Hi there, it’s Matthew Larsen from Ultra Growth Marketing, and today, we are going to talk about how to write good ad copy for your eCommerce Store.
About This Blog Post
Advertising is likely the most important part of eCommerce marketing. If you can advertise and acquire customers profitably, nothing else really matters. You are good to go.
This email will go over how to write advertising copy, which is the text that goes along with your ad. In combination with the creative (photo, video, etc.), the advertising copy is the most important part of an ad and is what will get people to “click-through” to your website.
Important Links
Join My eCommerce Facebook Group
Buy My eCommerce Marketing Book
The Structure
Good advertising copy follows a structure. This structure is proven and easy to follow. There are different pieces and components and you can essentially create each component one at a time and combine them all together at the end to get your full ad copy.
I will go over the structure here, and then write a short paragraph about each, and why they are important. This is the structure, in the proper sequence:
1. First line of ad copy, which we will refer to as “the hook.”
2. Bullet points, which describe the key benefits and why the customer should buy.
3. The offer, which gives the customer incentive to click-through to your website and buy.
4. The “juice,” which takes the form of bonuses, urgency, scarcity, etc., to “light a fire” and cause the customer to take action.
5. The call-to-action, which quite literally “calls the customer to action.”
These are the five main parts that make up a good ad. Let’s talk a little bit about them individually. When creating an ad, create all five separately and then splice them together at the end to create your full ad copy.
The Hook
The first line of ad copy, which we will refer to as the hook is the most important part of the ad copy. This is because the hook is the first thing that the viewer will see. In many ways, your hook determines whether or not they will even read the rest of the ad.
On average, 80% of people won’t even read past the hook, so it is very important that you use it effectively and that you use it to “identify” with your customer.
Tip: If you can’t think of a good hook, ask a question.
If you have seen one of my advertisements (which you likely have) that give away my free book, my highest-performing hook is:
“Are you a Shopify Store owner? Get your free eCommerce Marketing eBook in less than 20 seconds”
This has been an effective hook for me because it resonates with who I am trying to reach, which is people who operate a Shopify Store. By asking a question at the start, which is quite literally, “are you a Shopify Store owner?” it will cause people who do indeed use Shopify to stop for a split second and think to themselves, “yes, I am.”
Then, I introduce the reason they should continue reading the rest of the ad, which is to get a free eCommerce Marketing eBook. I also add, “in 20 seconds or less” to let them know it is easy enough that they take action and just do it.
Try and apply the same kind of setup to your own ads. Reel them in with a question, and then introduce the reason that they should even care about you.
**It is an important note that on many advertising platforms such as Facebook, there is a “Read More” button that reveals the rest of the ad copy. It is very important that your hook is short enough that it doesn’t get cut off by this “Read More” button. People should be able to read your entire hook without pressing that button.
Bullet Points
The second part of ad copy is bullet points. With these bullet points, you want to focus on the benefits and the result they will get. Paint a picture in their mind as to what will happen if they buy your product. What separates you from your competitors? What is the value in buying from you? How will it improve their life?
These are things you need to convey in your bullet points. Try to include three to five bullet points in your ad, because people would rather read those than a huge wall of text.
The Offer
One of the most important things in an entire ad is the offer. This is quite simply, what you are offering to sell to them. People cannot buy unless presented with an offer, and people often forget this fact. What are you selling, and what are you offering them? Are you giving a discount code or free shipping? What are the special promotions right now? What can you add to get them to click-through to your website?
The “Juice”
The purpose of “the Juice” is to add something that pushes someone over the top to click-through to your website. Let’s say you have an ad that presents a really good offer, “the juice” could be something along the lines of “the offer ends Sunday at midnight.” If it is Friday, or Saturday, this will push people over the top because the offer ends soon. This will increase the number of peoplep that click through to your website, which is what we want.
It is important that when you add “the juice” that you are actually serious, or you will lose credibility and it will lose its effectiveness. If you say “the offer ends Sunday at midnight,” you better mean it. It better be taken down Sunday at midnight or this tactic won’t work for you.
The Juice could be anything that pushes people over the top such as bonuses, urgency, scarcity, etc.
Some other examples are:
1. Only 50 left
2. Get X product for free when you buy Y product.
3. Get these four bonuses when you buy.
The Call-to-Action
The call-to-action is the final part of good ad copy. This is where you “call them to action” which means to click-through to your website.
When you are creating a call-to-action, it is improtant that you center it around the main benefit(s) of purchasing your product.
If you sold golf clubs for example, instead of your call-to-action being “go to www.yourwebsite.com to buy golf clubs,” the call-to-action should be something more like “if you want to add ten yards to your drive, go to www.yourwebsite.com and use the promo code CODE for 10% off.” This is much more powerful and much more compelling than the first call-to-action and will lead to a better result.
Summary
Ad copy is a crucial part of your business. I have given you a formula for writing good ad copy for platforms such as Facebook. The most important thing for you to do is to write a lot of ad copy. Do it frequently. Don’t just write one version and then use that in your ads. Write some new copy every day, or every couple of days. You never know what people will respond to, and you should always have new versions and angles for your ad copy. Mix them into your campaigns, and always be striving for better results.
This is how to write good ad copy for your eCommerce Store. Take what you have learned here and put it into practice. The more you do it, the better you will become, and the more sales you will make.
Email Me With Any Questions
Thanks, and if you need anything, email me at matt@ultragrowthmarketing.com
-Matthew Larsen
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