Strategy
Copywriting Frameworks for High-Converting Ads
Problem-agitate-solution, before-after-bridge and other frameworks, applied to the character limits of real ad formats.
BenchMarketing editorial team Updated October 2, 2026 3 min readShare
Frameworks will not write good ads for you, but they stop you writing ads that are only about yourself. Each one forces the copy to start from the reader's situation.
Problem, agitate, solve (PAS)
Name the problem, make its cost felt, then present the solution.
"Still guessing whether your CPA is good? Without a benchmark you could be overpaying for months. Compare it with your industry in two minutes."Works well for products that fix a known pain. Keep the agitate step honest; exaggeration reads as manipulation.
Before, after, bridge (BAB)
Describe life now, life after, and how your product gets them there. Good for transformations that are easy to picture: fitness, home improvement, software that removes a chore.
Features, advantages, benefits (FAB)
Turn each feature into what it lets the customer do. "Daily sync" becomes "Your numbers are current every morning". Useful for technical products where buyers need the specifics.
AIDA
Attention, interest, desire, action. Better suited to longer formats like video scripts and landing pages than to a 30-character headline.
Fitting the formats
- Google responsive search ads: up to 15 headlines of 30 characters and 4 descriptions of 90 characters. Write headlines that each make sense alone, because Google combines them. Include the searched topic in several.
- Meta: the first line of primary text and the visual do most of the work. Front-load the hook.
- LinkedIn: speak to the role and its problems; generic consumer-style hype performs poorly with professional audiences.
Testing copy properly
Test one idea at a time: a different promise, a different proof point, a different call to action. Judge by conversion rate and cost per acquisition, not CTR alone; a curiosity headline can raise clicks and lower conversions.
Compare your click-through rates with CTR benchmarks, and check landing page follow-through with our guide to landing page psychology.
About the figures
Benchmark figures in this article come from the BenchMarketing dataset and update when the benchmark pages do. Each benchmark page lists its sources and period; see our methodology.
Sources
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