Get your copy write: best practice for paid social and search ads

Google: best practice for paid search ad copy

First up, paid search. While competitors like Amazon and Google are quickly gaining ground in terms of search ads, we'll focus on Google for now as it still makes up 82% of the global search engine market.

When you write for Google search ads (or any search for that matter), it's important to remember you're targeting high-intent users at the moment when they're searching for your product or service. As these searchers are often looking for exactly what they need, you'll need to be clear and concise about what you offer. Also, beware the common pitfall of truncation.

To help you visualise this, here's how copy will show up in your search ad:

And here’s what happens when you exceed the character limit:

Beware the ellipsis. It'll do your ad no favours.

When writing copy for search ads, here are the character limits Google recommends:

• Headlines (3 max): 30 Characters
• Description: 90 Characters

You can use one, two or three headlines – you don’t have to use all three every time. Utilise whatever suits your ad best!

Once you're comfortable writing copy for your search ads, we also recommend playing around with different headlines and descriptions to test which combination generates the best click-through rates and conversions for your brand.

Paid social ad copy on Facebook

With over 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is still one of the most effective advertising platforms for reaching a diverse audience - particularly those aged 25-44.

Facebook single image or video ad

When you write copy for a single image or video in Facebook, here's how you can expect it to show up:

As you can see, the description counterintuitively shows before the headline, so you'll need to make it equally attention-grabbing to stop the scroll. Remember here to keep your copy concise and clear about the value you're offering to your target audience.

Here are the recommended character limits for a single image or video Facebook ad:

• Headline: 40 characters
• Description: 125 characters
• Link Description on Desktop: 30 Characters

Facebook carousel ad

As an advertiser, carousel ads are powerful in that they allow you to combine copy with images to create a visual story - or showcase multiple products.

When you write copy for your Facebook carousel ad, it's worth noting that you can give each card its own headline and description. This also allows the algorithm to show your most engaging card first, driving higher engagement and conversion rates than you'd expect from a single-image ad.

The recommended character limits for a carousel ad are:

• Headings: 32 Characters
• Description: 125 Characters

At Hello Starling, we know social media's targeting capabilities are second to none, and we can help you deliver results with creative campaigns that stop the scroll, no matter your audience's platform. Find out more about our social media advertising services here and get in touch to start your project.

Paid social ad copy on Instagram

As you'd expect, Instagram is all about the visual. However, don't forget that your description is the next place your target audience will look, making an engaging first line all the more important.

Here's how an Instagram ad will appear on your feed:

All that’s needed for Instagram is a short description.

You can add more text below the fold if you need to, but the key message should be within the 125 character description.

Instagram works best when the advert text is clean and to the point (like most ads should be, but Instagram is particularly fond of this aesthetic).

It's also worth noting that hashtags are not needed as promoted ads don’t show up in search.

Paid social ad copy on LinkedIn

While they might not be what first comes to mind in terms of paid social, LinkedIn ads are useful for reaching professional audiences and for B2B campaigns.

Here's an example of how your copy will show up in a LinkedIn ad:

LinkedIn has character recommendations, rather than limits (the same can be said for Facebook and Instagram – the amount you can fit into the description fields for both is much longer than the recommended).

The recommended character limits for LinkedIn are as follows:

• Headline: 70 Characters
• Description: 150 Characters

There is a grey area with LinkedIn in that the description copy may be truncated if the copy exceeds their recommended 70 character headlines and 100 character descriptions.

LinkedIn is accessed via desktop more often than other platforms (42.8% on LinkedIn compared to 1.5% on Facebook) so audiences are less likely to see truncated descriptions as desktop offers a little more space than mobile.

That being said the following is still LinkedIn’s recommendation so your ad-copy is multi-platform friendly.

Paid social ad copy on X (formerly Twitter)

If you haven't taken this from our article so far, every word counts. This is particularly the case for X, where just a line can be all you need to grab attention and stop the scroll.

The recommended character limits for X are:

• Headline: 70 Characters
• Description: 280 Characters

However, you'll need to remember that every link used costs 23 characters. So, if you're planning to have a click-through link in your ad, the effective character limit is just 257 characters.

Paid social ad copy on Snapchat

With 800 million monthly active users across the world, and over 1 in 2 of those Gen Z, Snapchat can be a useful advertising platform if you're targeting younger audiences.

A Snapchat ad will show up as below in a user's feed:

When writing copy for paid social ads on Snapchat, the recommended character limits are:

• Headline/Brand Name: 25 Characters
• Description: 34 Characters

As you can see, Snapchat ads are about visuals. Think of your copy as a complement to the creative, keeping it short and engaging for short attention spans and mobile screens.