Solved: Finding Top Performing Ad Copy Variations

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your question about finding winning ad copy. It's a really common problem, but the answer isn't just about finding the right report in Ads Manager. The real issue usually runs a bit deeper than just the primary text.

Most people think testing ad copy is about throwing a bunch of different sentences at the wall to see what sticks. The truth is, the best copy is written long before you ever open up Facebook. It comes from a deep, almost uncomfortable understanding of your customer and the problem you're solving for them. I'll walk you through how we approach this, from the ground up.

We'll need to look at your offer first...

Before we even touch on ad copy, we have to talk about the offer. This is the number one reason I see campaigns fail, hands down. You can have the best copywriter in the world, but they can't sell something nobody wants, or something that's poorly positioned.

You're asking how to find the winning "primary text", but the real question is: is your offer a "vitamin" or a "painkiller"? A vitamin is nice to have. A painkiller solves an immediate, urgent, and often expensive problem. Your ad copy's job is to communicate that you're selling a painkiller.

I remember one client who sold "brand films". Their ads weren't working. The offer was a vitamin. We helped them reframe it. They stopped selling a "brand film" and started selling a solution for a specific audience: "talented architectural firms who are brilliant at their craft but struggle to build a customer base". They weren't selling a video anymore; they were selling an end to the frustration of being the best-kept secret in their industry. Their new offer was a "1-Day Filming Process" that turned their expertise into a tangible asset to win bigger projects. The copy practically wrote itself after that, because it was now attached to an urgent, emotional problem.

So, before you write another line of copy, ask yourself: what is the real pain you're solving? If you can't articulate it in one sentence, your audience definitely won't be able to figure it out from a Facebook ad.

I'd say you need to target nightmares, not people...

This leads to the next point, which is the foundation of all great ad copy: your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Most businesses create these sterile, useless demographic profiles. "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees". That tells you nothing. It leads to generic ads that speak to no one.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. By their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Think about it:

• A Head of Engineering isn't just a job title. She's a leader terrified that her best developers are about to quit because their workflow is a complete mess. That's her nightmare.
• For a legal tech SaaS, the nightmare isn't 'needing document management'. It's 'a senior partner missing a critical filing deadline, exposing the firm to a multi-million-pound malpractice suit'.
• An eCommerce founder's nightmare isn't "low conversion rate". It's staring at a warehouse full of inventory she's paid for, knowing she's a few bad months away from having to lay off her small team.

When you understand the nightmare, you understand the emotional levers you need to pull in your copy. Everything else is just noise. I've put together a small flowchart to help you map this out for your own customers.

You probably should use a proven framework...

Once you've identified the nightmare, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You can pour that insight into proven copywriting frameworks that are designed to trigger a response. Here are a couple we use constantly.

1. Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)

This is perfect for high-touch services. You state the problem, poke the bruise to make it hurt more, and then present your service as the ultimate relief.

Example for a fractional CFO service:

• Problem: "Are your cash flow projections just a shot in the dark?"
• Agitate: "Are you one bad month away from a payroll crisis while your competitors are confidently raising their next round?"
• Solve: "Get expert financial strategy for a fraction of a full-time hire. We build dashboards that turn uncertainty into predictable growth."

2. Before-After-Bridge (BAB)

This works wonders for SaaS products. You paint a picture of their current frustrating reality (the Before state), show them the dream scenario (the After state), and position your product as the vehicle to get them there (the Bridge).

Example for a FinOps platform:

• Before: "Your AWS bill just arrived. It’s 30% higher than last month, and your engineers have no idea why. Another fire to put out."
• After: "Imagine opening your cloud bill and smiling. You see where every dollar is going and waste is automatically eliminated."
• Bridge: "Our platform is the bridge that gets you there. Start a free trial and find your first £1,000 in savings today."

You see how this works? The copy isn't about features. It's about transformation. It's about moving away from pain and towards a desired outcome. This is what gets clicks from the *right* people.

You'll need a better way to test...

Now we can finally answer your original question: "Is there a way to find which variation is performing the best?"

Yes, but you need to be strategic. Don't just test five random sentences. Test five different *angles* based on the frameworks we just discussed.

1. Isolate Variables: Create one campaign and one ad set. Use the exact same audience and the exact same image or video for all ads. The only thing you change is the copy. This is critical. If you change the image and the copy, you'll have no idea what caused the change in performance.
2. Test Angles, Not Words: Create 3-5 ads within that ad set. Don't just change a few words. Write completely different versions based on different angles.
   • Ad 1: A pure Problem-Agitate-Solve ad.
   • Ad 2: A Before-After-Bridge ad.
   • Ad 3: An ad that calls out the ICP directly ("Attention Heads of Engineering...").
   • Ad 4: An ad that focuses on the negative consequences of *not* using your solution.
3. Look at the Right Metrics: Don't get obsessed with Click-Through Rate (CTR). A high CTR is nice, but it's a vanity metric if those clicks don't convert. The only metric that truly matters is your Cost Per Result (CPA or CPL). I'd rather have an ad with a 1% CTR that gets me £50 leads than an ad with a 5% CTR that gets me £200 leads. Run the ads until each one has spent at least 1-2x your target CPA before you make a decision.

You can use Facebook's built-in A/B test feature for this, or just run them as seperate ads in the same ad set and monitor the performance yourself. Often, for copy testing, I find the latter is simpler and just as effective. Once you find a winning copy *angle*, you can then iterate on it, testing different headlines or hooks within that same angle.

To help you see how these metrics interact, I've built a small calculator. Play with the sliders to see how a seemingly small improvement in your ad copy (leading to a higher CTR) or your landing page can drastically change your cost per acquisition.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To wrap things up, finding winning ad copy isn't a simple trick. It's a process that starts with your core business strategy and ends with disciplined testing. Here's a summary of the steps you should take.

As you can see, this is a much more involved process than just writing a few lines of text. It's a blend of deep customer psychology, business strategy, and methodical testing. It's also why many businesses struggle to achieve the results they want from paid ads. They're focused on the final step (the words) without having done the foundational work first.

Getting this right can be the difference between a campaign that barely breaks even and one that becomes a reliable engine for growth. If you feel like you could use an expert eye to help you build this process for your business, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a look at your current campaigns, discuss your offer, and give you some actionable advice on where your biggest opportunities are.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh