Everyone you sell to already has a problem they want gone, you know, the report that eats every Friday, or the meeting where nobody knows who owns what. That pain was there before your ad, thousands of people feel it at the same time, and they're ready to spend money to make it stop. You can't create that. Your job is to find the pain, hit it in the words they'd use, and show them your product makes it go away.
1. Find the pain
Start with what hurts, because that's where the buying energy is. Listen to sales calls, read reviews, support tickets, and Reddit threads, and write down the complaints people make when they think nobody from marketing is listening. Nobody wants project management software. They want to stop being the person who asks "where are we on this?" at the start of every meeting, and that's the line that sells it.
2. Low information or high information?
Some buyers know the pain inside out, they've tried three tools and they're comparing prices. Others feel it but haven't named it yet, and some don't even see it as a problem, it's just how Fridays go. The less they know, the more you lead with the pain and the less you talk about your product, because a product pitch to someone who doesn't know they have a problem is just noise. The more they know, the faster you get to the point, so give them the price, the offer, or the deadline and get out of the way.
3. What are others saying?
Look at how many others make your claim. When you're first, you can simply say it. Once everyone says it, you have to show how it's true (and better). When every password manager calls itself "secure," the word stops meaning anything, so you prove it instead, with a $10 million bounty for anyone who can break in. And when every feature is taken, stop arguing features and talk about who the buyer is.
4. Write the headline
Most people only read the headline, so it has to do almost all the work. Put the pain in it, in their words, and make it specific enough that the right person feels caught. "Still rebuilding the same report every Friday?" will stop someone who's lived it, and "Reporting made easy" won't stop anyone. One ad gets one idea, and if you have three things to say, that's three ads. People also scroll past anything that looks like an ad, so it helps when your first line looks like something else, like a number, a plain admission, or a question they've asked themselves.
Bad looks like a headline about your product when the buyer is thinking about their problem, or a hook so clever that people remember the joke and forget the brand.
5. Prove it
Every claim needs a reason to believe sitting right next to it, whether it's a number, a customer they'd recognize, a demo, or a short explanation of how it actually works. If you can't back it up, cut it. Then tell them exactly what to do next, and make it one thing.
How it sounds
Write it the way you'd say it across a table, with short lines, one aside, and maybe one piece of slang. Read it out loud, and if you'd feel weird saying it in a conversation, cut it.
Output: an ad that hits a pain your buyer already feels, in their words, and proves you can make it stop.