In the world of advertising and social media ads, good copy can make all the difference.
In an environment saturated with advertising impacts, offering “more of the same” is not enough. You need to create impressive copies that are capable of standing out from the competition and that offer just what your buyer persona needs. So take these tips from copywriting for social media ads and make your advertising more effective than ever!
Why is social media copywriting so important?
The copywriting of your ads is the “bridge” between creativity and the goal you want to achieve with the ad.
When you launch a social media advertising campaign, your end goal is users to do something. The first thing they see is the image, which sens their attention. Once you’ve piqued their interest, the ad text holds their attention and leads the user to the desired action. Without the copy, it would not be possible to take advantage of the attention generated through creativity.
The wording of ads on social networks is important because users generally perceive advertising as a nuisance and want to skip as many ads as possible, even if it is relevant. But when your ad copy gets them to imagine the benefits of your product or service in their lives, it makes a real impact on the recipient.
Without a good text message, most social media ads won’t be able to convert. Therefore, I appreciate your devoting all your attention to improving your writing.
10 strategies and recommended practices to improve your copywriting on Social Networks
1) Define your audience
Before starting to do copywriting for your social networks, you have to plan who do you want direct. To do this, you must answer questions such as:
- What things do you like?
- What are your main interests?
- Where do they live and how old are they?
- What are your online content consumption habits?
Once you have these characteristics clear, it will be much easier for you to define the value proposition and the tone of your ads.
2) Talk like your customers
All brands must have a own tone of voice, who knew how to imitate the way of having his ideal clients. When a user scrolls through their social media feed and comes across an ad, they should be able to recognize and identify with the brand.
Of course, the desired tone and style can vary greatly depending on the brand. Some will have to bet on closeness and colloquial expressions, while others will adopt a much more professional tone of voice. We must also take into account in which social network we will launch the ads: TikTok is not the same as LinkedIn.
3) Create copies for different moments of the conversion funnel
Ultimately, all copywriting seeks to sell… but being excessively promotional doesn’t work. We have to think about where our target is in the sales cycle and adapt the texts to it. Therefore we need different specimens for each stage:
- in the phase TOFU (top of the funnel) the objective is to make your brand known among potentially interested users, but without calls to commercial action.
- in the phase MOFU (middle of the funnel) users already know they exist; it’s time to let you know how you can help solve their pain points.
- Lastly, in the phase BOFU (bottom of the funnel) the user is now ready to buy, so use more direct calls to action.
Here below you have as examples the marketing objectives offered by Facebook Ads.
4) Look for the hook
The “hook” is an essential ingredient of copy. As its number indicates, we seek “hook” the audience and capture their interest from the start. Try these techniques:
- Use numbers as portals or statistics to build credibility.
- Resort to empathy. If you want to listen to your potential customers, it will be easy to gain their trust.
- Arouse curiosity with questions such as “Did you know that…?” or “Can you imagine if…?”
- Use logical arguments to convince from the start.
- Use the PAS (Problem, Stir, Solution) formula. This consists of reminding the audience of one of their pain points and then proposing your brand as a solution.
5) Try different exemplars
One of the advantages of social media advertising is that it offers many facilities to make A/B or multivariate tests.
This allows us to launch campaigns with multiple ads targeting multiple audience segments and with different copy in each of them, so we can test different strategies. After a reasonable time, we can compare the metrics of the different ads with each other and stay with the most effective ones. In this way, we will expand our knowledge about what strategies work with our audience and what doesn’t.
6) Test the length of your ads
In all social media advertising formats, like Facebook Promoted Posts, you have extra space to include more text. But it is not always a good idea to use everything.
Social media experts disagree on this issue: some say ads should ideally be 3-5 words long, while others believe it’s more effective to explain your offer in detail. As such, the answer depends on the particular situation of each brand and its public purpose.
Therefore, if you want to know what the key is for you, you will have to do A/B tests or with multivariate copies of different lengths. This way you will be sure to allocate your budget to the most effective ads.
7) Clearly communicate who, what, when, how and why
Your social media ads can answer all the key questions of your target. In this way, users feel that they have the information they need and will have more confidence when clicking.
8) Use calls to action
The ultimate goal of your social media advertising is get the user to do something. And for this, you must make it very clear what. Clean The more your call to action, the better results you get!
9) Be careful with “forbidden words”
The different advertising platforms restrictions Regarding the copies that can be used in your ads. For example, Facebook Ads does not allow advertising supplements or insurance, weapons, ammunition, explosives or cryptocurrencies, among others. Also, you are not allowed to imply that you have information about your target. For example, instead of “Our product is made for women like you”, you should use something like “New product specially designed for women”. Review the guidelines of the social network where you want to post your ads and follow them to the letter.
10) Think of your ad as a whole
Copywriting is a fundamental element of social media ads, but by itself it cannot convert. Therefore, when planting the texts of your ads, you have to think about how to interact with other elements, such as images and URLs. You must use them all in combination to tell a story that will engage your audience. And of course, remember that you can (and should!) A/B test all of them.
5 Social Media Ad Copywriting Examples
1) ULab ideas meeting point
We like this example because it is a good use of one of the formulas Classics of advertising: “shake the problem and propose a solution”. We will pay special attention to our public object on a topic that concerns us and positions us when it comes to solving our problems. For it to work, it is important to have done research and be aligned with the real needs of our target.
2) Shutterstock
This ad is a great example of define a core message and reinforce it as much as possible, achieving maximum clarity. The “10 free images” offer appears in the description, image, and owner, so the user knows exactly where they are going.
3) Accommodation
Hostinger’s ad copywriting stands out for its influence. The promise is very clear: “Reduce the bounce rate of your website”. The key is to hit a pain point that is important to your target audience.
4) Nike-Yoga
This is a great example of how to turn product characteristics (“strong, flexible and soft”) into a benefit for the user (“Flow with the yoga clothes”) in a short, direct and effective way.
5) Ana Ivars
Finally, an example of how combine different writing techniques on social networks in a single large ad. In this campaign to promote training in digital marketing, we have:
- Texts focused on reinforcing the sense of urgency in the user (through an offer with an upcoming expiration date).
- A description of the weak points of the potential client, who seeks to be identified with our ad.
- A call to action that proposes the product as a solution.
- A description of the benefits.
- A description of the public object, to record the maximum alignment between audience and ad.
- And finally, a descriptive CTA that encouraged immediate action.