Copywriting: what it is, techniques and how to test it

Copywriting is persuasive writing that aims to get someone to do something specific after reading: buy, subscribe, request a quote or simply click. I was thinking about it recently with a backpack. Someone searches for a backpack to carry a 16-inch laptop in the rain, lands on a product page and the description says: "Designed to go with you on every adventure."

I'm happy for the backpack. But does the laptop fit? Does it get wet?

Someone wrote that sentence and it was probably approved in a meeting. The problem is that it doesn't answer either of the two questions the customer has in mind, so it doesn't help sell. My position in this guide is simple: good copywriting is specific and measurable, and the copy most people read from your brand is probably the title Google shows, which Search Console evaluates for free.

What is copywriting?

Copywriting is the practice of writing texts with an action goal. It's also called advertising copy or persuasive writing, and it shows up everywhere: ads, sales pages, emails, buttons, packaging, social media posts, video scripts and product pages.

What sets it apart from other content is intent. An article can inform or entertain; a piece of copy wants something to happen next. And that action isn't always a sale. It might be someone downloading a guide, leaving their email or, out of ten Google results, choosing yours.

I like to think of it as a conversation with someone in a hurry: you have a few seconds, that person has a specific question and your message either answers it or it doesn't. Techniques and a persuasive tone are ways to organize that answer.

What is copy and what is a copywriter?

Three words that get used almost as synonyms:

• Copywriting: the technique or process of writing to drive an action.
• Copy: the text that comes out of that process (a slogan, a button, a product description).
• Copywriter: the person who writes those pieces, at an agency, on a marketing team or as a freelancer.

What is copywriting for?

Copywriting moves a person from "this might interest me" to the next step. Depending on the moment, that step changes:

• Clicking your search result, your ad or a button on your website.
• Leaving their details (in marketing, these are called leads).
• Signing up for an event, a free trial or a newsletter.
• Buying or requesting a quote.

It also helps to think in terms of the funnel. At the top, in discovery, the message has to capture attention and show you understand the problem. In consideration, it has to explain and offer proof. At the bottom, in conversion, it has to clear the last doubts and ask for the action without beating around the bush (more in my sales funnel guide).

A warning before we continue: if you research copywriting, you'll find figures like "good copy lifts conversions 73%" or "generates 380% ROI", almost always with no study behind them. I wouldn't use them to justify a digital marketing budget. The effect of a piece of copy depends on the product, the channel and what was there before, and the serious way to know is to measure it on your own website (I explain how further down).

How does good copy work?

Good copy starts before you write. First you need to know who you're talking to (your buyer persona, or at least an honest description of your audience), what problem they have and what they need to read to trust you. The words come later.

This table sums up the elements that are almost always behind a text that works:

My favorite shortcut for filling in that table: use the customer's words. The questions that reach sales, Google searches and reviews are free copywriting material. If your customers ask "does it get wet?", the word "waterproof" has to be on the product page. To work on the proposition part, I have a guide to the value proposition.

Types of copywriting

There are many copywriting classifications. The one I find most useful for a marketing team combines goal and channel:

• Direct response: looks for an immediate action. Search ads, landing pages, abandoned cart emails. Short sentences, a clear benefit and one CTA.
• Creative or brand: wants to be remembered. Campaigns, slogans, video pieces. The effect is measured over the longer term.
• SEO: content designed to appear in search engines and, once there, win the click. It includes the title, the meta description and the body of the web page.
• Product: product pages, descriptions and specs. It's the most underrated type of copy and the one doing the most commercial work in ecommerce.
• Email: subject lines and bodies of messages, where the subject decides whether the rest gets read (more in my email marketing guide).
• Social media: posts that compete with the infinite scroll and have to earn attention in one line.

And one difference that changes the tone: in B2C, copy can be more emotional and direct, because the decision is usually made by one person, quickly. In B2B the purchase goes through several people and months of evaluation, so the text needs more data and cases (finance asks different questions than IT).

Copywriting techniques: AIDA, PAS and other formulas

Formulas help you organize a text when the blank page is staring you down. They aren't mandatory recipes and they can be mixed:

• AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action). The best known: you grab attention with the problem, build interest with something relevant, create desire by showing the result and finish by asking for the action.
• PAS (problem, agitation, solution). You name the problem, explain what happens if it stays the same and present the solution. Careful with the agitation: showing real consequences is enough.
• FAB (features, advantages, benefits). You go from the feature ("12-hour battery") to the advantage ("no charger needed during the day") to the benefit ("you work from the airport without hunting for an outlet"). It's the technique product pages are missing most.
• BAB (before, after, bridge). You show the before, the after and the bridge between them, which is your product. It works well when the transformation is easy to picture.
• 4U for headlines. The idea is to be urgent, useful, unique and ultra-specific. You won't always hit all four, but the last one is almost always the one that improves a piece the most.
• Storytelling. Telling a short story (a customer, a situation, a mistake) so the person can relate. No epic needed: sometimes two sentences are enough, like the backpack above.
• Robert Cialdini's principles of persuasion. Social proof, authority, reciprocity, commitment, liking and scarcity. They're resources you insert into any formula (for example, social proof in the desire part of AIDA).

On urgency and scarcity: use them only when they're true (the countdown timer that resets every time you reload the page costs your brand trust).

How do you write good copy? Tips I actually use

If I had to keep only a few copywriting rules, these would be them:

1. Be specific (the simplest technique and the most forgotten one). Swap "superior quality" for "sealed seams and fabric that withstands 2 hours of rain." Generic adjectives work for any product, so they don't help anyone choose yours.
2. Benefits with their features. The benefit explains why it matters; the feature proves it. You need both, in that order.
3. Answer objections before they come up. Price, timelines, compatibility, shipping to other regions. What your sales team answers every day needs to be in writing.
4. One call to action per piece, saying what happens next. "Download the template" beats "Learn more" because the person knows what they're getting into.
5. Cut. Almost every first draft is a third too long. If a sentence doesn't inform or persuade, cut it.
6. Read it out loud. If you stumble reading it, the reader will stumble reading it silently.
7. Take care of the first line. Joe Sugarman used to say the only job of the headline is to get you to read the first line, and the job of the first line is to get you to read the second.

And avoid hyperbole: "revolutionary" and "end-to-end solutions" are phrases readers have already learned to ignore. A data point or a customer's specific story persuades better (if that resource interests you, I have a guide to storytelling).

Copywriting examples (before and after)

These examples are illustrative, built to show the shift from a generic message to a specific one:

Product page. Before: "Backpack designed to go with you on every adventure." After: "Waterproof backpack for laptops up to 16 inches, with a padded sleeve and sealed zippers." The second version answers both questions from the opening scene.

Landing page button. Before: "Submit." After: "Get my free assessment." The second one says what happens next and reminds the person why they were there.

Google title. Before: "Blog | XYZ Company." After: "How to calculate CAC: formula, example and common mistakes." The second one describes what the person will find.

Email subject line. Before: "October newsletter." After: "3 Google changes that affect your reports this month."

In all four cases you go from talking about yourself to answering what the other person needs to take action.

Copywriting and SEO: how are they alike and how are they different?

The difference lies in the intent of each piece of content:

In practice they blend, and the same technique works on both sides. SEO writing helps you rank a page with the keywords your audience uses. But once you show up, the title and meta description of the result are pure copywriting: they're the free ad Google shows thousands of times, competing with nine other results.

That's why, on every website I review, the first copy I look at is the one in the search results. It's the brand content most people read and, often, the content that got the least attention in the content marketing plan.

How do you know if copy works?

This part barely appears in copywriting guides, and it's the one I care about most. A text can sound great in a meeting and move nothing out in the world.

Here's an example with data from this very blog. In the last 90 days (July to October 2026), my article on Google's AI Mode appeared 37,386 times on Google and got 10 clicks, at an average position of 8.5. In the same period, my analysis matrix guide had 17,844 impressions and 401 clicks (a 2.2% CTR, at position 3.7).

Is the first one's title bad? I don't know yet. Its position is worse, and for those searches Google shows AI answers that take part of the visits. But it's exactly the kind of page where I'd test different copy first, because every point of CTR gets multiplied by tens of thousands of impressions.

Search Console is a free tool from Google, and this is the process I use to test the copywriting of my titles:

1. In the Performance report, filter by page and sort by impressions.
2. Flag the pages with lots of impressions and a low CTR for their position.
3. Rewrite the title and meta description around what the person is really looking for (without changing the URL or the topic).
4. Note the date of the change and compare the 28 days before with the 28 days after, checking that the average position is similar. If the position changed a lot, the comparison tells you nothing about the text.

In other digital marketing channels it's easier: ads and emails allow A/B tests with two versions at the same time, and on a sales page you can measure form conversion in Google Analytics before and after changing the copy. Change one thing at a time.

Copywriting and AI: what changes?

AI changed copywriting in two ways.

The first is obvious: with an AI tool like ChatGPT or Claude you get drafts, subject line variations and short versions in seconds. But if you ask them to "write persuasive copy for my product" with no context, you get generic phrases like "transform your business today" (I call it horoscope copy: it fits anyone). These tools need the same base content as a human copywriter: audience, frequent questions, proof and specific data.

The second change gets talked about less: AI also reads your copy. Google is rolling out purchases inside AI Mode for eligible stores in the United States, with product listings that come from Merchant Center. If your product description says "designed for every adventure," the AI has little to recommend you with when someone asks for a waterproof backpack for a 16-inch laptop.

And specificity matters. In a study I did on 500 prompts (published on Previsible in June 2026), queries that included an industry, a team size, a year or a use case received on average 3.4 times more citations than their generic versions. In other words, specific content helps persuade the person and also gives the AI something concrete to cite.

What does a copywriter do and how do you learn?

A copywriter researches before writing: interviews customers, reads reviews, looks at the competition and talks to sales. Then they write, define the brand's tone, test versions and review results. At an agency they usually work in a pair with an art director; on a marketing team, closer to product, performance and SEO.

There's no required degree. What matters most is practice and a portfolio of real pieces (and if you can show what happened with them, even better). A good exercise: rewrite ten product pages from a store you know using the FAB technique.

To wrap up

If you want to start today with no budget, open Search Console, find the ten pages on your site with the most impressions and the lowest CTR, and read their titles as if you were a customer with a specific question. If the title doesn't answer it, there's your first copywriting project (and probably the one the most people will read this month).