Last updated on February 20th, 2025 at 01:12 am
I’ve got good news and bad news.
The bad news is that the old adage if you build it they will come, is a cold-hearted lie. As you probably have already found… people don’t just come flocking to buy your products and services because you ask nicely.
The good news is that copywriting — using the right words to sell — is a skill like any other. It can be taught, learned, and mastered.
In this guide, we’ve put together our top 3 copywriting tips specifically for crafting killer ad funnels.
Let’s dive in!
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1. Know Your Dream Customer
This has been said ad nauseam in online articles.
But it’s been listened to far less.
In fact, this is typically the part that copywriters or entrepreneurs skip over. Either because they think they already know full well who their dream customers are… or because (let’s be honest) the advice itself is a bit obscure.
How will knowing your dream customers help you write better ads?
Also, what does it mean to “know” your dream customers? At what point can you conclude you know them well enough to write great copy?
Reading this quote from one of the best copywriters of all time will help us glean some answers…
“Let’s get to the heart of the matter. The power, the force, the overwhelming urge to own that makes advertising work, comes from the market itself, and not from the copy. Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exists in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those already existing desires onto a particular product. This is the copy writer’s task: not to create this mass desire – but to channel and direct it.” – Eugene Schwartz.
This is fundamental.
You need to know who your dream customers are because you’re not creating desire, you’re channeling it.
And if you don’t know the forces already at work in the minds of your target market — the fears, desires, obstacles, hurdles, etc. — then you can’t put the puzzle together in a way that makes sense (and converts).
Think of Harry Potter.
He had to learn the proper spells and wand flicks before he could use the magic within him.
You have to learn the inner workings of your dream customers before crafting compelling copy.
See how we speak to our target market on our Traffic Secrets landing page…
So… how do you get to know your dream customers?
Call Them — You probably already have some customers who love what you sell. Call those people and talk to them. Get to know them. Ask what they love about your products or services, how they helped them, and why they joined in the first place.
Join Forums — There are online forums for every niche. Join a few and spend 15-30 minutes every day taking part in the conversations. You’ll learn a ton about your target market by doing this.
Follow in Their Footsteps — What blogs do your dream customers read? Which YouTube channels do they watch? What influencers do they follow? Consume the content they consume to get in the right mindset and get an idea of how other experts speak to them.
Researching your target market is an ongoing process (it never really ends), but you’re ready to write copy once you are able to think of your dream customers as a single person whom you know well.
Do you know what they are afraid of? What do they want out of life? What do they value? What do they think? Why do they want the things they want?
If you do, then you’re well on your way to writing better copy than 99% of copywriters.
2. Create Curiosity
What’s the last article you read that really kept your attention (besides this one :D)?
For my wife, it was probably some article about a new and interesting skincare routine, Taylor Swift, or Brandon Sanderson (her favorite fiction author).
The last thing I remember reading was an article with interesting tidbits about my favorite video game.
Why do we read the things we do?
Because we’re humans. And, despite stereotypes, humans are more curious than cats.
For copywriting, curiosity is extremely powerful.
You don’t want to tell people everything you’re going to give them right away.
Imagine, for instance, that I’m selling some stuff in the fitness industry. Is it more compelling if I say…
- Get a meal plan, fitness routine, & accountability!
Or if I say…
- Get as fit as you were in college in just 30 days… WITHOUT counting calories or spending hours at a gym.
The first one tells you what you’re going to get. But it’s boring and uninteresting. The market has heard that a thousand times from other advertisers.
The second one tells you the result you’ll get… and then tells you what it’s NOT going to require… but it doesn’t reveal the product or service details. And it’s more compelling because of that.
For hooking people with your copy, use curiosity. Here’s an example of an ad that was underperforming because of its lack of curiosity…
They changed the headline to the following and the results sky-rocketed.
Again, one tells you exactly what you’re going to get (boring) and one tells you the results of what you’re going to get (compelling).
Heck — you can sell entire systems just with curiosity.
On this long landing page, Bryan Ward sells his “GET SHIT DONE System” without ever revealing what the system itself is. The entire page dives deep into what the system isn’t, the results others have achieved, and what you can expect to achieve by purchasing.
That product sells (really well, I might add) for a whopping $348. And technically speaking, people who buy have no idea what the product actually is. They only know…
- What it’s NOT
- What it’s going to require of them
- Whether it was made for them or not
- The results they’ll get if they buy and participate
Every product is different. And it’s up to you to determine whether or not you need to dive into the nitty-gritty details.
But always remember, curiosity & results sell better than systems and features.
Burn this graphic into your mind so you don’t forget…
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3. Format Using Hook, Story, and Offer
Ever sit down to write copy and just… get stuck?
The blank page can be a real devil.
Where do you start? How do you get people reading and keep them reading while also talking about your offer?
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some sort of systematic way to write copy that worked every time?
Well, there is.
We call it “Hook, Story, Offer”. Check out the video below.
The idea is to follow these steps for every sales process (ad copy, landing page copy, video scripts, etc.)…
- Hook (Emotion) — It’d be nice if people gave you their attention for free, but they won’t. You’ve got to earn it. And you can earn it by hooking them with curiosity (see our last point in this article!). With your headline and featured image(s), the only goal is to capture your target market’s attention. As Joe Sugarman wrote, “All the elements in an advertisement are primarily designed to do one thing and one thing only: get you to read the first sentence of the copy.”
- Story (Emotion) — Capturing people’s attention might be nice, but it’s not enough. You’ve got to keep their attention. The easiest way to do that is by telling a compelling story. This story should be relatable to your dream customers, easy to read, and it should contain the traditional elements of a great story: character, conflict, adversity, triumph, and resolution. The story could be about you or it could be about one of your past customers who got staggering results. The key to a great story is to not rush too fast… but to also only include the elements that make the story better.
- Offer (Logic & Fear) — If you’ve done your job right, you’ll have hooked your reader and told them a compelling story. The story should seamlessly lead into the product or service that you’re going to offer (i.e. “And then Joe discovered [YOUR PRODUCT]…”). From there, it’s about building up your offer to be so good that people can’t resist. Discuss in vivid detail the results they can expect if they sign up, the bonuses they’ll receive, and the mind-blowing value. Then add urgency or scarcity to beat people’s natural urge to procrastinate.
Sorta make sense?
Let’s check out a real-world example of what this flow looks like.
This example is from Jacob McMillen, a coach for freelance SEO writers.
Here’s the ad he’s running…
Look at that first sentence.
“Wanna learn a secret to rank #1 on Google for super competitive search terms without doing (hardly) any SEO?”
This is a great way to start an ad: with a question.
Want to get cut without EVER touching foot in a gym again?
Want to get more customers without using ads, influencers, or sponsorships?
Want to build a 7-figure business in your sleep?
See how this works.
Those questions immediately tell your dream customers that this is something they’re going to want to pay attention to — that’s your hook.
From there, you want to dive right into the story (just like Jacob does). Here’s his ad copy that tells a story (it’s a little long… but it’s well worth reading).
- Wanna learn a secret to rank #1 on Google for super competitive search terms without doing (hardly) any SEO?
- Hi, I’m Jacob McMillen and I’m the #1 Ranked Copywriter on Google.
- No really, open a tab and type in “copywriter” and you’ll see my website jacobmcmillen.com at the top.
- Most people think this is because I’m “really, really good at SEO,” but the truth is, I’ve mostly ignored all that stuff.
- H1 Headers, Alt tags, backlinks, metadata, blah blah blah.
- So boring.
- Instead, I’ve focused on one simple thing no one talks about or teaches that has consistently let me (one guy with a computer) outrank billion-dollar companies with teams of content marketers for the #1 spot on Google.
- Companies like Forbes and 7Shifts for the term “restaurant growth”… companies like VWO and Optimizely for the term “a/b testing”…
- I even helped an entrepreneur named Sam Ovens outrank billion-dollar companies like Bain and McKinsey for the term “consulting.”
- And keep in mind…
- I’m a copywriter.
- Beating these teams of SEO experts.
- My copywriting students (I have over 30,000 now) started noticing and asking me if I could help them rank for their stuff too.
- And at first, I didn’t think it could be taught.
- I thought I was a special prodigy who’d discovered this new way to beat Google’s algorithm and rank for super competitive terms without doing the boring SEO stuff.
- But my students kept begging me to teach them how I was doing it.
- So, I dissected my entire process from start to finish and put it step by step on a slide deck.
- I invited my students to join me on a zoom call and over 40 of them showed up.
- I explained this one simple thing I’d discovered – “the secret” – that allowed me to rank at the top of Google in any niche, for any search term without doing hardly any SEO.
- After the call, I still wasn’t sure if my students could do it too.
- It’s simple, but “simple” doesn’t mean “easy”.
- About a month went by and then I started getting emails from my students telling me they were using exactly what I’d taught them to rank in the top 2 SERPs (search engine results) for their clients.
- One of my students, Tom Gil used what he’d learned on the call to get his own business ranked number 1 on Google for “real estate copywriter.” (Go open a tab and see for yourself.)
- My copywriting students weren’t only replicating my results, they were upselling their existing clients on SEO packages and doubling and tripling their income.
- Until this point, it hadn’t occurred to me to teach this to other writers.
- As the saying goes, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.”
- But this was my proof that what I was doing wasn’t “special” and anyone could get similar results to mine if they just learned this one simple thing.
- So, you’re probably wondering, what is it?
Notice how his story explains the success he stumbled upon? Also notice the empathy and humility, how it credits his achievement with luck rather than skill?
That’s really important.
If people feel like you’re just special (rather than your process being what’s special), they’re not going to buy. They have to believe that you (or whoever your story’s hero is) are just like them… and that they therefore can achieve the same results by using the same process.
Here’s how he transitions to his offer…
- What’s the secret?
- I was able to boil my entire system down to one single thing.
- T.O.P.
- T.O.P is what made me not only the highest RANKED copywriter on Google, but one of the highest PAID copywriters in the world.
- T.O.P is the key to ranking #1 on Google for super competitive terms and flooding any business with free traffic.
- Once you master this one thing, you’ll not only have the power to do this in any niche for any search term… you’ll have the confidence to pitch a higher rate and 10x your income.
- If you’re a freelance copywriter, content marketer, or SEO expert interested in learning the secret behind grabbing these super competitive rankings in search, then I made a video for you on the next page.
- No, it’s not a “live webinar” or a “just-in-time webinar” and it’s not “gonna be taken down soon”.
- It’s prerecorded, and you can watch it whenever you have time.
- You don’t even have to put in your name and email to watch it, just click the link and turn the sound on and I’ll:
- ✅ Introduce you to the most valuable type of copywriting you can learn. (This took me from $15 an article to $1500 an article to $5000 an article in just a few years.)
- ✅ Explain exactly what T.O.P is, and how you can use it to rank #1 on Google for super competitive terms without doing (hardly) any SEO.
- ✅ Show you how to use the most valuable type of copywriting you can learn and T.O.P to 10x your writing income over the next 9 months.
- ⚠️WARNING!
- You can only watch this video once.
- If you refresh the page or click away, it goes away forever. (Well 365 days because that’s the maximum I could set the cookie to.)
- It’s about 15 minutes long so if you don’t have 15 minutes to watch it right now, don’t click.
- This isn’t a “false scarcity or urgency” tactic, if you wanna learn my secret behind grabbing these #1 rankings on Google for hyper-competitive terms in any niche, then make sure you have 15 minutes of attention right now.
- If you don’t, save this post and watch it later when you have 15 minutes.
- Have a great day and I’ll see you on the other side!
- Jacob
- P.S. Sorry if you hate ads, I don’t care much for them either but I’m sick and tired of getting emails from my writing students telling me they paid thousands of dollars for a course they saw on a Facebook ad that didn’t get them any closer to their goals. This IS something that’ll help you get closer to your goals and it’s not thousands of dollars.
- P.P.S. Please don’t email me asking me to send you the video because you clicked away or refreshed the page and it wasn’t there. Again, you can only watch this video once so make sure you have 15 minutes and a pen and paper handy!
Compelling, right?
The person has nothing to lose and lots to gain… that’s how you want your dream customer to feel when they’re reading your ads. “Well shoot… I’ve just got to click.”
From there, Jacob’s ad guides the visitor to a landing page with nothing but a pre-recorded video that reveals his T.O.P. process — then he offers his product to help them get results faster and easier (only after he’s built tons of trust and rapport).
At ClickFunnels, we use the Hook, Story, Offer format every time that we write copy for ads, webinars, landing pages, and sales funnels.
It works extremely well.
Don’t believe us?
Try it for yourself.
Final Thoughts
To many sorry souls, copywriting feels like magic.
But it’s not.
It’s a skill that can be learned and mastered.
The three tips above are some of the most important (least talked about) lessons to improve your ad copywriting skills. Use them.
And keep going.
In the end, experience is the only real way to get better at anything.