How to use AI copywriting to get more conversions (without getting caught)

AI is general. It’s built that way. It’s trained off generic content. That’s fine for most use cases.

But not for us. We copywriters need better.

Generic training data = generic outputs = ZERO percent chance people buy your stuff.

From The Big Short (IYKYK, that’s how I said “zero percent chance” in my head)

So what’s the solution?

The Right Way To Think About AI Copywriting

Before we get into how to actually use it to write copy that converts, you need to have an understanding of what it can do and what it can’t so that you can best leverage it.

Why it’s great and why it’s not

Great at: Research, Speed, Generation

AI beat every human at this since the day it came out.

Nowadays though, it can research a whole market in minutes, spit out 50+ angles in 30 seconds, give you the hooks, and generate starting ideas.

You’d be hard pressed to find a mortal who can do that.

This is probably THE biggest advantage of AI. Instead of thinking up angles for hours, you can have a decent rough draft in a few minutes.

Not Great at: Emotions, Strategy, Personal Insights

No matter how much context you give an AI, it won’t be able to understand your audience as well as you do simply because it doesn’t know them. It hasn’t interacted with them.

The main issue with this is it creates soulless copy that doesn’t appeal to your audience’s emotions and as a result, your offer won’t be positioned uniquely. And what isn’t unique isn’t remembered.

All hope isn’t lost though. There’s several things that we can do to improve AI’s functioning in these problem areas to create high-converting copy.

The Solution

One thing that I want to mention first is that you have to actually be a good copywriter or at least know what good copy looks like, because essentially you have to teach this to the AI.

Feed It the Right Data

If you want AI to write good copy, you can’t just type basic details about your product and say “write me an ad”. Sorry, doesn’t work like that.

You need to give it:

Examples of good copy
Key facts about your target audience
Details about your product
Details about the market
Any previous data you have on what works and what doesn’t

Good copy

If you don’t already have your own data base of good ads and good copy, make one. But I would look for old Olgivy ads, https://marketingexamples.com/, and of course, Porsche ads.

It’s also a good idea to screenshot/save any good ads you see while scrolling.

Once you have your examples, you should attach relevant ones to your prompt. This is where free versions of AI tools can be really limiting and it’s important to have paid versions.

Facts about your target audience

Anything and everything you know about WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS.

Especially important:

Their motives
Their desires
Pain points
Age/gender

Once it knows these the copy quality massively improves as it’s catered towards a specific group of people.

Details about your product and the market

Obviously this is very dependent on your product so I don’t have a lot of guidance here, but the more it knows about it the more it can weave in details that would appeal to your target audience.

Data on what works

If you’ve tested ads before with this product, you’ll know what actually appeals to the audience. If you don’t have it, then AI can guess and help you test + iterate. Just make sure you are feeding this data back into AI so it knows what’s working and what isn’t. This will 100% improve future recommendations from the AI.

Tools for AI Copywriting

Claude

Manus

My main tools right now are Manus ($20 a month) and Claude Pro ($20 a month). Manus is really great for huge context and hundreds (literally) of attachments, so it’s my go to for marketing research. Once I’m zoned in a bit more, I’ll give the data from Manus to Claude and work with Claude from there on more of the finer details and iteration.

Figuring out what tools work best for you and how to use them is a bit of a time investment upfront (especially if you do anything more technical like Claude Skills), but it’ll save you minimum 5-10 hours a week.

If you want to see my full copywriting and design tech stack, take a look here (it really is a great read).

Prompt Examples for AI Copywriting

This is all about leveraging AI as much as possible with what its best at. HUGE volume.

Headline prompt

ROLE: 
You are a headline specialist who has A/B tested over 1,000 headlines. You understand:
- Headlines must be urgent and unique
- Words that trigger emotion and action

You can write headlines in multiple proven formulas:
- "How to [benefit] without [pain]"
- "[Number] ways to [outcome]"
- "The [adjective] way to [benefit]"
- "[Do something] like [expert/authority]"
- "What [authority] won't tell you about [topic]"
[NOTE: ADD IN YOUR OWN FORMULAS]

Target audience: [Your audience]
Main benefit: [Core benefit]
Pain point: [Main pain]

TASK:
Write 20 different hooks for [your offer that you gave context for]. Each should hook the reader using different psychological triggers:

- Some start with bold statements (contrarian takes, counterintuitive truths)

- Some start with stories (origin stories, success stories)

- Some start with pain amplification/urgency (cost of inaction, time-sensitive)

- Some start with questions (identity questions, rhetorical questions)

- Some start with curiosity (”secrets”, hidden things)

For each of these, you NEED to feed AI examples otherwise you it will come up with something like: “the hidden secret that industry experts don’t want you to know—the key to achieving ultimate success”.

These will give you a starting point, but most likely will need a good bit of polishing.

Explanatory prompt

Write 5 different ways to explain [specific benefit/feature]. Each should be 2-3 sentences. Use different angles - emotional, logical, story-based, data-driven, etc.

Outline prompt for sales pages

You are a sales page copywriter who has written over 200 high-converting sales pages for digital products, courses, and services. You excel at:

- Writing hooks that grab attention in the first 3 seconds
- Using storytelling to create emotional connection
- Presenting offers in a way that makes price feel like a bargain
- Handling objections smoothly throughout the copy
- Creating urgency without sounding scammy

I'm writing a [sales page/email sequence/ad campaign] for [your offer].

Create a detailed outline including:
- Main sections (with what each should cover)
- Key points to hit in each section
- Suggested CTAs
- Closing

Base this on proven copywriting the copywriting examples that I provided [which you did].

Depending on what you’re trying to produce here, you’ll want to upload examples of good marketing emails or sales pages. If you don’t know where to look (1) sign up to more email lists (you can sign up to mine here) and (2) take a look at https://marketingexamples.com/. Says what it is. Lots of great examples.

What Next?

After you have your AI output, you’re probably going to completely rework it. It does some of the heavy lifting, but you add YOUR personal stories, client successes, specific results, actual experiences.

You make it unique and human, and at the end of the day that’s what attracts people.

– THE COPYWRITER

Copywriting Toolkit