Advertising Google Ads, Meta, banners, print

Ad copywriting services

Ad copy is a few lines that stop a person in search results, in a feed or on a roadside, and give them a reason to take the next step. We write it on commission: ads for Google Ads and Meta, banners, outdoor and print. For each format we deliver several variants that fit the limits the platform sets, so you have something to choose from and something to test.

Examples with notes

A monitor showing ad campaign metrics: clicks, impressions and spend

01 Definition

What ad copy is and who writes it

Ad copy is a message that is paid for by placement: an ad in search results, a post in a feed, a line on a billboard, a flyer in a package. Its job is narrower than that of an article or a web page: to inform, interest and lead to an action that can be measured as a click, a call or a visit.

An advertising copywriter is a specialist who writes such texts within a platform's limits and for a specific audience. They work with the product, the offer and what the buyer is looking for, not with "pretty words". Someone else sets up the campaign, the bids and the audiences: a marketer or a media buyer.

Advertising does several jobs: it announces a product or a sale, motivates action, leads to a purchase and keeps the brand familiar. The job decides the type of text: product ads, service ads, or image ads, where what is sold is not a purchase but an attitude toward the company.

Roholeva is a copywriting, promotion and web development studio. For advertising, that means the ad text, the page the click lands on and the campaign setup can all be done in one team. Then the promise in the ad matches the first screen of the site.

02 Formats

The advertising copy we write

Every platform has its own frame. In one it is 30 characters for a headline, in another a few seconds while a car drives past a billboard. So work on ad copy starts with the question of where exactly it will be seen.

01Google Ads text ads30 + 90 charactersA responsive search ad takes up to 15 headlines of 30 characters and up to 4 descriptions of 90. We write the full set so that any two headlines can end up side by side without repeating each other.
02Facebook and Instagram ads3–5 variantsPrimary text, headline and link description. A feed shows only the beginning, and the rest hides behind "See more", so the main point sits in the first sentence. We write variants for different audiences: people who don't know you and people who have already visited the site.
03Banner copyheadline and buttonDisplay ads and banners on websites. A 300 × 250 format holds a headline, one clarification and a button label. We write to the sizes your designer names and check that the text reads in the smallest one.
04Telegram adsup to 160 charactersA short post in channels: one fact, one benefit, a button. There is no room for a lead-in, so we write several variants and compare which draws more clicks.
05Outdoor advertisingup to 7 wordsBillboards, bus shelters, transit ads. A driver sees a billboard for a few seconds, so the old rule applies: seven words at most and one idea. At a bus stop or on a train a person stands still, and there the text can run longer.
06Printby volumeFlyers, brochures, catalogs, package inserts, menus. A printed run can't be fixed, so before printing we ask to see the finished layout: quotation marks, line breaks and whole lines often go missing in typesetting.
07Teasers, announcements and press releasesby volumeShort messages for subscribers, partners and the media: a sale announcement, a product launch, an event. Presentation matters here: the news in the first sentence, the price and the date after it.

Scripts for video ads and radio spots have their own pages: video scripts and audio ad copy. We develop a campaign slogan separately: slogans and taglines.

03 Limits

Ad copy length: platform limits in one table

Limits change, so before launch we check them against the current requirements in the ad account. The table shows the orders of magnitude we start from.

Platform	What we write	Field size	What to watch
Google Ads, search (RSA)	up to 15 headlines and up to 4 descriptions	30 and 90 characters	Headlines combine in any order, so each must read on its own
Google Ads, Performance Max	headlines, long headlines, descriptions	30, 90 and 90 characters	Texts appear alongside images and video, so the tone has to match
Facebook and Instagram	primary text, headline, description	about 125 characters before "See more"	The first sentence carries the point; the headline is short
Telegram Ads	ad text and a button	up to 160 characters	One fact, one action
Banner	headline, clarification, button	depends on the size	We test legibility in the smallest format
Billboard, bus shelter	a single phrase	up to 7 words	No phone number or long address: a hint of where to turn

04 Google Ads

Google Ads copy: headlines, descriptions and RSAs

A responsive search ad (RSA) is a format where you upload a pool of headlines and descriptions and Google combines them for each search. So the job is not to write one ad but a set in which every element works alone.

The working principle of our pool: a few headlines with the buyer's query (the service, the city), a few with benefits (price, speed, warranty), a few with a call to act (book, get a quote, schedule). Descriptions add the details: terms, proof, what happens after the click.

A sample pool for an appliance repair service

Query: "Washing machine repair", "Washer repair in Austin", "Technician at your door".
Benefit: "Technician comes today", "Diagnosis $39", "6-month warranty".
Action: "Book a technician", "Schedule a repair".
Description: "We repair at home in one visit. Parts for Bosch, LG and Samsung come with the technician."

Every promise in the pool, such as "today" or "$39", we confirm with you: if it isn't on the landing page, the person will be let down after the click. All examples here are invented for demonstration.

How many headlines you need

The minimum the account accepts is three headlines and two descriptions, but the system has nothing to choose from in a set like that. For each ad group we write the full pool, and after launch we watch which elements stay in rotation. Whether an ad fits the page it leads to is a separate check: see the six checks below.

05 Breakdown

Ad copy examples with notes

Four ads before and after the editor: search, a feed, a billboard and Telegram. The companies are invented, and the examples were written for this page.

Google Ads, searchquery "washing machine repair austin"

Appliance repair | Best prices | Quality and fast. Professional repair of any complexity. A tailored approach to every client. Call us.

Washing machine repair in Austin | Technician comes today | Diagnosis $39. We repair at home in one visit: parts for Bosch, LG and Samsung come with us. 6-month warranty on the work.

why: the first headline repeats the query with the city, so the person sees they've found what they wanted. "Best prices" became a number: Google asks for independent proof of claims like that, and "$39" tells the buyer more anyway. Every headline fits in 30 characters.

Facebook and InstagramEnglish school for adults

Dreaming of speaking English fluently? Our school offers modern methods and a tailored approach. Sign up today and unlock a world of new opportunities.

Conversational English for people who studied it for years and still go quiet in meetings. Groups of up to six, two evenings a week at 7:30 pm, first class free. Starts March 3, four seats left.

why: only the first sentence shows before "See more", so it names the person and their situation. Then come the terms courses are really chosen by: group size, schedule, the cost of the first step.

Billboard 14 × 48 ftfurniture showroom by the highway

Cozy Home Furniture Gallery. A wide selection of sofas, beds, wardrobes and kitchens. Quality at an affordable price. Up to 50% off. Address, two phone numbers, website, Instagram.

A sofa in three days. Next exit.

why: out of seven messages we kept the one that can be read at highway speed, plus a hint on where to turn. Nobody writes a phone number down from a billboard, so an arrow took its place.

Telegram Adscoding school for adults

Want to change careers? Our programming courses will help you become a specialist in the shortest time. Join us right now.

You'll write your first code in the second class. A Python course for people who never trained as programmers: evenings, 12 weeks, first class free.

why: 160 characters hold a promise with a timeframe, who the course is for and a free first step. Instead of "the shortest time" there is a number of weeks.

06 Niches

Ad copy for a sale, a store or a gift card: where to begin

These are typical tasks clients bring us and the first thing we establish. The sample move shows the approach, not a ready template: the real text carries your own terms.

Task	Where we start	Sample move	What we verify
A sale	The condition and the end date	"20% off winter tires until November 30"	Date, percentage, exclusions
Clothing store	What is in stock now and for whom	"Fall coats, sizes 2 to 18, try on at home"	Sizes, return terms
Gift card	Who gives it and why	"A gift nobody has to guess: massage vouchers from $50"	Expiry, face value
Cleaning service	Price, arrival time, what's included	"A two-bedroom cleaned in 4 hours, supplies ours"	Service area, price by size
Photographer	Genre, date, what the client gets	"Wedding photography: 100 photos in two weeks"	Photo count, delivery time
Cosmetics	A result you can explain without promises	"SPF 30 cream for daily care, fragrance-free"	Ingredients, ad restrictions

07 Formulas

AIDA, PPPP and when you don't need them

Formulas are hints about the order in which to lay out a message, not a guarantee of results.

AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) fits a flyer, a landing page and a longer post: there is room for all four steps.
PPPP (picture, promise, proof, push) suits a text that needs evidence: high-priced services, B2B.
ODC (offer, deadline, call) is the formula for sales and short ads: what we offer, until when, what to do.

An ad of 90 characters and a billboard of seven words have no room for four steps. There one idea and one fact do the work. So we use a formula as a scheme for long texts, and for short ones another rule applies: the buyer's query, a benefit, an action.

Formulas also don't replace an offer. If there is no price, turnaround or warranty to name, even the wittiest ad won't help: people will click and leave. In that case we say plainly what should change in the offer.

08 Variants

Variants for testing: how we prepare a set of ads

You can't know in advance which wording will do better. So we write different variants, not identical ones with the words shuffled. The difference should lie in the idea, not in a synonym.

Angle 1

Price or terms

"Diagnosis $39". For people who compare offers by cost.

Angle 2

Speed

"Technician comes today". For those whose machine has already broken.

Angle 3

Warranty and trust

"6-month warranty on the work". For those afraid of making a mistake.

How to use it

Testing without promises, but with order

We don't promise that any variant will deliver a given CTR or number of leads. We give you a set with different angles, mark how one differs from another, and suggest comparing them under identical conditions: the same budget, the same audience, enough impressions. The stronger variant is decided by the data in your account, not by our hunch.

09 Method

How to write advertising copy: six checks before delivery

An editor runs through this list for every ad. It also works for your own texts if you write ads yourself.

One idea per ad. Price, speed and warranty don't fit into one headline and aren't remembered. For each benefit we write a separate variant, and the test shows which is stronger.
The buyer's words. In search we take wording from the query. If people search "washer repair", the headline doesn't open with "maintenance services for household appliances".
A fact instead of a judgment. Everyone has their own idea of "fast". "Delivered tomorrow by noon" can be checked and compared with a competitor.
The ad and the page say the same thing. The promise in the ad should stand on the first screen of the page the click leads to, in the same words. If it isn't there, we say so before launch and advise what to change on the landing page.
Platform rules. Google disallows exclamation marks in headlines and words typed in all capitals. Meta rejects text that implies personal attributes of the viewer, such as health, debts or age. For medicines, alcohol and financial services there are also advertising regulations to check with your lawyer.
The length of every field. We deliver texts as a table: field, text, character count. The ads can be moved into the ad account without counting.

10 AI

Ad copy and AI: what gets generated and what is written by hand

Ad copy AI tools can produce twenty headlines in a moment. That is useful as material for a conversation, but not as a finished result.

A neural network doesn't know that you offer a free diagnosis, that the shop is open until 9 pm and that in the area you're targeting three competitors make the same promise. It produces what everybody writes: "high quality, fast, great value". Readers skip such ads: they have seen them a hundred times.

In our work AI helps at the preparation stage: grouping queries, looking for angles, checking length. The texts you receive are written by a person, and an editor checks them against the facts, the platform rules and your offer. We don't hand over generated text as written by a person.

11 The difference

How ad copy differs from sales copy

These are different jobs, though people mix them up. One works before the click, the other after it. You need both, and the gap between them is what most often eats the budget.

Format	Where it sits	Its job	Size
Ad copy	Search, feed, banner, billboard	Stop the person and bring them to the page	a few lines
Sales copy	A service page on the site	Answer the questions and lead to an inquiry	500–1,000 words
Landing page	A separate page for a campaign	One offer, one call to act	a few screens
SEO copy	Site, blog	Bring a person from search without ads	depends on the topic

12 Roles

Who does what, and what to send before we start

The ad text and the campaign setup are done by different people. It is better to agree at once where our work ends. If you need campaigns managed too, you can take that from us: PPC advertising and paid social advertising are separate services.

The studio

Writer and editor

The writer gets to know the product and writes the variants. The editor checks every line: does it fit the limit, does it break platform rules, and will a person seeing you for the first time understand it.

We don't design banners or layouts, but we'll tell the designer which line is the main one.

Your side

A marketer or an ads specialist

They set up campaigns, audiences and budgets, upload the ads and follow the statistics. If you have no such person, we can take the setup on. You pay the ad budget to the platform directly.

It is best when this specialist takes part in the brief: they know which ads have been tried and which queries bring inquiries.

Before we start

What to send so we don't write blind

A link to the page the ads will lead to. A list of queries or a description of the audiences. Ads that have already run, even unsuccessful ones. Words that can't be used and mandatory disclaimers. For print and outdoor, add the layout dimensions. Clarifying usually takes five or six questions.

13 About the price

Why ad copy costs what it does with us

There are cheaper providers on the market, and for simple tasks they're enough. Our price covers what you can't see in the ad itself: a writer who has understood the product and an editor who has checked every line against the facts, the limit and the platform rules. You get a set covering different angles, ready to move into the account, instead of one variant that seems fine.

An ad with a mistake costs more than the text did: a rejected ad, a wrong price, a promise that isn't on the page. Those are the things we check before delivery.

14 Prices

How much ad copywriting costs

We count the total number of words across all the variants we deliver. A set for two groups of search ads, which means 30 headlines and 8 descriptions, comes to roughly 225 words and costs from $63. The text of a two-sided flyer of 300 words costs from $84.

A slogan, a landing page and a script are priced per result: in those formats most of the time goes into preparation and the idea.
Service	What's included	Turnaround	Price
Ad copy	Several headline and body variants sized for each platform	2–3 days	from $0.28 / word
Sales pages	Brief, structure built on the buyer's path, copy	3–4 days	from $0.28 / word
Website and landing page copy	Brief, competitor review, wireframe, copy for every block	5–7 days	from $1,200 / landing page
Slogans and taglines	Brief, 10 options, rationale, one refinement round	5–7 days	from $900 / project
Video scripts	Concept, timed script, voice-over text	3–4 days	from $350 / script

15 Questions

Frequently asked questions about ad copy

How much does ad copy cost?

From $0.28 per word. We count the total volume of all variants: a set for two groups of Google Ads search ads is from $63, and the text of a two-sided flyer of 300 words from $84.

Who writes ad copy, and what does an advertising copywriter do?

An advertising copywriter understands the product and the audience and writes short messages within a platform's limits. With us that is the writer, while an editor checks limits, rules and factual accuracy. The campaign is set up by a marketer: yours or ours.

What kinds of ad copy are there?

Search ads, posts and creatives for social networks, banner text, outdoor advertising, print, teasers and press releases. By content they split into product, service and image ads.

How many ad variants do you provide?

It depends on the format. For a Google Ads search campaign we write a full set: up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions per ad group. For Meta there are usually three to five variants of the primary text and as many headlines. For a billboard or a banner we give two or three variants of the main phrase.

How long can Google Ads headlines and descriptions be?

A headline up to 30 characters and a description up to 90. A responsive search ad accepts up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. The table above lists the limits for other platforms too.

What is an RSA, and how many headlines does it need?

A responsive search ad is a format where Google builds different combinations from your headlines and descriptions. So there is something to choose from, we write the full pool: up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, different in meaning.

How do you write ad copy for Facebook and Instagram?

The main point goes into the first sentence, because the rest hides behind "See more". Then the terms: price, date, group size. For different audiences we write different variants and avoid wording that implies personal attributes of the viewer.

Do you guarantee clicks and sales?

No. Results depend on the bid, the audience, the offer itself and the page the ad leads to. We answer for the text: it is clear, fits the limits, follows platform rules and honestly says what the person gets after the click.

What if moderation rejects an ad?

Send us the reason shown in the ad account. If the text is the problem, we rewrite it at no extra charge. If it is the page or the account settings, we'll tell you what the platform requires.

Do you use AI for ad copy?

For preparation, yes: grouping queries and looking for angles. The texts are written by a person, and an editor checks them against the facts. We don't hand over machine-generated text as written by a person.

What do you need from me for ad copy?

The product or service, the audience, your main advantage, a link to the page for the ads, words to avoid and mandatory disclaimers. If ads have already run, send them along with the statistics.

How is ad copy different from sales copy?

Ad copy works before the click: it has a few lines to stop a person and give a reason to go further. Sales copy sits on the page they landed on and answers every question before an inquiry. One without the other works badly, so it is worth writing them together.

Is a brief necessary for just a few lines?

Yes, but a short one: five or six questions about the product, the audience and what you have already tried. The shorter the text, the more each word weighs, and guessing is riskier here than in an article.

Do you write ad copy in languages other than English?

Yes. English is written from scratch, and so is Ukrainian, while German and French ads are adapted from finished ones. Character limits are the same but idioms differ, so word-for-word translation works poorly in advertising. Details are on the page for copywriting in other languages.

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