Ad Copy & Paid Media prompts

Write search ads.

PRODUCT/SERVICE: [WHAT IT IS]
TARGET KEYWORDS: [THE KEYWORDS THIS AD GROUP TARGETS]
WHAT THE SEARCHER WANTS: [THEIR SITUATION]
LANDING PAGE: [WHAT IS ON IT, AND THE ONE ACTION]
DIFFERENTIATOR: [WHY YOU OVER COMPETITORS]
PRICE OR OFFER: [IF YOU CAN STATE IT]
COMPETITORS' ADS: [PASTE, if you have them]
PLATFORM: [Google Ads / Bing / other]

Produce:

1. HEADLINES - 12 options, each under 30 characters (state the count). Cover: the keyword match, the outcome, the differentiator, the offer, the objection handler, and the qualifier (which filters out the wrong clicks).

2. DESCRIPTIONS - 4 options, each under 90 characters. Each must add information, not restate a headline.

3. THE KEYWORD MATCH CHECK - for each target keyword, which headline matches it closely. Ad relevance depends on the searcher seeing their own words. Flag any keyword with no close headline.

4. THE QUALIFIER - at least one headline or description element that deters the wrong clicks: price, minimum size, geography, or who it is not for. Paid search is wasted mostly on clicks that could never convert.

5. THE LANDING PAGE MATCH - does the ad promise what the page delivers? Flag any mismatch. A high-CTR ad pointing at a page that does not deliver costs money and quality score.

6. ASSETS/EXTENSIONS - sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets appropriate to this offer.

7. AGAINST COMPETITORS - if I gave you their ads, where mine differentiates and where I am saying the same thing as everyone.

Rules:
- No 'best', 'leading', 'world-class', or superlatives you cannot substantiate
- No exclamation marks in every line
- Never promise something the landing page does not deliver
- If you cannot state a price, do not imply one
- Include the keyword naturally; do not stuff it into every headline

Write social ads.

PRODUCT: [WHAT IT IS]
PLATFORM: [Meta / Instagram / LinkedIn / TikTok / X]
AUDIENCE: [WHO YOU ARE TARGETING AND WHAT THEY ARE DOING WHEN THEY SEE THIS]
THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES: [PAIN POINT]
AWARENESS LEVEL: [they don't know they have the problem / know the problem, not the solution / comparing solutions / know you]
CREATIVE FORMAT: [image / video / carousel]
OFFER: [WHAT THEY GET]
LANDING PAGE: [WHERE THEY GO]

Produce:

1. THE AWARENESS-MATCHED APPROACH - this is the most important decision. Someone who does not know they have the problem needs a completely different ad from someone comparing vendors. State what this awareness level requires and what it rules out.

2. FIVE ADS, each with: the hook (first line), the body, the call to action, and a creative direction note.
   Vary the angle: the problem stated in their words, the specific outcome, the objection handled upfront, the contrast between before and after, and the unexpected observation.

3. THE FIRST LINE ANALYSIS - for each, why it would stop a scroll. The first line is 90% of the job; everything after it is read by people who already decided to stop.

4. PLATFORM FIT - what this platform's audience and format require. LinkedIn tolerates length and professional framing; TikTok needs the hook in the visual; Meta truncates after a couple of lines.

5. THE TRUTH CHECK - anything in these ads that overstates. Social ads that overpromise convert badly and generate refunds and complaints.

6. WHAT NOT TO USE - the tired patterns in this category that audiences have learned to ignore.

Rules:
- No engagement bait, no 'comment YES below', no fake questions
- No manufactured urgency or scarcity that is not real
- No before/after claims you cannot substantiate
- Write like a person, not a brand
- The hook must be specific. 'Struggling with X?' is the most ignored opening in advertising.

My ads are not converting. Help me find where the problem is.

PLATFORM: [WHERE]
SPEND: [AMOUNT AND PERIOD]
METRICS: [IMPRESSIONS, CLICKS, CTR, CPC, LANDING PAGE VIEWS, CONVERSIONS, CPA]
WHAT I AM SELLING: [PRODUCT AND PRICE]
TARGETING: [WHO YOU ARE TARGETING AND HOW]
AD COPY: [PASTE]
LANDING PAGE: [DESCRIBE OR PASTE]
CONVERSION ACTION: [WHAT COUNTS AS A CONVERSION]

Work through the funnel in order. The stage where the drop-off is abnormal is where the problem is; everything downstream of a broken stage is irrelevant.

1. IMPRESSIONS - is it being served at all? If delivery is limited, the problem is bid, budget, audience size or policy, not creative.

2. IMPRESSIONS → CLICKS (CTR) - if CTR is low, the problem is the ad or the targeting. Low CTR with correct targeting means the creative or the offer. Say what a reasonable CTR looks like for this platform and format, with the caveat that benchmarks vary widely.

3. CLICKS → LANDING PAGE VIEWS - a gap here is technical: slow page, broken tracking, or a mismatch between the click and the destination. Frequently overlooked.

4. LANDING PAGE → CONVERSION - if CTR is fine and conversion is not, the ad is working and the page or the offer is not. Assess: does the page deliver what the ad promised, is the action clear and singular, is there friction, is the price a surprise?

5. THE MESSAGE MATCH - compare the ad copy to the landing page headline. A mismatch here is the most common cause of good CTR and bad conversion.

6. THE OFFER - is the problem that people do not want this at this price? No campaign optimisation fixes a weak offer. Be willing to say this.

7. THE TRACKING - before concluding anything, is conversion tracking actually working? Verify this first if conversions are zero; a broken pixel looks exactly like a failing campaign.

8. THE VOLUME QUESTION - do I have enough data to conclude anything? Say what sample size would be needed to distinguish a real problem from noise at my conversion rate.

End with: THE STAGE WHERE THE PROBLEM IS, and the one thing to change.

Write a landing page.

WHAT I AM SELLING: [PRODUCT/SERVICE AND PRICE]
TRAFFIC SOURCE: [WHERE VISITORS COME FROM]
THE AD OR LINK THEY CLICKED: [PASTE THE COPY]
AUDIENCE: [WHO, AND WHAT THEY KNOW ALREADY]
THE ONE ACTION: [WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO]
OBJECTIONS: [WHY THEY WOULD NOT DO IT]
PROOF AVAILABLE: [TESTIMONIALS, NUMBERS, CASE STUDIES, GUARANTEES]
COMPETITORS: [WHO ELSE THEY ARE CONSIDERING]

Structure:

1. HEADLINE - must continue the ad's promise using similar language. Message match is the highest-leverage element on the page. State explicitly how it echoes the ad.
2. SUBHEAD - who it is for and the outcome, specifically.
3. THE PROOF ABOVE THE FOLD - one credibility element visible without scrolling.
4. WHAT IT IS - plainly, in one short paragraph. Visitors frequently cannot tell what is being sold, which is the most common landing page failure.
5. THE OUTCOME - what changes for them. Benefits tied to specifics, not adjectives.
6. HOW IT WORKS - three steps. Reduces the fear of an unknown process.
7. OBJECTION HANDLING - each objection I listed, addressed directly. Not in an FAQ at the bottom; at the point the reader would think it.
8. PROOF - specific testimonials with names and context, numbers with baselines, or a guarantee.
9. PRICE - state it. Hiding the price is the largest single source of wasted paid traffic. If you cannot state it, say why and give a range or a starting point.
10. THE CALL TO ACTION - one action, repeated. Button text that describes what happens, not 'Submit'.
11. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT - after they click, what do they get and when.

Rules:
- One action per page. Every additional option reduces conversion.
- No navigation menu on a paid landing page
- Do not ask for information you do not need. Each form field costs conversions.
- No stock photos of people in meetings
- No fabricated testimonials or invented numbers. Use only the proof I gave you; mark [NEED PROOF] otherwise.

Then: THE FIRST THING A VISITOR WILL WONDER, and whether the page answers it above the fold.

Help me design an A/B test.

WHAT I WANT TO TEST: [YOUR IDEA]
THE PAGE OR AD: [DESCRIBE OR PASTE]
CURRENT PERFORMANCE: [CONVERSION RATE AND VOLUME]
TRAFFIC: [VISITORS OR IMPRESSIONS PER WEEK]
WHAT I THINK WILL HAPPEN: [YOUR HYPOTHESIS]

Produce:

1. THE SAMPLE SIZE REALITY CHECK - first, before anything else. Given my conversion rate and traffic, how long would it take to detect a meaningful difference? Do the arithmetic and show it. If the answer is months, say so plainly - testing a button colour on 200 visitors a week is not testing anything, and most small-site A/B tests are statistically meaningless. This may be the whole answer.

2. IS THIS WORTH TESTING - small changes need enormous traffic to detect. Big changes can be detected with modest traffic. Assess my idea: is the expected effect large enough to measure at my volume? If not, recommend testing something bigger instead.

3. THE HYPOTHESIS - restated properly: 'Changing X to Y will increase Z because [reason]'. A test without a reason teaches you nothing even when it wins.

4. WHAT TO TEST INSTEAD, if my idea is too small: the headline, the offer, the price presentation, the form length, or the page structure. These move numbers; button colours do not.

5. THE TEST DESIGN - variant A, variant B, what changes (exactly one thing, or a coherent set if testing a whole approach), the primary metric, and the guardrail metrics that must not get worse.

6. THE RULES - decided in advance: minimum runtime (at least one full business cycle, usually two weeks, to avoid day-of-week effects), the sample size to reach, and the commitment not to stop early when it looks good. Stopping early on a favourable result is the most common way A/B tests produce false conclusions.

7. WHAT COULD INVALIDATE IT - traffic source changes, seasonality, a promotion running concurrently, or another test overlapping.

8. WHAT TO DO WITH THE RESULT - including the likely outcome of no significant difference, which is the most common result and is still information.

Be honest about statistics. Most A/B tests run by small sites are underpowered and their results are noise.

Plan ad targeting.

PLATFORM: [WHERE]
PRODUCT: [WHAT AND PRICE]
WHO BUYS IT TODAY: [YOUR ACTUAL CUSTOMERS - role, situation, trigger]
WHAT TRIGGERS A PURCHASE: [THE EVENT OR SITUATION THAT MAKES THEM BUY]
BUDGET: [AMOUNT AND PERIOD]
DATA I HAVE: [customer list / website traffic / past campaign data / nothing]

Produce:

1. THE TRIGGER, NOT THE DEMOGRAPHIC - who buys is less useful than when they buy. From what I told you, what situation makes someone need this? Targeting the situation beats targeting the persona. State the trigger explicitly.

2. AUDIENCE TIERS by expected performance:
   - WARMEST: your own data - customer lists, site visitors, engaged social audiences. Always start here; it is the cheapest conversion available and most advertisers skip straight to cold traffic.
   - LOOKALIKE/SIMILAR: built from your best customers, not all customers. Say which seed to use.
   - INTEREST AND BEHAVIOUR: for cold reach. Be specific about which signals actually indicate the trigger rather than the topic.
   - BROAD: where the platform's algorithm does the targeting. Say when this outperforms manual targeting and when it does not.

3. EXCLUSIONS - the most neglected part. Exclude: existing customers (unless upselling), recent converters, current job applicants, competitors, and audiences that historically click and never buy. Each exclusion saves budget directly.

4. BUDGET ALLOCATION across tiers, given my budget. If the budget is small, concentrate it - splitting a small budget across five audiences means none of them gets enough data to optimise.

5. THE LEARNING PROBLEM - platforms need a minimum number of conversions to optimise. Given my budget and likely CPA, will any audience reach that? If not, say what to do instead: optimise for an earlier funnel event, or consolidate.

6. THE MESSAGE PER AUDIENCE - each tier needs different copy. A retargeting ad and a cold ad should not say the same thing.

7. WHAT I AM LIKELY TO GET WRONG - the common targeting mistake for this kind of product.

Do not recommend targeting by demographics alone unless the product genuinely maps to one.

Write retargeting ads.

PRODUCT: [WHAT IT IS AND PRICE]
WHAT THEY DID: [visited a page / added to cart / started a form / read a blog post / watched a video]
HOW LONG AGO: [TIMEFRAME]
WHY THEY PROBABLY DID NOT CONVERT: [YOUR BEST GUESS - price, uncertainty, not ready, comparing, distracted]
PLATFORM: [WHERE]
WHAT YOU CAN OFFER: [DISCOUNT, GUARANTEE, TRIAL, MORE INFORMATION, or 'nothing extra']

Produce:

1. THE SEGMENT LOGIC - people who abandoned a cart need a different ad from people who read one blog post. Map each behaviour to the message it warrants, and say which of my segments are worth separating and which are too small to bother with.

2. THE ADS - for each segment, three options addressing a different reason for not converting:
   - The uncertainty: proof, guarantee, or a specific answer to the likely objection
   - The distraction: a simple reminder with the value restated. Many non-conversions are not objections at all; someone got interrupted.
   - The price: only if you have a genuine offer. Never invent urgency.

3. FREQUENCY AND DURATION - how long to retarget and how often to show. Say what the limit should be for this product, and set it. Following someone for 90 days is the fastest way to make a brand disliked.

4. THE EXCLUSION RULES - stop showing to: people who converted, people who have seen it too many times, and people past the natural decision window for this purchase.

5. WHAT NOT TO DO:
   - Do not reference their specific browsing behaviour explicitly. 'Still thinking about the blue one?' reads as surveillance.
   - No countdown timers on offers that are not actually ending
   - No manufactured stock scarcity
   - Do not use a discount as the first retargeting message. It trains people to abandon carts, and it gives away margin to people who would have bought anyway.

6. THE HONEST QUESTION - given my guess at why they did not convert, is retargeting the right answer, or is the problem upstream in the page or the offer? Retargeting cannot fix a page that does not convert.