Ad Creative
Why relatable ads convert worse than specific ones
Short answerA relatable ad is written so that almost anyone could nod along, which means almost anyone clicks and almost nobody buys. Ad copy that converts is specific: it speaks to one person at one moment with one problem, so the right people recognize themselves and the wrong people scroll past. On Meta that matters twice, because the people who respond teach the algorithm who to find next.
“Make it relatable” is one of those notes that gets passed around like it’s obviously correct. Write something everyone can see themselves in. Cast a wide net. Don’t alienate anybody.
It sounds kind. It also produces ads that get likes and cheap clicks from people who were never going to buy.
I’d rather write ad copy that converts: an ad that 90% of the feed ignores and the right 10% can’t scroll past.
Relatable usually means “true of everyone”
When people say relatable, what they usually write is the most common version of the problem. “Struggling to lose weight?” “Tired of ads that don’t work?” “We’ve all been there.”
Everyone has been there. That’s the problem. A line that’s true of everyone doesn’t tell anyone this is for them. It gets a nod and a scroll.
The way I think about it is a timeline. Everyone buying from you is somewhere between the start of their problem and the result they want, and every point on that line is a slightly different person. The mistake a lot of us make when writing ads is talking to people anywhere on that timeline, just kind of vaguely, like throwing a dart.
I’ve lived this one. I went from about 200 pounds down to the 160s, bounced back up a bit on vacation, and got back to about 165. If I was at the very beginning, the message that would grab me is how to lose the first five pounds. Where I am now, it’s how to take those last few pounds off. Those are different ads. A “relatable” weight loss ad that tries to talk to both of me talks to neither.
If you want the offer side of this, I went deeper in why your offer isn’t confusing, it’s aimed at the wrong moment.
Specific is how the right person recognizes themselves
My definition of a concept is one specific person with one specific big problem, at one point in their buying process, with one worldview about it. Everything in the ad serves that person.
When you get that right, the reader has a very particular reaction. It isn’t “yeah, that’s relatable.” It’s “oh, that’s me.”
I was writing an offer for a musician, and instead of generic music imagery, the creative showed the type of musician he is, on stage, doing the thing they want to do. Someone scrolling sees a person who looks kind of like them, playing what they want to play, how they want to play it. And they go, that’s me, I’ll go buy it.
That’s a completely different response from “I can relate.” Relating is a feeling. Recognizing yourself is a decision starting to form, and that’s the response ad copy that converts is built to get.
There’s a bias under all of this too. I like to leave people with a contradiction, because a contradiction gets attention. If you’re too agreeable, people will think you’re nice, but they’re not going to give you money.
Why this matters more on Meta than it used to
Here’s where it stops being a copywriting preference and starts costing you money.
I run nearly every account on broad targeting, which means the ad itself does most of the sorting. The words, the image, who’s in the picture, what moment it describes. Facebook reads all of that and looks for the people who respond to it. I got into how much of that the picture does in why your ad image is doing more targeting than your targeting is.
So think about what a vague, agreeable ad does in that system. It gets clicks from people who were just curious, and every one of those clicks tells the algorithm, “more of this, please.” Whatever you ask Facebook for, that’s what it gives you more of. Ask for curiosity and you’ll get a feed full of it.
Specific ad copy converts better in that system because it does the opposite. The wrong person scrolls past without engaging, which is exactly what you want, because they never teach the machine anything. The people who stop are the ones with the problem you solve. You’ll often get fewer clicks. They’re better ones.
For what it’s worth, I see the same thing in my own organic posts. When I’ve tracked it, my concrete, tactical posts beat my abstract psychology posts by roughly 11 to 1. Abstract lands as “interesting.” Concrete lands as “useful to me.”
When relatable is exactly right
I don’t want to throw relatability out entirely, because it has a real job. It just isn’t the whole ad.
A lot of the ads I write open on a small, relatable trigger, something most of the audience has experienced and would openly admit to. That’s the first domino. But it’s the entry point to a specific chain that ends at a specific problem for a specific person. Relatable gets them in the door, and the specific part is what keeps them reading.
The other exception is going so narrow there’s nobody left. I’m not anti small market, but if the biggest Facebook groups in your space top out at 15 or 20 thousand people, that’s a pond, not a lake. Slice your message down to a tiny corner of an already small market and the algorithm doesn’t have enough people to work with. Specific about the person and the moment is good. Specific to the point of describing 400 people is a different problem.
And be specific about true things. The more detailed an ad gets, the more a made-up detail sticks out. People can feel when something isn’t true.
What to do this week
Take your best current ad and write down, in one sentence, exactly who it’s for: what they’re dealing with, where they are with it, and what they believe about it. If you can’t, or the sentence would fit half the internet, rewrite the first two lines so the right person would think “that’s me” and everyone else would keep scrolling. Run it next to the original and see which ad copy converts.
Should Facebook ads be relatable?
Relatable is fine as an opening, but not as the whole ad. An ad written so everyone can relate tends to attract curious clicks rather than buyers. Open on something familiar if you like, then make the rest of the ad about one specific person, one problem and one moment, so the right people recognize themselves.
Why do my Facebook ads get clicks but no sales?
Assuming tracking and the page work, the usual reason is clicks driven by curiosity instead of intent. Vague or overly agreeable ads pull in people who want to see what it’s about, and the algorithm then finds more of them. Make the ad specific enough that people without the problem scroll past.
How specific should ad copy be?
Specific enough that one kind of person at one point in their problem would recognize themselves, but not so narrow that the audience shrinks to a handful of people. Describe the situation, the moment and the belief they hold. Every detail you use should be true.
P.S. A quick gut check: if your ad could run unchanged for a competitor, it’s relatable. If it only makes sense coming from you, to your buyer, it’s specific.
