This article was originally published in February 2021, updated in June 2021, and fully revised for January 2026 with current campaign examples and fresh strategic insights.

With consumers filtering thousands of branded messages daily, breakthrough ad copy is visual, concrete, and instantly imaginable. Whether for social media or website copy, these principles transform generic messaging into ad copy that works in 2026.

Ready to discover how today’s smartest brands write copy that sticks? Keep reading for killer ad copy tips that work, complete with real examples from campaigns that generated billions in earned media.

Principles of Writing Ad Copy That Converts in 2026

Below are some things you can do to make your copy more relatable and therefore more effective at communicating your brand message to your audience.

Draw From Experience

Every product or brand has its own unique story. As an ad copywriter it’s your job not just to tell it, but do it in a way that’s original and extremely digestible. Use concrete language in the making of your ads. Doing so gives your audience something precise to envision and helps them connect to the idea you’re presenting.

Let’s take coffee, for example, far and away the most popular morning beverage in the history of the world (possibly). Americans consume an estimated 400 million cups of it every day.

Now imagine you’re tasked with creating an ad for your company’s brand of everyone’s favorite day-starter. Where do you begin? 

For this example, say your coffee is bolder than the others and with twice the amount of caffeine. That’s a good start, however, does simply telling people you have “an extra bold coffee with twice the amount of caffeine” make any kind of a lasting impression?

Close your eyes and repeat that line again, “an extra bold coffee with twice the amount of caffeine.” What do you see? Probably a stock image of coffee that you might find in one of those off-white ceramic cups at a diner. In other words, coffee that’s unmemorable, with no obvious personality.

Analogies Are Your Ad Copywriting Friends

Using the same coffee example, it’s the bold flavor and caffeine content that sets your drink apart, and this is where the magic of analogies comes into play. An analogy is a way of saying something is like something else to illustrate a point. A great way to get started is to turn what you want to say about your product into a game of mad libs, and then slap a “like” on the beginning of the sentence. For example:

• Like the ______ of _____.
• Like if your ____ had a _____.
• Like a _____ for your _____.

Now let’s apply that to your coffee and see what happens. As we mentioned before, it’s extra bold and with twice the caffeine, meaning it’s super-strong like it’s on…steroids.

Like your morning coffee on steroids!

Yes it’s cliché, but at the very least it conjures up a pair of flexing muscles slapped onto that mug, and now provides your audience with a visual point of reference.

Keep Grinding

As we’ve just seen, making similes out of your messaging is a quick and easy way to create analogies, and sometimes it’s enough. However, in other cases there may still be work needed if you want your ad copy to really stand out. Delve into the mind of your audience, and ask yourself some questions. Why do people drink coffee? When and where do they drink it? What does it do for them?

Think about the answers. Presumably most people drink coffee in the morning for an energy boost to get them moving and ready to take on the day ahead. That seems pretty clear, but it’s more wordy than concrete. We need to dig a little deeper.

“A burst of energy to get you moving.” That sounds a lot like “fuel” which also serves to get you moving. So let’s take it and the rest of our idea and make it into a new analogy:

Like fuel that gets you out the door in the morning and off to work.

Ok, still wordy, but “fuel” is a little more concrete than “burst of energy,” meaning it can be interpreted visually a lot easier.

Make It Bold

Next, let’s take a look at the second half of your answer: “out the door in the morning and off to work.” Again, is there any other way to say that more succinctly? Perhaps “fuel” can provide a visual cue. For example, what comes to mind when you hear the word “fuel?” Chances are you’re thinking of a car, which is how many people get to work on their morning commute.

Like fuel for your morning commute!

Ok, now we’re getting somewhere. We’ve crafted a nice, tight line of advertising copy that gets the message across, and best of all paints a mental image. However, we’re not quite done yet, as it’s still a bit too generic. After all, the idea that coffee is fuel for your morning commute can be true about pretty much any brand. Is there anything about yours that you can call attention to that will help set it apart from the competition? Better yet, is there a way you can do it that conjures a mental image?

Call It As You See It

Let’s look back at your original coffee description to see if we can find some inspiration for a way to set it apart: “extra bold with twice the caffeine.” In other words, this “fuel” is really strong. You might say it’s “high octane,” like the type of fuel used to power a racecar. If that’s not strong enough, how about “jet fuel?” Still not strong enough, how about “rocket fuel?”

Like rocket fuel for your morning commute!

or even more to the point:

Rocket fuel for your morning commute!

Sounds like a pretty good line, and it wasn’t difficult to come up with either. Now, will it win you a Cannes Lions Award for creative excellence? Most likely not, but it does check all the boxes for effective ad copy examples that put a visual image in its reader’s mind. Plus, it gives your art director something to work with when deciding on the ad’s creative direction.

Key Takeaways for Ad Copy That Breaks Through in 2026

In the words of advertising innovator Howard Gossage, “People don’t read ads. They read what interests them, and sometimes that’s an ad.” Follow our steps for how to write ad copy above and you’ll be on your way to making your ads precisely what people are interested in.

• Use concrete language in the making of your ads.
• Give the audience a familiar point of reference.
• Analogies can do much of the heavy lifting for you.
• Using similes is an easy and effective way to create analogies, just be careful not to wade into the cliché.
• Get into the mind of your audience and then paint them a picture showing how you help solve their problem.
• Use specific details in your wording to provide your audience a more sensory experience.

Extra Ad Copy Tips for Converting Users

Solve their problems: You need to know what your audience’s pain points are, and show how your product solves it. In the coffee example, the problem is finding the energy to get to work in the morning, and your rocket fuel coffee is the solution.

Be timely/topical: To increase the conversion value of your ad, it can be created around a current event, trendy topic or particular season. Whether that’s Black Friday, Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl or a presidential inauguration, if it’s what everyone’s talking about, why not join in on the action? 

Appeal to users’ emotions: When a user is idly scrolling their socials, they’re not looking for your app. You’ve got your work cut out trying to grab their attention, and triggering their emotions through great ad copy is the way to go. Most people have a little FOMO (fear of missing out), or are prone to joy or nostalgia, and if your words can trigger those emotions, your ad is more likely to convert.

To conjure emotion with your ads, you’ve got to first define who your target users are and establish your messaging.

Data is your friend

Before you begin, you must gather data. Just because you believe your ad copy works well, doesn’t mean it will actually perform well.

• Who are you writing for?
• How does that person think/behave?
• What does that person need?
• What ads does that person usually respond well to?

Use tools to aid the above: There are many tools that exist to help you here. You can A/B test creatives with tools like SplitMetrics, find the questions everyone’s asking at AnswerThePublic, look at your analytics on the social media platform you’re advertising on, etc.

Three Outstanding Ad Copywriting Examples from 2025

Now let’s look at how today’s best brands put these principles into practice. These campaigns from 2025 demonstrate the power of concrete language, strategic analogies, emotional triggers, and platform-native thinking.

1. Chili’s Fast Food Financing: Satire as Strategic Positioning

Brand: Chili’s Grill & Bar

Campaign: Fast Food Financing

Platform: TV, social media (X, TikTok, Instagram), experiential pop-up

Timeframe: April 2025

The Copy:

• Primary tagline: “Fast Food Financing”
• Infomercial-style questions: “Are you tired of overpaying for fast food?” “Is fast food just for trillionaires?”
• Pop-up signage: “Now You Can Eat Like a Trillionaire” “Fast Food Prices are Out of Control! Finance Your Fast Food Today!”
• CTA: “Come out to finance your so-called value meal today!”

Chili’s built an entire satirical universe around the pain point of fast food inflation. The campaign mimicked sketchy payday lender aesthetics (garish signage, overly enthusiastic pitchman, terms like “approved” and “financing”) to dramatize how absurd fast food prices have become. By using concrete visual language that evoked specific storefronts consumers recognize, the copy references an economic problem people can relate to.

The genius was in the specificity: not “affordable meals” but “financing your fast food.” Not “great value” but emulating the visual and verbal language of payday loan shops. The campaign is positioned next to an actual McDonald’s, creating an unavoidable comparison.

Copywriting Technique: Satirical exaggeration, pain-point amplification, guerrilla placement, concrete visual metaphor

Results

• Generated over 6 billion impressions in two days
• Pop-up drew three-hour lines
• 31% comparable sales increase YoY for Chili’s in fiscal Q2 2025
• Big QP burger successfully challenged McDonald’s Quarter Pounder positioning

2. Liquid Death Kegs for Pregs: Provocative Positioning Through Unexpected Context

Brand: Liquid Death

Campaign: Kegs for Pregs

Platform: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, website

Timeframe: March 2025

The Copy:

• Campaign name: “Kegs for Pregs”
• Jingle: “Kegs for pregs, you’re drinking for two”
• Product positioning: “Pregnant women need to drink a lot of water. That’s why we partnered with Kylie Kelce, who’s expecting her fourth child, to give birth to our first-ever Liquid Death Mini Kegs.”
• CTA: “Drink up, pregs!”

Liquid Death’s copywriting strategy revolves around one core tension: making water feel punk rock by packaging it like beer, then proving it’s just water in increasingly absurd contexts. “Kegs for Pregs” executes this perfectly by placing pregnant women, the ultimate “can’t drink alcohol” demographic, in a rowdy bar setting chugging from kegs.

The copy deliberately uses provocative language (“drinking for two,” bar setting, police pull-over) to create cognitive dissonance, then resolves it with “it’s just water.” The rhyming tagline “Kegs for Pregs” is instantly memorable, shareable, and controversial enough to generate organic discussion.

Partnering with Kylie Kelce (media personality, podcast host, 8 months pregnant) gave the concept authenticity and virality potential within sports culture and mom communities simultaneously.

Copywriting Technique: Provocative framing, rhyming memorability, cognitive dissonance resolution, celebrity authenticity.

Results: 

• Limited edition 5-liter kegs sold out in 14 minutes
• Video generated 236.7K+ likes on TikTok
• Extensive earned media coverage
• Reinforced brand positioning as “not your average water brand.”

 

3. Visit Oslo Anti-Tourism Campaign: Embracing Perceived Flaws

Brand: Visit Oslo

Platform: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube

Timeframe: 2025

The Copy: Campaign embraced Oslo’s “boring” reputation with self-deprecating humor, turning perceived weaknesses into authentic selling points

In an era where every destination claims to be “unforgettable,” Visit Oslo went the opposite direction: embracing their reputation for being quiet, expensive, and less flashy than competitors. The copywriting strategy acknowledged tourist complaints head-on, then reframed them as features for travelers seeking authenticity over Instagram moments.

This anti-tourism positioning created differentiation in an oversaturated category. By using concrete examples of what Oslo isn’t (not cheap, not party central, not packed with tourists), the campaign painted a clear picture of what it is: genuine, peaceful, uncrowded.

Copywriting Technique: Counter-positioning, flaw embrace, authenticity signaling, expectation subversion

Results

• 7+ million views across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
• Positioned Oslo as destination for authenticity-seeking travelers
• Demonstrated how “boring” could be a feature

 Bad Ads vs Good Ads

We’ve covered writing principles and successful examples. Now let’s examine what separates effective ads from forgettable ones in today’s digital landscape.

What Makes A Good Ad

There are a few principles that will improve your ads. Keeping the following keys in mind will help ensure your ad copy speaks to your target audience.

KPIs Meet Pain Points

The best ads merge campaign objectives with genuine user frustrations. Chili’s “Fast Food Financing” exemplifies this: the KPI was promoting their new Big QP burger and value menu, but the creative centered entirely on consumer frustration with fast food inflation. The business goal and customer pain point became inseparable.

When your copy addresses real problems rather than invented ones, conversion becomes natural. The CTA isn’t “buy our burger”, it’s “stop getting ripped off by fast food.”

Platform-Native Execution

In 2026, successful campaigns build for platform-specific behavior:

• TikTok: Raw, authentic, participation-driven (Oreo Twist)
• Instagram: Visual storytelling, identity expression (Spotify Wrapped shares)
• Experiential: IRL moments that create digital content (Chili’s pop-up, Spotify installations)

Your copy must match not just the platform’s format, but its native language. TikTok copy is casual, self-aware, and invitational. LinkedIn copy is insight-driven and professionally relevant.

Shareability Baked In

Every successful 2025 campaign we examined had built-in sharing mechanisms:

• Spotify Wrapped: Personalized, identity-affirming cards
• Liquid Death: Provocative concept that demands reaction
• Chili’s: Shareable absurdity (fake financing for fast food)
• Oreo: UGC invitation

The best campaigns make sharing the natural next step.

What Makes A Bland Ad

Generic Language That Creates No Mental Image

Bland: “Premium quality ingredients for health-conscious consumers”
Why it fails: What does “premium quality” look like? What specific ingredients? Which health benefits?

Better: “Organic açai from the Brazilian rainforest”
Why it works: You can picture the location, imagine the berry, understand the origin story.

Overcomplicating Simple Messages

When explaining your product requires three paragraphs, your copy needs simplification. The best ads convey their message in seconds. Liquid Death’s entire value proposition can be summed up in four words: “It’s just mountain water.”

Feature-Focused Instead of Benefit-Driven

Bland: “Our app has push notifications, dark mode, and cloud sync”
Why it fails: These are features, not benefits. 

Better: “Never miss a deadline, save your eyes at night, and pick up where you left off on any device”
Why it works: Each feature translates to a concrete user benefit.

Master Modern Ad Copy: Your 2026 Playbook

The landscape has shifted. Today’s best ad copy invites users to participate. It depicts instead of describes. It shares instead of sells.