Writing effective ad copy isn’t always easy.
I know that, from an outsider’s perspective, it might look effortless. But that’s very far from the truth.
Very, very much so. It actually takes a whole lot of work from start to finish, with a whole lot to consider in between. Writing effective ad copy requires following a certain series of steps… with each one building off the next to make the intended sale.
For starters, you need to know something about your intended audience. What do they like? What do they not like? What do they believe in? What do they strive for? What do they value?
The more you know about them, the more attention-grabbing and compelling your words can be.
Along those same lines, you need to know where your intended audience tends to congregate. Otherwise, they’re not going to see the oh-so effective ad copy you’ve put together.
Which would render it pointless.
And here’s one final tip toward making some money from the advertisements you compose: Check for typos before you publish them.
Even in the customer reviews you include in the ad.
I was on Facebook the other day, scrolling through my feed, when I came across an ad for artificial diamonds.
Truly, the stones themselves were beautiful. Based on the picture alone, I was sold.
Unfortunately for the company in question though (but fortunately for my wallet), the picture wasn’t alone. It came with something very much like this description:
We’re officially offering a complete Money Back Guarantee on our Definition Ring. If you can see a single difference between our Definition stones and a true diamond, go ahead and return it for a full refund. We’ll even pay for shipping and handling.
There’s no way you lose in that scenario!
We mean that money-back guarantee. 100%. But we also don’t think you’re going to take us up on it. Not when you see your gorgeous Definition Ring in person.
We say that based on over 1,000 phenomenal reviews we’ve received from happy customers, such as Laurence Rivers, who wrote:
“Last night was our 3-month anniversary, and I surprised my beautiful girlfriend with Definition Ring, she can’t believe it isn’t diamond, she kept staring at it and loved it so much! Thank you!”
What are you waiting for? Get yours today!
That review, with its lack of proper punctuation and missing article (i.e., “she can’t believe it isn’t diamond”) isn’t great. But it’s not as prominent as the one proudly projected onto the ad’s main picture.
Therefore, it’s not as bad as it could be.
“My wife love it so much, it’s the best birthday gift ever…” declares the ad caption in big, bright, orange letters against a black background.
There’s absolutely no way you can miss it. Which, in this case, is a shame. Because it does damage the ad’s credibility. I’m no longer so intrigued by the product in question.
Presentation is extremely important. If words aren’t spelled right and sentences run on like a nose in January, it calls other aspects of the business into question. What other mistakes are they not catching?
What other errors don’t they care to fix?
It’s not necessarily an accurate way of looking at it. But it’s not entirely unjustified either. And it is something that ad copywriters should be aware of.
Now, in this case, perhaps the copywriters couldn’t find a well-written review (out of “over 1,000”). But here’s a tip in case that’s true…
It is okay to proofread such things. You’re probably not going to get sued for plagiarizing if you change “love” to loved” in “My wife love it so much.” And there’s even less of a chance you’ll get in trouble for adding in necessary periods.
Truly. Changing punctuation within reason – such as adding in a period where a period should obviously be – is not a crime. Not according to any legal books that I know of.
It does get more tricky when it comes to changing words, admittedly. As well it should. Though I still maintain that correcting an obvious error is acceptable editorial behavior.
However, if you’re truly concerned about changing words, go with brackets. They’re editorial admissions of addition, stating that the original text was altered. For instance:
“Last night was our 3-month anniversary, and I surprised my beautiful girlfriend with [a] Definition Ring. She cannot believe it’s not [a] diamond. She kept staring at it for hours and loved it so much! Thank you!”
And just like that, your ad customer review copywriting problem is solved.