Nice to meet you! My name is Nicole I’m a direct-response copywriter and I’m from Colombia...

Research is the foundation of the process because it builds your frame of reference. That frame of reference is what allows you to generate strong ideas, identify patterns, and make better decisions when creating an ad.

In this process, I am not going to hand you a form with dozens or hundreds of questions to fill out. That is not how I work, and in practice, most people do not maintain that kind of process. What I do is open a document, spreadsheet, or insight bank and record everything I find as I research.

Throughout this stage, I will show you the types of research I conduct and what I look for in each one. Anything relevant — patterns, formats, avatars, ideas, language, audience information, winning ads, and other insights — goes into that bank.

The main goal of research is to find patterns. No ad validates by accident. If something is selling, there is a reason behind it. Our job is to understand that reason, identify what winning ads have in common, and use those findings to create new ideas.

Complete research matters most when you are entering a new niche or are still a beginner. Once you have built that frame of reference, you do not need to start from scratch every time. Usually, you only need to consult what you already have and conduct targeted research when necessary.

Everything that has already been tested — all the data and all the copy research — gives us information. If you have access to it, it would be foolish not to use it.

Analyze

• Winning ads
• Losing ads
• Comments
• Reviews
• Customer research
• Post-purchase feedback
• Internal data
• The copy from the sales page, advertorial, or VSL

Find and record in your insight bank

Anything relevant, anything you did not know, and anything that could be useful:

• Avatars in winning ads
• Types of hooks that performed best
• Types of hooks that did not work
• Avatars in losing ads
• Objections
• Reasons for buying
• Formats that performed best
• Formats that did not work
• Patterns across the ads
• Editing styles
• New ideas that emerge during the research

The goal here is not just to copy other people’s ads. It is to understand how that niche works.

You should find winning ads in your niche, download them, and extract as much information and as many patterns as possible.

Find and record in your insight bank

• Recurring formats
• Recurring avatars
• Pain points and desires being discussed
• Types of stories
• Editing style
• Language being used
• Hook styles

Pure gold

• Focus on the lead versus focus on the character
• Emotional niche versus rational niche
• Simple versus highly produced
• Low emotional state versus high emotional state
• More technical niche versus casual niche
• Audiences being reached

My best ideas are usually not limited to the niche I am writing for. They extend across the entire market. There is a lot of gold here and a way to make sure you never run out of ideas.

Research brands in different niches and different countries whose ads are scaling or working, and ask yourself: what is working in the market that I can adapt to my product?

Find and record in your insight bank

• Different formats
• Different avatars
• Different stories
• New ways to present the product
• Different hooks
• Ideas that emerge during the research
• Different types of proof

So far, we have looked at data and content. But one of the essential parts of generating strong ideas and creating strong ads is understanding who we are talking to, because that changes everything.

The research is divided into two parts: the buyer and buyer research.

01 — Who can actually buy?

Before researching the most obvious audience, ask yourself: what different buyers could exist for this same product?

Note: this does not mean creating an ad for every one of them. It means recognizing that they exist. Then, through psychology, we decide which audience is worth targeting.

02 — Understand your audience

What common solutions are they already tired of hearing about?

What are their main pain points? List as many as possible.

What are their main desires? List as many as possible.

What slang and language does the niche use?

What is the common enemy of this audience, if there is one?

What beliefs do they hold? What do they believe to be true + superstructure?

For micro-audiences, you only need to add a small amount of targeted research. It does not mean conducting completely separate, in-depth research.

I see every ad as being divided into two parts: psychology and communication.

Psychology is everything that comes before the writing. It is the set of decisions that defines what we will do in that ad, who we will speak to, which idea we will test, which format and avatar we will use, and why we believe it can work.

Communication is how that psychology is transformed into copy: which words we use, the order in which we present the arguments, how we build the hook, develop the idea, and lead the person to take action.

Of the two, psychology may be the most important. An ad can use simple communication and still sell a lot if the decisions behind it are strong. But excellent communication will rarely save a weak idea or a poorly conceived strategy.

Ultimately, being a strong creative strategist is exactly that: making good decisions. Understanding what is worth testing, why it is worth testing, and how to build an idea with a greater chance of selling.

That is why this stage is the heart of the process.

One product can have several potential buyers.

For each ad, there are 2 possible paths:

Note: specificity increases identification, but it can reduce scale.

Here, our objective is simple: DEFINE what should be written.

Actually define what will happen in the ad.

You need to visualize the final result of your ad before a single line of copy exists.

Ideas — rejuvenation product

The idea usually includes:

1. Concept
2. Format
3. Avatar
4. Attention element
5. Persuasion element

The thesis is simply a final test — what helps you determine whether your ideas are strong or weak.

It helps you choose 5 ideas to execute out of 20.

And it is very simple: you need to be able to explain: WHY will this ad work?

Communication is not about writing beautifully, using difficult words, or being a poet. It is about being able to transform strong psychology into a clear, interesting, and persuasive message.

I like to think of psychology as the gift and communication as the wrapping. You can have an excellent gift, but if the wrapping is poor, it can lose attention and value. At the same time, beautiful wrapping cannot save a bad gift.

The goal of communication is to deliver the psychology to the lead in the best possible way. To do that, we need to capture attention, hold attention, communicate the idea clearly, persuade, and lead the person to the next stage of the funnel.

That is why writing well does not mean writing in a sophisticated way. It means organizing the message correctly, saying what needs to be said without unnecessary detours, and making every part of the copy serve a purpose.

Here, the idea is to understand exactly how a selling ad is structured.

Choose a winning ad

• From the offer itself
• From your niche
• From the market as a whole

Then turn the copy into an INVISIBLE STRUCTURE / COPY SKELETON.

• Example — deconstructing validated communication
• Prompt — extract the invisible structure

Example of an invisible structure

Before writing a single sentence, create your own structure.

Path 01

You can take a validated skeleton and adapt it to your psychology.

Example

Winning ad:

Common solution → why it fails → new solution → proof → product

In your new ad, you keep this sequence but completely change the:

• Audience
• Idea
• Arguments
• Product
• Words
• Format

Path 02

Or you can create the skeleton from your own mind. At first, this is more difficult, but after analyzing dozens or hundreds of ads, you begin to internalize patterns and automatically think:

• “Here I need to attack the previous solution.”
• “Now I need to justify it.”
• “It is still too early to present the product.”
• “Proof is missing here.”

This is the easiest part: you already have your complete idea + format + avatar + structure. Now turn it into a finished ad in one of these two ways.

• Write it by hand.
• Use artificial intelligence to execute it for you.

• UGC Testimonial
• Body Hack (Clickbait)
• Strange Recipe
• Green Screen (Reaction)
• POV (the prospect’s point of view)
• Question Box
• Gossip Page
• Podcast
• Skincare
• Motion Editing
• GRWM