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I remember my friends making fun of The Sun newspaper when I was in school because it was well known that the paper had a reading age of just 12-years-old. In school, we thought a newspaper should use complex language that a child wouldn’t be able to understand.
Now I realize the genius behind the editors of that paper. If a 12-year-old can understand it, then so can any adult, regardless of their IQ, reading ability, or wider understanding of the issues being discussed.
The same applies to social media ad copies.
The Economist approaches social media ads simply by sharing popular content that its target audience would like to read
The whole point of writing is to communicate ideas. Therefore, you fail as a copywriter if your reader can’t understand your ideas.
This is all the more true in social media ad copies. People should instantly get your point when they read your ad. Even when aiming at a very specific audience, you still want newcomers to the niche to get what you’re talking about.
Keep your social media ad copy simple and direct. Cut out any ‘fluff’ or complex words – these only make your writing sound more amateur.
Write in a tone your audience resonates with
You’re targeting a certain type of person with social media ads. Make sure that you’re using a tone and personality they’ll resonate with.
Social media ads promoting bespoke tailors will use a different tone to those promoting a heavy metal music festival.
It’s important to sound human in your copy. No one is going to be convinced if they hear the voice of a group of middle-aged men in a boardroom when they read your social media ad copy. You need to make it resonate with your audience.
US-based men’s grooming brand Dollar Shave Club is a great example. Their competitors use slogans like ‘The best a man can get’, but the US newcomer chose a more provocative tone in their promotional video that resonates with their young male audience.
The video, which states “OUR RAZORS ARE F**KING GREAT”, has since been viewed more than 27 million times.
Dollar Shave Club went viral with this rather bold approach to advertising their razor blades
Of course, not all brands can get away with this kind of tone. Still, it’s a great example of how you can use data on your customer demographics to build a voice that works for your brand.
Use analytics to measure your audience
Your social media ads need to hang a carrot in front of the person reading them. Consider a user’s scrolling experience on Facebook: they scroll through the newsfeed and see something that makes them stop and look further.
They won’t bother looking deeper if you don’t give them a good reason to.
A brand selling designer boots might consider promoting a sale item or a discount code to encourage more people to click through.
This Rolex ad does a fantastic job in showing the brand’s connection to success and influence
Deliver on your CTA
Make sure you clearly divert attention to your call to action (CTA) and ensure that your landing page actually delivers on the promise. In short, do not post click-bait social media ads.
For example, if you’re promoting a seasonal sale, then make sure it’s still running for the duration of the Facebook ad campaign.
Use powerful words
Don’t be dull and generic, use powerful words to evoke an emotional response in your audience. Unfortunately, so many copywriters ignore this crucial step in creating engaging social media ad copy.
Replace unconvincing words with more powerful alternatives.
- Good = awesome
- Enjoy = indulge
- Elegant = discerning
- Cool = trend-setting
- Bad = abhorrent
- Comfortable = hygge
Use a synonym generator to find alternative words, but make sure you don’t sacrifice simplicity and clarity in the process. Your social media ad copies should be powerful, but they should still be simple and direct.
Thursday Boots have a simple and powerful ad message: their product is worth the money
Consider your intention to write better Facebook ads
Is your social media ad there to drive sales? Or is this a campaign to raise brand awareness? Tailor your Facebook ad copy to meet the aspirations of your campaign.
You might choose to evoke a sense of wonder when raising brand awareness, or thrill people with interesting stories about your brand. Alternatively, you could use powerful and evocative words to make your products appeal to people’s basic instincts.
Appeal to basic wants and needs
Consider the fundamental wants and needs of your audience before writing your Facebook ads. Consider this interesting exercise:
- Write down your target customer profiles
- List their wants and needs
- Ask why they want or need these things
- Take this answer and ask why they want or need that
- Repeat this at least three times
- You’re left with a primal need like to feel secure, to feel loved, or to attract a mate
Social belonging and trend following defines a lot of consumer purchases
Use this to guide your Facebook ad copy. For example, why are you selling running shoes? Because people want to run and look stylish while doing so.
- Why do people want to run? Because it keeps them in shape and it’s fun.
- Why do people want to keep in shape? Because they want to live a long and healthy life and they want to have a good physique.
- Why do people want to look good? To attract a mate, to impress colleagues and friends, and to feel confident about themselves.
- Why do people want to attract a mate? To feel loved and to complete basic biological and evolutionary practices like continuing the human species.
- Thus, we can conclude that people buy running shoes to ensure the continuation of the human race (sort of).
Take this with a pinch of salt (please!), but also do consider the wider context in which people desire consumer products to ensure your social media ad copy doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
Test your social media ad copies in organic posts
Try out your Facebook ad copy in organic posts to gauge the reaction it receives from people who already follow your brand on social media. Doing this allows you to measure insights on these posts and ensure that your Facebook ad copy resonates with your target audience (assuming they’re the same as your current audience).
- Measure impressions, engagement, and social signals
- Compare to previous posts
- Test across different platforms and see which one performs best
- Measure percentages, not just numbers
Your followers are useful to test subjects, but just remember not to bombard them.
Social media ads will perform differently on various social media platforms
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