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Why A Few Amazing Ads Sell Like Crazy While So Many Fail
"I have seen one advertisement sell 19 1/2 times as much merchandise as another ad for the same product." - John Caples
Warning
If you apply what you learn in this post, consider turning off your Stripe notifications.
When the “Sale” pings start coming in by the thousands, your phone can actually overheat. Seriously — it happened to a friend.
And now, my favorite marketing fact.
A small number of ads absolutely crush the rest.
Not by 2× or 3× — but 20 to 1.
And yes, there is a reason for that.
It’s not a trick. It’s not a template. And it’s definitely not something you can copy-paste from a guru’s swipe file.
It requires thinking. Effort. And a level of focus most people don't like to apply.
Which is exactly why most ads fail.
The real question is not whether it can be done.
It’s whether you’re willing to do what others won’t.
Let’s zoom out.
What would it feel like to see the tension leave your mother’s face when you tell her you paid off the house? To watch the lines of worry fade away?
What would it feel like to tell your family that you’re taking the entire summer off to be with them?
Not half-working. Not distracted. Present.
To realize the pressure you’ve been living under is gone. No longer does it control your time—or your decisions.
Would it be worth it then?
You don’t have to imagine it. You already know. Relief, freedom, control — it would feel damn good.
But here’s the thing: right now, it’s not that simple.
You’re carrying a weight on your shoulders. Responsibility. Decisions that never stop. Running a business is tough.
It takes nearly all your focus just to build a solid product.
And that’s before you even think about distribution, fulfillment, or customer service.
But there's a bigger problem.
The Ads Aren't Working
Does this sound familiar?
Your landing pages don't convert. The frustration of spending money on ads that don't perform.
When you feel 'stuck' because managing the business takes all your time.
Yet nothing moves the needle.
It's stressful. You put countless hours of work into your business - you pour your savings in it - but sales trickle in.
You found a great web developer, but now you have a pretty website with zero sales.
Even worse, you start to feel like an imposter. Like you're not a "real" entrepreneur. People ask about your business, but you don't want to talk about it.
Embarrassed about your bad funnel and terrible sales pages.
Plus the fact that you've been spending money on ads that don't convert.
You feel like, as an entrepreneur, you should be able to do this yourself.
So, you try to figure it out.
You expose your weakness and ask for help online.
But then all you get is a barrage of conflicting advice. You end up confused about what works and what’s smoke and mirrors.
Finally, you feel like you are a "bad" marketer. You don't want to outsource, but you feel you have no other choice.
The Freelancer Problem
So you hit up Upwork and hire a freelancer. They promise you the world. The best copy ever written. Guaranteed sales.
You're dubious, but they might actually know what they are doing. So you pay them.
But they over-promised, and they under-delivered. When you question them, they move the gatepost.
"FB ads are the wrong spot. We should do Google Ads. We should try SEO next".
You realize it is a case of Shiny Object Syndrome.
After little change and too many headaches, you fire them.
You say to yourself: "I've got to hire real professionals".
Why Agencies Rarely Grow Your Profit
So, you find yourself an actual marketing agency. They've got an office. Employees. A legitimate business.
The price is high - they must be worth it.
Lo and behold, you get some sales. But... not what you hoped for.
With the rates they charge, your profit suffers.
So you bring up your grievances, and you end up talking to somebody in sales.
You hear vague metrics like "brand awareness".
Then the kicker - they tell you that you need to spend even more money with them.
You start to feel like you're being 'sold to' more than 'sold on' actual solutions.
The reality is, the incentives aren't aligned. Most agencies get paid on retainers or project fees.
Not profit.
Here’s the thing you need to understand.
Whether it’s a freelancer or an agency, the problem is the same: they often don’t know your customer.
Everyone is fighting for attention. People are smarter and more skeptical than ever.
Generic templates, reused copy, or AI-generated text might look good, but they don’t move people to buy.
The reason almost every campaign stalls isn’t the platform, the ad, or the funnel.
It's that the copy isn’t written for the real customer.
If you want results, the first thing you need to do is
understand who you’re talking to.
Know Thy Customer
Your customer is the key. You have to get in their head. See things from their perspective.
We live in a world of quick thrills, social media, and constant ego validation. You need to cultivate empathy.
That’s the big problem with most freelancers and agencies. They know salesmanship. That’s fine. But that’s it.
They don’t do the nitty-gritty work of understanding your customer.
If you’ve ever sold anything in person, you know the advantage. Feedback is instant. You see their hesitation. You adjust on the spot.
On Facebook, Instagram, or Google, though? They’re scrolling past hundreds of ads. All it takes is a swipe. You’re gone.
That’s why knowing your customer is more important than ever:
- What do they like, love, hate, fear?
- Who do they trust?
- What other solutions have they tried?
Look at the posts above. How much actually speaks to you, and how much is “Here’s what we do”?
The SOP of advertising is hoping a list of your services is enough. It never is.
If you want copy that actually moves people to buy, you have to start with one thing: your customer.
Know them. Feel what they feel. Speak their language.
Keep that in the back of your mind for now.
How To Write Killer Copy
I want to make this clear for you.
There's a ton of bad marketing advice out there. Even the big firms fall prey to it.
So, I want to give you a simple process to follow.
You can apply this to ads, emails, lead magnets, VSLs, even sales scripts and social media content.
First, I am going to show you how to get to know your prospect. I harp on this point a lot, because it's super important.
Then, I'm going to show you how to apply that knowledge to turn your prospects into customers.
Let's get into it.
Customer Research
I am going to show you a way to get better customer insight than your competitors.
We'll use ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting.
It is simple. It's almost unfair.
Let's say you are selling a sleep supplement, as an example.
(But, as we go, imagine how this process could apply to your business).
The rookie copywriter stops there and thinks, “Easy money.” Then writes something like this:
Sleep Problems? Fear no more! No more tossing and turning! You are going to have the best sleep ever! Just take ABC Formula and enjoy the sweetest dreams of your life! Order now!
It sounds like every other lazy ad — and it gets ignored.
We will get into why later.
For now, here is what you and I are going to do.
We go to ChatGPT and say:
I am selling a sleep supplement. I need to understand my customers deeply. Find forums, groups, and Reddit posts where people complain about sleep problems.
List related health and lifestyle issues caused by poor sleep. Include the communities where people discuss them.
This tells you exactly where your prospects hang out — and what they care about.
Most advertisers never look this far.
But we are not done yet.
Do you know why that ad would have failed? Why most ads fail?
They never trigger the deeper pain behind the problem.
Read that again.
Pain is the hook.
So we go one step deeper.
Now we ask:
Pull direct quotes from those groups. Anything that reveals frustration, fear, desire, or hope. What do they want their life to feel like again?
This gives you direct access to how your prospects actually think and feel — in their own words.
AI can surface this information.
But it cannot interpret it the way a human can.
It cannot sit with those quotes and imagine the person behind them. Alone, AI cannot translate that emotional reality into persuasive copy.
That part still requires judgment.
This alone will not make you a great copywriter.
But it gives you a massive advantage: you finally understand your prospect.
Translating raw insight into persuasion is where the real work begins.
Take that knowledge, and apply it to a sales process.
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
You have heard of AIDA before. You may have tried a few copy formulas. PAS (Problem, Agitate, Solution)
BAB (Before, After, Bridge)
PASTOR
(Problem, Amplify, Solution, Transformation, Offer, Response)
These are useful, but they are not alternatives to AIDA.
They derive from it.
AIDA is not "another formula". It's the underlying structure every effective piece of copy follows.
If you paste rigid formulas onto new products and new audiences, you're selling blind.
You need a framework that adapts.
Also, remember what I said about customer focus?
Unlike other frameworks, AIDA describes the psychological sequence a buyer goes through.
Sit with that a moment.
This isn't about you. Your client is interested above all in... himself!
His desires.
His pains.
His fears.
So let’s walk through AIDA step by step and turn it into a clear, repeatable process for writing copy that works.
Attention
You’re going to hear this again because... it matters. To get your prospects attention, seek to understand them. It is deeper than your product and what it does.
They are already aware of products like yours. If they still have the problem that your product solves, it’s usually because life gets in the way.
The signal gets buried under noise.
Let's go back to the sleep supplement. Losing sleep is the symptom. But what does it actually cost them?
Their marriage?
Their patience with their kids?
Their performance at work?
Listen to what they say. Discover what appeal will work best to get their attention.
Sometimes, there will be many appeals. So you test different ads.
But a rule of thumb is, start with the biggest benefit. Usually this is an indirect benefit.
A direct benefit is "sleep better".
Indirect benefits speak to deeper, more central values. For example, sleep problems often lead to daytime fatigue. This would affect other aspects of their lives.
In your research you might discover that many of your prospects are parents. So you might try a headline like:
How Exhausted Parents Regain the Energy Their Kids Deserve
That's off the top of my head, but it's still better than:Sleep problems?
Why? Negative headlines are easy, but they don't excite people. You should trigger pain, but if you do it too early, it can create avoidance.
This is where you get curiosity clicks, but no follow through.
Also, they might only think about sleep when they are in bed.
But low energy? That affects them all day, every day.
And is there anything more important to a parent than the happiness of their children?
The first headline leads with a huge benefit.
It's a promise that if they read further, they will discover how they can reach that state. It makes the pain worthwhile.
Interest
You have their attention, now you need to build their interest. Once again... know your customer.To keep them interested, talk about the things they care about.
For this, I used ChatGPT again. I got some memorable complaints:
"I miss the version of me who could wake up and feel ready for life".
Do the research and you will find dozens more like it.
Use as many as possible. Then flip them into positives to catch their interest:
"What if you woke up feeling ready for life again - like when you were a kid?"
That might sound interesting to somebody who struggles with daytime fatigue.
Notice we haven’t even mentioned sleep yet. We are not addressing the cause of the problem. We’re addressing how the problem feels.
People buy on emotion and justify with logic. Remember that.
At the interest stage, your job isn't to explain the problem or solve it.
It's to make them feel seen.
Desire
This fun part is about knowing their pain. In the words of Alex Hormozi:
"If you can articulate their pain better than they can, they will inherently believe you can solve their problem."
Once again, the better you understand them, the better you can do this. I cannot stress enough the importance of doing your homework here.
To increase their desire for a solution, you have to increase their sense of deprivation. The pain exists, but they aren't super aware of it at the moment they come across your copy.
To build their desire, you bring their focus to that pain, and you dig into it. Here's another direct quote:
"Low energy isn't just physical - it makes hope feel heavy".
Pain point. They feel hopeless. Left unresolved, this kind of fatigue erodes hope.
In your copy, you could say: "When you're always tired, even hope feels heavy".
Put words to their pain that most of them don't have. Make them aware of it in a whole new way.
Build this awareness bit by bit, yet keep them hooked on your every word.
Dig into it. Make them stay with the pain long enough for it to register .
Start with their direct experience. Put yourself in their shoes using quotes from people just like them. Use some empathy.
Once you've brought them back to that state, expand on it.
What are the implications of this problem? How might it get worse down the road? Are there permanent consequences if it isn't solved soon?
What other important values could it threaten?
Their relationships?
Their financial security?
Their social standing?
You grow their problem into a monster. It threatens every important aspect of their lives.
Without lying or exaggeration, of course. Keep it legit.
If you do this right, they should be feeling anxious to do something about this problem NOW.
Action
If you did the last part right, this step should be a piece of cake. The CTA (Call To Action).Of course, you want to focus on making this step as seamless as possible.
Remind them of great benefits you promised in the beginning.
How to solve their horrible problem fast and easy if they buy now. Or subscribe to your email list. Or call this number.
Whatever the action you want them to take, it's the quickest, easiest, safest way to solve their problem.
Safe is important, by the way. This is a good time to put in any guarantees you can make.
Make it as simple and easy as possible to buy from you.
Walk them through every step. One easy step is ideal. But even if they only have to click one button, show them how.
Tell them what's going to happen after they click. Make it exciting.
If you can, inject some scarcity. A reason to ACT NOW.
But don't lie.
Don't say that supplies are running low if it isn't true. People remember the bullshit.
You can always remind them that time is finite. Why waste another day in unnecessary pain?
A little scarcity can make the difference between them saying: "I'll do it later" and "I need it today!"
The Art And Science Of Copywriting
At this point, it would be nice to say: “That’s all there is to it. Go sell to your heart’s delight.”
But anyone who’s done this at a high level knows that would be nonsense.
Great copy isn’t built on one trick. It’s the result of stacking fundamentals correctly—every single time.
Yes, curiosity matters.
Cadence matters.
Vivid language matters.
But those are amplifiers, not the engine.
You can polish weak copy all day long and it will still underperform if it isn’t rooted in a deep understanding of the customer.
Once you have that, the medium barely matters.
Ad.
Email.
Landing page.
Website.
The structure changes. The psychology doesn’t.
If you understand the customer at a deep level, the copy almost writes itself.
This is also where most marketing agencies and freelance copywriters fall short.
They work fast.
They reuse templates.
They guess.
Very few are willing to do the unsexy work of digging into the market until the message becomes obvious.
The process I’ve shown you isn’t complicated—but it is rare. And applied consistently, it creates an enormous edge.
That said, there’s an important caveat.
Mastery Takes Time
There’s a big difference between understanding the basics of copywriting... and being able to deploy it under pressure when money is on the line.
Mastery comes from volume.From iteration.
And from watching what works, what fails, and figuring out why.
Over time, I believe every serious business owner should develop this skill.
It sharpens your thinking.
Even better, it forces you to understand your market at a level most competitors never reach.
But there’s a tradeoff.
If your priority right now is speed - getting profitable campaigns running without months of trial and error...
Then learning copywriting while running ads might not be the optimal path.
Which brings me to this.
I take on a small number of clients at a time.
This kind of work demands focus and depth, and I’m deliberate about where I put that attention.
At the moment, I have room for two or three more campaigns.
If you want to start the year with messaging that’s built to convert—not guess—I’m open to a conversation.
Comment “DM me” below and I’ll reach out.
If your copy is already dialed in, comment anyway. Share your thoughts.
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