11 Mistakes of Ad Copy Writing
And how you can avoid them.
Like any other profession, there are certain mistakes in copy-writing that you need to distance yourself from. It might be difficult to break out of habit in the beginning. However, as you incorporate the changes & fix obsolete techniques that don’t work in the present-day market, you’ll see a positive change in your ad-copies.
Writing strictly from a marketing perspective is a lot more difficult than it sounds. You may be a good writer but, that in itself is insufficient to generate an impressive conversion rate. You need to adapt to the new field of marketing & adopt a writing style more suited to the world of advertising.
Efficient ad-copies always have a fixed number of words that they cannot exceed. So, the limited number of characters make it all the more important for you to select your words really carefully.
Even within these limited character texts, you are expected to come up with content that is both informative and engaging at the same time. This can become even more difficult when you need to keep your content simple & understandable to the general public.
As a professional copywriter, there is always room to grow with a scope of improvement. Here are a few mistakes that you should avoid-
1. Focusing on product features rather than benefits-
What makes a customer genuinely more interested in purchasing your product is the utility it has to offer them and the problems that can be solved with your product.
However, most copywriters go about this the wrong way by giving an in-depth talk about the product, rather than focus on its benefits.
More often than not, a customer couldn’t care less about the millions of features of your product. All they are looking for is something to fix their existing problems.
2. Writing wordy content-
As already discussed above, ad-copies are character limited. Therefore, it is necessary that every word you use is impactful and works well with the other words to paint the whole picture of the product you’re advertising.
3. Recondite words & a loquacious style-
Did you have to pause for a minute to read out those words? Did you look them up in a dictionary, or simply skipped over them? Wasn’t it annoying and didn’t the needless complexity ruin your flow of reading? That’s exactly how a potential customer feels when bumping into a lesser-known word or an unnecessarily complicated sentence. An average reader has an attention span less than that of a goldfish, so your ad-copies must show that your ads are worthy of their time & patience by avoiding paragraphs as unnecessarily long as this one.
4. Not understanding your audience’s enthusiasm level-
As harsh as it sounds, there is no customer out there who genuinely cares about your ad-copy. You could be Shakespeare or Tagore and they’d still quit reading the copy midway if they can’t relate to it.
The first emotion of any customer when bumping into an advertisement online is frustration. So, the first thing you need to do is show that your ad-copy (and your product) is worth their time by catering to their problems.
5. Keyword-stuffing-
We understand your eagerness to secure a higher ranking through Google’s SEOs. But that doesn’t justify cramming just one word every other line, even if it’s not relevant. What this does is make your ad-copy redundant, boring and is most likely to turn off readers before they even completely read it.
You need to find the perfect balance in sliding in relevant keywords in such a way that you don’t compromise on the overall quality of your copy.
6. Adopting slangs in place of real words-
Slangs can be considered as emojis of the written word. They may seem appealing to use but are counterproductive. Most slangs are open to interpretation and hence can cause confusion among the average reader.
As fun as slangs are on text, it is probably best to avoid them altogether while writing ad-copies.
7. Toggling between title-case & sentence-case-
There has been a growing trend lately where people capitalize random words mid-sentence for a more imposing effect.
While it may have seemed an effective technique in the past, it now looks unprofessional and untidy. Sentences like these bring down the overall aesthetics of your copies and make them look less appealing.
8. Neglecting the use of commas-
The key to a well-written ad-copy is impeccable grammar. Something as simple as neglecting the use of a comma can make the whole content look amateur. Proper punctuation and decent grammar are the prerequisites to any successful ad-copy.
9. Abusing exclamation marks-
Exclamation marks are used to draw attention to a sentence and for it to be conveyed in a more energetic & fun way. It’s okay to display your joy because we all like being happy and excited for no real reason!
What’s not okay, however, is to go overboard while displaying your enthusiasm, because then it gets annoying and sounds too preachy, like this!!!!!!
10. Including emojis-
We get that emojis are universally acknowledged and loved. But an ad-copy must primarily consist of words and just words. Emojis, however apt they may seem, should be limited to text messaging and your personal social media.
No copywriter worth his mettle has any emojis added to his portfolio.
11. Not proof-reading-
Nothing screams ‘amateur’ louder than an ad-copy laced with spelling errors, misplaced apostrophes and poor grammar. Errors of any sort can leave a very bad impression on a potential customer so it is extremely crucial for you to thoroughly filter out and fix any inadvertent mistakes that may have crept in.
To sum it up, it is only human to make mistakes. However, it is important to be aware of these ad-copy errors and shy away from them.
Copywriting is a profession that requires immense practice but, the fruits of success are sweeter than the sweat of labour. Every copy is a new opportunity to learn and improve yourself.
Best of luck!
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