How much are words worth?

The next time a client balks at your copywriting budget, tell them this

If you’re a writer, you probably pay more attention to advertising copy than the average person, and you may be a better judge, but the average person notices copy, too.

And they judge.

They might have visceral or emotional reactions that don’t even register at the time.

If there’s enough substance to fuel debate, people might actually talk. They’ll verbalize their reactions to copy like people sometimes discuss controversial architecture. In my car, billboards are a frequent topic of discussion.

Me: “Did you see that billboard?”

Captive victim: “The one with the duck?”

Me: “No, the food delivery app.”

Captive victim: “No.”

Me: “What do you think ‘Easy to dream it, easy to order it’ means’? Do you dream about ordering food?”

(Captive victim cranes head, but the sign is already gone.)

So words matter.

Just how much they matter, and how much they’re worth to companies, is something that’s notoriously hard to quantify — until we’re driving down the road, or browsing the web, and we see copy that either dazzles us or falls flat on its face.

For whatever reason, the second variety is always more memorable.

At Storyline Creatives, an agency I used to write, we even had a name for misfiring copy — “ad fails” — with its own Slack channel. (No, we’re not mean, we’re just drawn to weird copy like moths to flames.)

Ad fails can be big or small.

Sometimes they’re huge.

Like billboards.

The average reader drives by a billboard, sees words that make no sense, and they keep driving.

They might not say anything, but that doesn’t mean the copy that just brushed against their eyeballs had no effect. In fact, processing ineffective copy is pretty complicated because your brain is freaking out. It’s saying: “Who were those words for? What are they for? What do they say about the brand, service or offer I just saw? What do they want me to do? Help me!”

When words aren’t working, those questions don’t get answered.

When the brain gets no answers, companies look foolish, inept, and without vision.

Which is exactly what you should, in some shape or form, be telling the next client that comes to you asking why a few words cost as much as they do.