The Ultimate Guide to Copy for Paid Ads

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Hey, it’s Alex. In your inbox for the last time this year. 2023 was a phenomenal year. And I loved sharing it with you.

A few things I’m very grateful for:

• Our baby Zara was born and is now 6 months.

• I went full-time on Marketing Examined ~ 6 months ago

• Our team has grown to 10 great people

• We have a HQ in central Austin

But, here’s my last two cents before wrapping up the year…

Spend that extra time with your loved ones. Enjoy every second. Be exactly where your feet are. Reflect on the year. Reflect on what went good, or bad, and what you can improve. Look forward to 2024 and set audacious goals. And don’t let the person who you were in 2023 reflect who you want to be in 2024.

You can shed the dead skin tomorrow. Decide to be entirely different. And be who you’re destined to be.

And I’ll join that road with you. I’m going to share my 2024 personal and company goals with you guys next year.

Enjoy the holidays.

And we’ll be back with vengeance in 2024.

But first, a huge thank you to our partners AE Studio and Insense.

In Partnership With AE Studio

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• Pinpoint where and why you should be building NOW.

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Killer creative is the variable to successful Facebook and Instagram ads.

So today, we're going to cover how to write paid ads for:

• Higher click-throughs

• Higher conversion rates

Let’s get into it.

Types of Awareness

No two customers are the same.

Some are aware of you, some aware of your products, and some don’t know who you are or what you offer.

And each individual's level of awareness influences how they perceive your ads.

The truth is:

• The majority will strike out (ignore your ads)

• Some will get on base (click-through, spend time on the landing page)

• Some will hit home runs (purchase from you)

Because of this, every touchpoint requires different messaging.

In 1966, Eugene Schwartz addressed this in his Breakthrough Advertising.

He labeled the 5-types of awareness into 5 different phases:

1. Completely Unaware: No knowledge of your or your product.

2. Problem-Aware: Aware of a problem but doesn't know about the solution.

3. Solution-Aware: Looking for a solution but doesn't know you're the best option.

4. Product-Aware: Aware of your product but isn't sure it’s the best fit.

5. The Most Aware: Knows your product but needs the last bit of confidence to purchase.

But here’s the caveat, different customers buy at different levels of awareness.

And the majority will buy at Product Aware or Most Aware.

Let's Write Ads

Let’s break down some examples and rewrites for ads in each stage of the funnel.

1. Problem Aware

Your goal is to help the consumer realize the problem and cement it in their mind.

Without a problem, they're not going to search for a solution.

2. Solution Aware

Your goal is to display the solution and open the door to introduce the product.

Do this by talking about what they want to do, achieve, or need to eliminate the problem.

3. Product Aware

The goal is to cement your product as the best option.

4. Most Aware

The goal is to inject the last bit of confidence needed to take action.

Putting It All Together

If you spend time in different ad libraries you'll notice the best brands write copy that matches different awareness levels.

And the best brands match the landing page copy to the awareness level the customer is currently in.

Here’s how it plays out:

1. Know which stage of awareness you’re writing for

2. Help the consumer realize their problem.

3. Help them visualize their dream outcome and introduce your product as the solution.

4. Cement your product as the best option.

5. Inject the last bit of confidence to take action.

6. Match your landing page copy with the stage of awareness of the ads.

_{In Partnership With Insense}

How To Increase Your Conversion Rate:

A lot of marketers will tell you to leverage influencers for paid ads. That’s just not enough context.

Here’s how to work with influencers to lower your conversion rate:

• Run an influencer seeding campaign (ship product to influencers for free)

• A percentage will create content around your product

• Establish partnerships with creators whose organic content performs well

• Remix those pieces of content into 100-200+ different pieces of creative

• Build a UGC library and organize it by value propositions

• Use Insense Pro for a fraction of the cost of hiring an internal team

Which is why 15,000+ brands like Obvi, GoPure, and Ivy Beauty use Insense.

And I got you $200 for your first UGC campaign.

🕳 Rabbit Hole Reads and Resources

• Loyalty: The average American belongs to 16.7 customer loyalty programs. How do you differentiate? By rewarding engagement, not just purchases. Here’s how. (LINK).

• DTC: He sold his DTC brand for $130m after 12 years. Here’s Paul Goodman’s 5-step roadmap to launch your DTC brand in 30 days. (LINK).

• Bankruptcy: After raising $883m and going public at $2.5B valuation, Bird Scooter is filing bankruptcy. Here’s their 50-slide pitch deck. (LINK). 

• CRO: 300 landing pages in, this is the 11-step playbook to turn traffic into customers. (LINK).

• FB Ads: He made $7m+ with static FB ads. Here’s 18 formats to use for your e-comm brand in 2024. (LINK).