.g. Pinterest, AdWords), you may not have room to include everything in the above process. But, for many ad units, including Facebook Newsfeed Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Twitter Ads, you'll have more than enough room to accomplish all these messaging objectives.

For example, here's a Facebook Newsfeed Ad with room for text in four places:

Sure, that ad is dense. And there are multiple value props being pitched at once. But it wound up being the best performing variation. 

Probably because there's something in it for everyone.

Always test! You never know. Human psychology is less predictable than marketers would like you to believe.

Copywriting: Surveying for ideas

Brainstorming in isolation will only get you so far. Combine it with customer surveys, and you'll uncover all the value props you're overlooking. 

🎯 Google Forms is a simple, free tool for collecting survey answers.

When surveying for copy ideas, you want to understand three things from your audience: language, obstacles, and priorities.

• Language: How would you describe the product to a friend?
  
  What non-marketing language would a customer use to communicate the product to laypeople?
  
  You want to borrow this language to break through over-written, salesy copy. For example, you may define your product category as “pre-owned vehicles." But don’t people actually say (and search Google for) “used cars?"
  
  Yes, they do, so then that’s the language you should be using in your copy.
• Obstacles: What nearly prevented you from purchasing? Or, if you haven't purchased yet, what is most likely to prevent you?
  
  Identify obstacles you can proactively address in your copy.
• Priorities: How do you rank the product’s benefits?
  
  Do certain audience segments care more about Benefit A than B? Then highlight the appropriate feature when talking to each: If males respond better to A, split your targeting across men and women.

The theme here is empathy. Get to know customers as they really are; go in with zero expectations. This means making sure you always allow for an "Other — Please Specify" free-form response to every survey question. 

Compile your survey answers then add them to your list of brainstormed value props and concerns. Then continue onto Step 2 of the four-step copywriting process (read on to the next section).

🎯 An effective means of getting people to thoughtfully respond to surveys is having the CEO reach out to a couple dozen users via email with an offer of a $15 payment via PayPal (or just a coupon) as a reward.

If you don’t yet have customers to email, write a post on your Facebook page asking for friends (who fit your ideal customer type — define it clearly) that are willing to be paid $15 in exchange for spending 15 minutes thoughtfully answering your survey questions over the phone.

Copywriting: Examples and tactics

The above four-step process will only get you so far if you don't actually have a framework for generating compelling sentences. So what follows is a systematic approach to coming up with them. 

In other words, below are numerous tactics to fulfill Step 2 of the process: writing copy that addresses your value props and concerns.

Before we begin, let's refer back to the LPA to contextualize our goals.

The challenge your copy must overcome is educating audiences who are unaware the problem they're facing is 1) solvable, 2) solvable via your product, and 3) worth solving now. The one thing they must share is that they do suffer from the problem you solve.

Please re-read that last paragraph slowly.

Coo?

Word.

Copy tactic 1: Fully articulate your problem and solution

For this first copy tactic, we're experimenting with being wordy in service of being highly descriptive. Being descriptive means adding enough context around our problem and solution that people on many steps of the LPA can identify with our copy.

Specifically, we're writing copy that: identifies the problem, how you solve the problem, and what the benefit of solving it is.

For example: "Kip makes therapy more effective by helping you track your weekly outcomes through self-assessments. No more guessing at whether you're improving."

First, notice the specificity of the language. Do not include vague statements like "powering the way you work" or "making your business secure." That is boring, generic, and simply ineffective for conversion-oriented copy. 

Vagueness is only appropriate for mega-brands that serve ads to keep themselves top of mind (e.g. Coke). Mega-brands don’t need to remind people what they do. In other words, vagueness is only viable for targeting users at the top of the LPA.

Second, notice how the example identifies one problem (simplicity) and one solution (automatic capturing) per copy variation. This has three benefits: 

• Copy focus improves a reader's clarity.
• Distributing individual value props across multiple ads gives you a controlled testing environment to see which problems and solutions are most enticing to your audience. 
• You can generate a greater number of distinct ads when each has one value prop. This is valuable for when users inevitably tire of seeing your same few ads on repeat.

Copy tactic 2: Highlight something unique

Write copy variations highlighting how you stand out from the competition. 

For example:

• Are you the only dog food company endorsed by the SPCA? Then say so.
• Are you the biggest, cheapest, fastest, or highest-quality product in your space?
• Are you the only product using a novel, game-changing technology?

Copy tactic 3: Ask a pressing question

This tactic involves writing copy in the form of a question. 

For example, you can turn a factoid into a question with "Did you know:"

Did you know airlines will pay you ~$135 when they delay you? 

(This is true, by the way. If you live in the U.S., check out Service.) 

But only ask questions if they'd pique people's curiosities. Do not ask questions that make people think, "Yeah, so what?" 

For example:

Do you like dogs? 

Sure I do, so what? I'm not going to keep reading your ad if that's all you got for me.

Now contrast this with a question that an audience of, say, online marketers, would actually be intrigued by: 

How well do you rank for SEO? 

Hmm. Not sure. I'd like to know.

A rule of thumb for comparing the ineffective "Do you like dogs?" with the effective "How well do you rank for SEO?" is to ask whether your question can be answered with a "yes" or a "no." If so, reword the question to force the audience to think deeper.

Don't ask questions for behavioral targeting

Be careful using this copywriting tactic with behavioral-based targeting (e.g. Google AdWords). Generally, search queries are best addressed with specific answers.

Consider how people searching Google don't want their time wasted with your question-and-answer games because they already know what they're looking for. 

In contrast, profile-based targeting (e.g. Facebook Ads), are a perfect fit for questions.

Copy tactic 4: Match a value prop to an audience

This copy tactic appeals to a subset of your audience, as defined by their demographics (e.g. age, gender, job) or behaviors (e.g. eat out a lot). 

Generally, the more targeted your copy, the better conversion.

You generate copy by identifying the value prop that most appeals to each subset. Then you directly call out the audience in the copy.

There are many qualities or value props you could highlight. Here are a few:

• Cost: "The only full-featured, 4K camera that’s affordable [quality] on a student’s [audience] budget."
• Powerful: "The only language learning tool with the advanced [quality] features hardworking students [audience] need to master French, Chinese, and more." 
• Simple: "The analytics tool powerful enough for developers but built with a super intuitive interface for marketers."
• Fast: "The only delivery service with a guaranteed delivery time of 60 minutes — for people who make last-minute dinner decisions."
  
  We're defining a customer type based on behavior instead of demographics. It's hard to target this subset since there's no proxy Topic people Like on Facebook for last-minute dinner decision-makers. But if the behavior is common, it's worth testing.
• Quality: "Extremely high quality shirts for people who obsess over little details."

Other qualities include effective, beautiful, automated, and so on. 

Whichever you choose, ensure it's one your ideal customers would care enough about to make a purchasing decision based on. 

Consider how, when someone buys a camera, they don’t care if it arrives overnight (the fast shipping value prop). They care about its power, simplicity, and/or cost.

🎯 One of my favorite books summarizes the legitimate research into how to convince people to do things. I strongly recommend it for honing your copy.

Copywriting: Word order

Here's a human psychology trick that applies to every copy tactic on this page: Try to place the keyword describing your product at the beginning of the copy. 

Let me show you an example then I'll explain why. The copy below references thisopenspace, one of Bell Curve's clients, which is the Airbnb of retail space:

• Front-loading your product keyword: "Looking to rent retail space? Rent luxury locations in your city by day, week, or month."
• Back-loading your product keyword: "Rent by day, week, or month — that's the flexibility thisopenspace brings to retail space rentals."

The former copy will likely perform better because software engineers skimming the first few words of your ads (everyone skims!) will immediately identify with the product category ("retail space"). This quickly shows them the ad is for them.

In contrast, the second piece of copy says a whole lot of nothing until you get to the keyword, "retail space." Consider how "Rent by day, week, or month" could be about anything — and many people won't learn what that thing is because they won't bother reading far enough into the copy.

Similarly, if you’re writing two sentences, the first must stand by itself by describing the product. You can't depend on someone to read the second sentence.

🎯 The greatest "word order" trick to copywriting is to be concise. The less fluff you have, the more of what remains gets read.

Copywriting: Supplementary social proof

Most ad channels, including Facebook Ads and AdWords, provide space alongside an ad's image and copy for supplementary copy. 

I like to use this space to provide social proof: external validation that your product is as good as you claim it is. 

Social proof can take a few forms:

• Customer count
  
  "Over 5,000 dog lovers rely on us."
  
  When you share a customer count, specify the type of customer as well (e.g. dog lovers) so relevant niche audiences can identify with your product's customers.
• Noteworthy customers
  
  "Used by Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM."
  
  Ensure you namedrop companies your target audience is actually familiar with!
• Online reviews
  
  "5 stars in the App Store" or "Best-reviewed San Francisco Thai restaurant on Yelp."
  
  If you don't have good reviews, don't lie about it. Use a different form of proof.
  
• Awards
  
  "Winner of the prestigious Google Material Design award."
  
  Ensure your audience is familiar with the award or awards body you're referencing. Never just refer to yourself as "award-winning." Every ad says that, so it'll get ignored.
• Press quotes
  
  "'Lambda Labs creates the world's fastest deep learning computers.' — Gizmodo"
  
  Choose a quote that reinforces the quality you highlighted in your ad's copy.

Ad creative

"Creative" is marketing jargon for your ad's multimedia — its images and video. 

Most ad units, including Facebook's and Twitter's, provide space for both copy and creative. (Whereas Google AdWords is pure text.) 

To optimize creative for conversion, I try to adhere to two content restrictions:

• Literally depict the product in action. Don't beat around the bush; show the value.
• Match the creative to the copy's value props. Have them reinforce each other.

And I always adhere to two styling restrictions:

• Keep the design purposeful and minimalist.
• Match the design to the surrounding aesthetics: Consider, on what page is the ad showing? What does that page look like? Match it so the ad looks less... like an ad.

Let's cover these principles one by one. Then we're done with ad copy and creative!

Creative: Literally depict the product in action

Step one is to ask yourself, How can I most literally depict the product in action? 

Avoiding visual abstraction is key to increasing conversion. Because abstracted imagery is typically aspirational imagery (two people sitting on a beach), and aspirational messaging is better suited for raising brand awareness, not conversion.

Here are some examples:

• If you're selling software, show a decluttered screenshot of the dashboard instead of an abstract vector illustration of your services.
• If you're selling services, show the service in action, e.g. a dog walker walking a dog instead of an image of a dog next to a cut-out image of a leash.
• If you're selling a physical good, show it in action plus overlay a closeup photo of it.

Creative: Match the creative to the copy

Your ad copy, which is your methodical approach to pitching an audience, should determine your creative. Not the other way around.

Consider:

• If your copy references a customer type (e.g. cash-strapped college students), ensure any people depicted in your creative match that customer type.
• If your copy references a cultural event (e.g. Christmas) or interest (e.g. football), consider including the corresponding iconography in your creative.

Creative: Be purposeful and minimalist

With creative, never show a random woman smiling next to a computer. And never slap copy over it and call it a day. 

In other words, don't do what 99% of ads do.

When you follow this vapid pattern, you're forgoing the opportunity to have your imagery directly reinforce your value props. Plus you blend into every other ad online.

Instead, select imagery with purpose. Every major visual component (e.g. a person, product, logo) should depict the product in action or depict its value.

Consider how each component is a potential focal point for a viewer. The more purposeful and minimal your imagery, the less likely it is that viewers get distracted by a visual component that doesn't drive conversion.

Finally, consider each component subject to variation testing. As with copy variation testing, start with the simplest instantiation of the component then refine it as you incrementally prove what performs best (which has the highest clickthrough rate).

🎯 Don't place your logo or other blatant corporate imagery in the top third of an ad. People most often parse ads from top to bottom, so whatever imagery you place at the top shoulders the burden of motivating users to continue looking downward. And if the first thing they see is corporate spam, they're reminded this is an ad and are more likely to skip parsing the remainder.

Creative: Match surrounding aesthetics

Don’t design an ad before knowing how it'll look in its published form. 

On Facebook, for example, your ad appears as a Newsfeed story alongside organic stories. Just like organic stories, your ad consists of an image, surrounding text, a comments section, and a CTA button. 

The goal is to ensure your creative isn't so oddly contrasted against organic stories that it's reflexively dismissed as an ad.

🎯 In fact, when I design Facebook ads in Sketch (a Photoshop alternative that's suited for non-photography work), I start with a screenshot of the Facebook Newsfeed. I crop out the ad and design on top of it so I can design in context.

You might be thinking:

But don't I want to stand out as much as possible? 

Nope. That worked when banner ads ruled the web and people weren't accustomed to what usable sites should look like.

Today, people are much savvier. For many of them, anything that stands out in the middle of their feed gets immediately dismissed.

That said, I'm not advising you blend into the surrounding content like wallpaper. You still want bold imagery and a unique brand presence. But, you also need to look like you visually belong on the site: Mimic as much of the surrounding colors, font, spacing, and so on. And try to do it while maintaining your brand identity.

Also match surrounding content

On a channel like Pinterest, where your ad appears among dozens of highly contrasted images, you're in less danger of being dismissed as an ad because it's harder to accidentally stand out. 

But, you still need to contextually blend into the content surrounding your ad. 

For example, if you're targeting Pinterest audiences searching for "steak," ensure your ad isn't, say, a celebrity chef holding up a plate of steak in his hands. That would be fitting for a magazine cover, but for Pinterest? 

No, on Pinterest, you would find close-up photos of dinner plates with steak on them. 

So mimic that and you won't blatantly stand out like an ad. With this organic-like content as your creative basis, place copy on top of the image with a subtle color contrast that blends in without triggering audiences' reflexive ad dismissal.

The next page shows you how to run a Facebook Ads campaign. Professionally. As I do for my clients. Once you master Facebook, you can master every other ad channel.

Updates are coming to this handbook

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