Build an ad around one clear offer, backed by proof people will believe.
Before you write a word of ad copy, decide three things: one offer, one proof and one action. Paid ads punish crowded messages more than most writing does, because you pay for each moment of attention and that attention is short.
Farah runs a modest workwear business in Singapore (she and the other people here are examples). She once ran an ad that announced a new collection, sizes XS to 3XL, free delivery, the fabric, a discount and a request to follow her page, and it closed with several calls to action. Everything in it was true. People scrolling past forgot it anyway, because an ad that lists many true things gives them nothing to hold on to. Lesson 4.4 of Content and copywriting that people read, "Ad copy: the structure in a few lines", tells what happened next. The fix is to settle the offer, the proof and the action first, and write the copy around them.
The offer is the specific thing you ask someone to take up, in this ad, now. It is narrower than the business. Farah sells workwear, but her possible offers include breathable work blouses for women who commute in Singapore heat, a first-week-at-work outfit set, and free exchanges if the size is wrong.
Use one offer per ad. If you have three good offers, run three ads. That also gives you material to test in module nine, where separate ads with different offers are compared.
To choose, pick the offer that best answers what the buyer wants at the moment they see the ad. For someone searching, the offer comes from their search. For someone scrolling, it comes from the problem or result your hook opened with, which lesson 5.1 covered.
Test the offer by saying it in one short sentence that someone outside your business would understand. If it takes two sentences, you probably have two offers, and each one should get its own ad.
An offer on its own is a claim. Proof is what makes someone believe it. An ad has room for one piece of proof, so pick the strongest you have for that particular offer. Proof usually takes one of four forms:
A number you can stand behind, such as the orders you fulfilled last year taken from your own records, or a maximum class size of at most six children. A review or a customer's own words, used with their permission. A demonstration, such as water beading on a fabric, or a child working through a problem. A recognisable customer, such as a school or company that uses your service, where that customer has agreed to be named.
Proof works when it is specific enough to check. "Our customers love us" fails that test, since nobody can check it. A customer's sentence about the blouse lasting through a full day and a crowded train home, signed with her first name, passes it. Lesson 3.2 of Content and copywriting that people read, "Specific claims and proof readers can check", goes into this in more depth.
For the breathable blouse offer, Farah's strongest proof is a demonstration: a short clip of a woman stepping off a packed train, then sitting down to a meeting with no visible sweat marks. She already has that video, so she needs no other proof for this ad.
The call to action tells people what to do next. It should match the campaign objective you chose in lesson 2.1, "The objective tells the platform what to find". With a purchases objective, the action is buy or shop. With a leads objective, it is book, get a quote or sign up. With a messages objective, it is to message you.
When the action and the objective disagree, both suffer. A "learn more" button on a campaign optimising for purchases attracts browsers, and the platform finds fewer buyers.
Most ad tools let you choose a button label from a list. Choose the one closest to what actually happens after the click. If that still isn't obvious, say it in the copy. Priya runs tuition classes for children, and "Book a free trial class, no payment needed" tells a parent far more than "sign up" would.
The pull to overclaim is strong in ads, and the consequences are real. Under Meta's advertising standards, if an ad is found to break the rules at any point in the review process, it is rejected, and the Business Account or its assets may be restricted. Read Meta's Advertising Standards on its Transparency Center for what counts as a violation. In Singapore, the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice, published by the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS), expects ads to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. The Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act also deals with false or misleading claims made to consumers. Financial products have further rules, covered in lesson 9.3, "Ad policies for financial products and services".
Overclaiming costs you twice. The ad may be rejected, and if it does run, the people who believed it arrive expecting something you cannot give them.
Priya cannot promise that every child's grade will improve. She can truthfully say that her classes follow the P5 syllabus, that each class has at most six children, and that there is a free trial so parents can see for themselves. Each of those claims is true and specific, and each is enough to make a parent curious.
When you plan your own ad, work in this order. Pick one offer that answers what the buyer wants when they see the ad, and check that it fits in one short sentence. Pick the single strongest proof you can check. Pick the call to action and button label that match your objective, and say what happens after the click if it isn't obvious. Then check every claim against what you can actually deliver.
Choose one product or service. In the activity below you will write its single offer, its single proof and its single action, which your ads in lesson 5.5 will be built on.
Pick one product and write down the one offer, the one proof and the one action your ads will use.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).