How to write an advertising text: types, features, structure and examples

What is advertising text? What is the difference between an advertising text and a selling one? How to write an advertising text? What are the features of advertising text: types and structure? Examples of advertising texts and articles.

Let’s figure out what advertising text is and how it differs from other articles. Let’s show what elements the structure of the advertising text consists of. Let’s explain how to write each component.

What is advertising text

Any text will be advertising if it is intended to promote or present goods or services.

Promotion text examples:

1. The text of videos or advertisements on the radio.

2. Description on the product packaging.

3. The text of the flyer, booklet.

4. Text on the product card in the online store.

5. An informational article that naturally fits a story about the benefits of a product or service.

Types of advertising text

Selling advertising text – solves two problems at once. First, he presents a product, service, promotion, discount, a happy life after a purchase or order. Then he pushes the reader to action:

• buying a product, ordering a service;
• indicating contacts: email address or phone number;
• following a link;
• newsletter subscription;
• webinar recordings;
• joining a group;
• consultation appointments;
• visiting a particular place.

Informative advertising text also contains a description of the benefits of the product. But there is no call to action.

The image advertising text presents not the advantages of the offer, but the advantages of the company. Often, such advertising is resorted to to demonstrate the reliability of the company, the generosity of managers. Image advertising texts will be reports, bank balance presentations, stories about ongoing charitable programs.

In comparative advertising texts, the authors show the advantages of the promoted product or service against the background of similar offers. You can compare both with the offers of competitors and with your own previous opportunities.

Disclaimer ad copy fights people’s beliefs. If the material solves this problem, the person will be convinced that the fears are unfounded, the problem can be solved, and an old dream can be fulfilled. As a result, it will turn into a potential buyer. Examples of refuting texts will be the articles “Myths about weight loss”, “The truth about promotion on Instagram”.

Defensive advertising for businesses protects the brand’s reputation. Such materials are needed if fake products appeared on the market, buyers encountered them and were disappointed.

The promo article only mentions the product. From the text, people learn how to solve the problem with the help of a sentence. The effectiveness of advertising depends on the usefulness of the material. If users recognize the author as an expert, they will become customers.

Promotional articles and native advertising in PR articles

Promo articles and disclaimer texts are native ads. Native advertising is material that is perceived as part of the resource being viewed and is not identified by users as advertising. It is informational or educational.

Features of advertising texts

Let’s consider two differences between advertising and sales texts.

Not all people understand the difference. Even more confusing headlines similar to “How to write an advertising (selling) text.” As a result, text creation becomes more difficult.

The selling text contains a call to action, while in other types of advertising texts this call is not required.

Seventeen proven templates help in creating sales texts: AIDA, ACCA, PPPP, etc. You will read about them in the article “Sales texts: 17 classic templates with examples”. Each template gives strict requirements for parts of the text. For advertising texts of other types, only one structure has been created. Its elements are required for texts. However, the author will get more freedom.

Preparing to create an advertising article

Find out what problems prospective clients face, what they search for, how they think and talk.

Find out what type your target audience is. Homogeneous consists of people of the same gender, age, status, income level, place of residence, etc. Make a portrait of the ideal buyer. Fit the text to this collective image.

How the target audience is defined: “Target audience: analysis and client profile”.

A mixed audience consists of people who have little in common with each other. In this case, the advertising text should be averaged. Expert help is often required.

Determine the purpose of the promotional article. According to it, select a type from the list above.

Decide through which channel you will promote the advertising text: social networks, newspapers, magazines, blogs, television, etc. The position of the author, the amount of text, etc. depend on the channel. For example, a blog needs to show the uniqueness of the author, his experience and ideas.

Promotion text structure

Required elements of an advertising article include a title, subtitles, lead, body text, and conclusion.

The title reflects the essence of the material, attracts the target audience.

Subheadings keep users interested in the main text. They more accurately describe the content of the article.

Lead, i.e. the first paragraph, additionally pushes the user to read the entire text.

The body text gives the reader what the title promised.

The conclusion pushes for action, gives additional useful advice or emphasizes the main ideas. The conclusion can also be an advertising slogan.

How to create a title for your ad text

First, let’s define the tasks. It is necessary to convince the user in a short sentence that the offer, review, advice will be useful. At the same time, you need to stand out from the ocean of information: news, posts, articles, advertisements, and more.

Headings are divided into two groups: direct and indirect. The former directly address the target audience and report a benefit: a solution to a problem, the advantages of an offer, a discount, a promotion, etc. Indirect headings contain less information and more attempts to interest the audience. They may contain a question, a negative, a pun, a well-known phrase.

Learn more: How to write a good title for an article/post?

Now follow the instructions.

Look at the text from the user’s point of view. The headline should arouse the personal interest of the person and promise a solution to problems.

If you are not writing a promotional article, include the name of the product, service or brand in the title. Even if the user does not read the article, he will still see the title, remember it and associate it with the solution to the problem.

Use accurate data. Numbers, quotes from experts increase the degree of trust in the text. The user will treat the article with great attention.

Write in the target audience’s language. If you are writing text for the b2b sphere, use the words and expressions that professionals use. Then the material will seem more expert. If you work with the b2c sphere, bring the advertising text closer to colloquial speech.

Work dynamically. Build a phrase in the present or future tense.

Avoid complex constructions: participles and adverbs, introductory words, etc.

Be aware of Murphy’s law. In this case, it sounds like this: “If a word can be misunderstood, it will be misunderstood.” Be sure to check the title of the advertising text for ambiguity. Otherwise, you will get a negative reaction or scandal.

How to write subheadings in advertising text

There are three requirements for subheadings.

Insert keywords at the beginning of subheadings. Then search engines will notice the text faster.

Expand one thought in a paragraph, and show it in a subheading. Such an advertising article will appeal to both users and robots.

Write all subheadings in the same style. The same style will help users understand the structure of the article. As a result, more people will read the text to the end.

We offer several style options:

• list of rules, tips, myths. For example, let’s take the article “Moles: Myths and Truth”. The subtitles “Is it true: a lot of moles on the body is a sign of illness”, “Is it true: the appearance of a new mole means cancer”;
• similar subheadings with different beginnings. For example, an article about holidays in Prague would suit the subheadings “Hotels in Prague”, “Sights of Prague”, “Holidays in Prague”, etc.;
• calls to action. If you are writing an article about website promotion, subheadings can be: “Make a content plan”, “Order a website audit”, etc.;
• questions. Keep questions handy: How, Why, When, Why, Where, What, Who, How Much, Why.

How to write a lead for advertising text

A good lead reveals the topic of the article and proves the usefulness of the material.

For the first paragraph, news with numbers, a fact from experts, an appeal to a segment of the target audience, a short story about an offer or a company are suitable. Quotes from classics, anecdotes, the expressions “It’s not a secret for anyone”, “Everyone knows”, creative incomprehensible expressions are not suitable.

Remove water, unnecessary details, complex syntactic forms, unnecessary commas, too long sentences from the finished lead.

How to prepare the main part of the advertising text

Let’s consider the general rules.

Clearly place semantic accents. One advertising article solves one problem. If the task does not connect all the parts, the effectiveness of advertising will be minimal.

Competently typeset the text. After creating the text, make the article beautiful. Arrange paragraphs, highlight the heading and subheadings, insert illustrations, buttons and links.

How to end ad copy

We offer three options.

Write what benefits the information from the material will bring, how to use this information.

Ask the reader what they think of the article.

If you wrote a sales text, write a call to action in the conclusion: consultation, comment, share, download for free, etc.

Add the organization’s contacts after the promotional article, as shown below.

If you need help creating your ad copy, please contact Exiterra.com Digital Agency. Write to [email protected] or call 8-800-500-61-97. If you live in Moscow, call +7 495 790 54 90. Our content marketing department will be happy to help you!

Author: Exiterra.com Digital Agency