7 Copywriting Tips To Help Your Instagram Ads & Captions

Last updated on July 29th, 2024 at 01:44 am

Instagram is a visual platform. 

But make no mistake – copywriting still matters. 

Here are seven tips that can help you write better Instagram ads and captions…

#1: Get Clear on the Purpose of Social Media Marketing

We have observed that entrepreneurs who are using social media marketing often lack clarity as to what the purpose of it is.

And you can’t possibly write copy that converts if you don’t know what the conversion goal is. What are you trying to achieve?

“Building a social media following”, “getting the word out there”, “increasing brand recognition”… 

That’s all great but these aren’t conversion goals because they aren’t focused on a specific next step that you want the potential customer to take. 

In our view, when it comes to social media marketing, your goal should be to drive traffic from the social media platform in question to your sales funnel so that you could then convert those potential customers into leads. 

You can do that by using social media to promote your lead magnet.

You want your dream customers to see your Instagram post, click on it, read the caption, and then go to the link in your bio and give you their email addresses in exchange for your lead magnet.

Then you can use email marketing to sell them your products and services.

In general, we advise against directly promoting your products and services on social media, as that tends to be less effective than promoting a lead magnet and then selling via email. 

One exception here is time-sensitive offers such as live events but even then you should be primarily relying on your email list to sell tickets, not on your social media following. 

#2: Conduct Extensive Customer Research

The most effective copywriters in the world are the ones that understand their target audience the best. 

It doesn’t matter if you are writing an Instagram caption or a long-form sales page, you need to understand your dream customers if you want it to convert!

That’s why you should learn as much as possible about them before you write a single word.

You can do that by figuring out where your dream customers hang out online and then observing the conversations happening there.

This could mean:

• Joining Facebook groups
• Subscribing to subreddits
• Registering to online forums
• Following hashtags
• Reading comment sections

…etc.

You also want to consume the content that your dream customers are consuming because that will help you understand: 

1. What messaging resonates with them
2. What is currently missing in your niche

This applies to content in general – anything from articles to podcasts to videos to books – and Instagram content in particular.

Ideally, you should also make an effort to talk to your dream customers one-on-one, whether online or in real life. 

People want to feel heard so you might be surprised how easy it can be to get someone to talk to you as long as you don’t try to sell anything to them.

Keep in mind that the more extensive your customer research, the better you will understand your target audience, and the easier it will be to write copy that converts. So don’t cut any corners here! 

#3: Decide on Your Brand Voice

Once you are done with customer research, you want to decide on your brand voice. 

You can think of it as the personality of your brand. How do you want your brand to come across?

This will depend on:

1. Your industry
2. Your target audience

Some industries have an extremely limited acceptable brand voice range – say, if you run a funeral home, then you have to have a solemn brand voice. There’s just no way around it.

Meanwhile, in other industries, the acceptable brand voice range is much wider – say, a restaurant can be goofy or it can be hip or it can be posh. 

So you need to know what the accepted range is and remain within it but then adjust your brand voice so that it would resonate with your target audience.

You know how with some people you just hit it off immediately and it feels like you are on the same frequency?

You want to have a brand voice that has the same effect on your dream customers.

#4: Provide Value With Every Single Post

It’s extremely important to differentiate between personal social media use and professional social media use.

On your personal Instagram, you can post whatever you want, whenever you feel like – though if your name is associated with your brand we recommend being mindful of what you share on your personal account. 

On your business Instagram, it’s not about what you want to post, it’s about consistently providing value to your followers. 

Each and every post should be designed to provide value and fall into one of these categories:

• Entertainment
• Inspiration
• Education
• Resources
• Announcements

Note that the latter should make up less than 20% of your Instagram content.

Don’t use announcements to promote regular products and services, reserve them for time-sensitive things like launches, sales, live events, etc.

Once you get into the mindset of providing value with each and every post, writing captions will become much easier because you will have intentionally chosen that image as opposed to just posting whatever.

#5: Use the “Hook, Story, Offer” Copywriting Framework

Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty of writing Instagram captions. 

We recommend using the “Hook, Story, Offer” copywriting framework:

Hook

The initial hook is the image itself which may or may not include text.

But when it comes to captions, you should use a headline as your hook.

We recommend starting your caption with an all-caps headline followed by a line break that separates it from the rest of the text.

That way, when someone clicks on an image, then looks at the caption, it’s pretty much guaranteed that they will read the entire headline.

This gives you an opportunity to pique their curiosity so that they would feel compelled to read the rest of the caption. 

Story

But how can you hold their attention once they start reading the caption? The best way to do that is to tell them an engaging story. 

Do you know how jokes are mini-stories that have a narrative arc despite only being a few sentences long? Your caption doesn’t have to be a joke, but it should be a mini-story.

Obviously, no one wants to read an entire novel on Instagram, so keep your story short – a wall of text might repel people who would otherwise be interested in what you have to say.

Offer

End your story with a call to action that encourages them to download your lead magnet.

You can’t add links to Instagram captions so pitch your lead magnet, then say “Link in bio!”

Here’s how our co-founder Russell Brunson explains this framework:

#6: Ask Questions to Create Engagement

We can probably safely assume that Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes engagement.

With that in mind, you might want to consider occasionally posting something designed to start a conversation in the comments.

The best way to do that is to use the Hook, Story, Offer framework but instead of encouraging people to get your lead magnet you should encourage them to answer a question.

Ideally, you want to reply to every single comment, as that will make those commenters more likely to comment under your future posts.

#7: Don’t be Afraid to Polarize!

Look:

We all know that content that generates outrage gets the most attention on social media. 

However, building a following by posting hot takes is a risky strategy, as it can lead to getting banned from Instagram altogether.

Not to mention that birds of a feather flock together – endlessly stirring up drama, spreading negativity, and being offensive probably won’t attract people that you would want to work with anyway.

However, being milquetoast won’t do you much good either because if you try to appeal to everyone, you will end up appealing to no one. So what should you do?

We recommend staying out of universally controversial topics such as politics – it’s much better to question the prevailing wisdom in your niche instead.

Say, if you have a business that revolves around calisthenics, you could post images with hooks along the lines of “you don’t need a gym to get fit”.

Add a caption that makes arguments in favor of calisthenics and against weightlifting.

End with a call to action encouraging people to share their own thoughts in the comments. 

If you have a sizable following of fitness aficionados, then this is pretty much guaranteed to start a heated discussion given that calisthenics vs. weightlifting seems to be one of those “endless debate” topics in the fitness industry. 

See how you can generate engagement without talking politics, being offensive, or getting involved in e-drama?

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