skills/ad-copy/SKILL.mdView on GitHub
This applies whenever an ad needs words. It produces copy specific enough that only this company could have written it.
Before you start
This skill works on its own. If the person has their own marketing brain (or any folder of context files about their company), read the files listed under reads in the header first and cite them for every fact. If they do not have one, do not look for one: ask for the two or three facts this play needs and go on. Never invent a fact; a blank is a question for the person.
Tools: this play speaks in verbs (check the CRM, pull the call, schedule the post). TOOLS.md at the root of this repo lists the tools recommended for each verb. The company’s own 1-context/stack.md wins when it exists. No tool is required; a spreadsheet and a mail client cover most of it.
The play
- Read the context (see Before you start). Take the campaign’s intent (brand, competitor, category, problem), the persona and the offer.
- Pull the persona’s pain and the offer’s outcome from
1-context/personas.md. Source the language from customers: how they describe the problem on calls and in reviews, through the proof tracker. - Write the set per format: headlines that state the outcome or the problem in the customer’s words; descriptions that name the offer and one proof; a plain call to action. Print copy follows the publication’s specs and the booth three-line description where one exists.
- For competitor campaigns: honest comparison, no disparagement, the competitor named only as the search allows; send to the comparison page.
- Clear every claim, number and customer through
permission-check; replace with cleared company claims or role-only proof where not. - Run
brand-voicefor banned patterns, naming and superlatives not on the cleared list. - Deliver as a table per campaign: format, copy, character count against the platform limit, the proof’s tracker row, the landing page.
- For a critique: what works, each violation with the phrase, a rewrite.
What good looks like
- The best operator writes the headline the customer said on a call. Voice-of-customer beats formula.
- The mediocre version stacks adjectives and promises “seamless” anything.
- Good output is an ad a buyer in the segment would recognize as about them, with a claim the company can defend.
Rules
- MUST clear every proof point through
permission-check. - MUST match the landing page’s promise.
- NEVER use a superlative that is not on the cleared claims list.
- NEVER disparage a named competitor.