Doctrine
Copywriting formulas are not templates to fill; they are conversion-ordered thinking. PAS works because naming a pain earns attention honestly. Before-After-Bridge works because people buy the after, not the product. The formula's job is to keep you from burying the promise under cleverness. Rule of placement: Meta primary text has one job (stop the scroll and earn the click), so pain-first formulas (PAS, SCQA, Before-After-Bridge) usually beat feature-first ones (FAB) for cold audiences. Story formulas (Star-Story-Solution, long storytelling) earn their length only in retargeting or founder-voice posts.
When to use
- Drafting primary text for a new angle (feed it the angle's WHO, PAIN, PROMISE).
- Diagnosing copy that gets glanced at but not clicked: it is usually a formula with a missing step.
- Works with no MCP.
Run it
Write ad copy for this angle:
WHO: [from Angle Writer] PAIN: [verbatim if possible] PROMISE: [from Pain to Promise]
Placement: [Meta primary text (cold) / retargeting / landing page hero]
Voice: [3 adjectives + one verbatim brand phrase]
- Pick the 2 best-fit formulas for this placement and say why in one line each. Choose from: PAS (pain, agitate, solve), AIDA, Before-After-Bridge, 4Ps (promise, picture, proof, push), SCQA (situation, complication, question, answer), Star-Story-Solution, PPPP (problem, promise, proof, proposal), straight storytelling.
- Write one version per formula. Meta primary text: first line must work standalone (it is all most people see before "...more"), under 125 words total, no hashtags, one CTA.
- Label each structural beat inline in a copy of the draft (so I can see the formula working).
- PROOF beats use only real proof I gave you. If I gave none, write the version without a proof beat and tell me the copy is weaker until I supply it.
- If I pasted EXISTING copy instead: name the formula it is closest to, the beat it is missing or burying, and rewrite it with the missing beat restored.
## Guardrails
- No invented proof, testimonials, statistics, or scarcity. A fake "only 3 left" is a formula beat filled with a lie.
- Agitation has a floor: name the pain sharply, never mock the person who has it.
- The first line is 80% of the work. If it does not pass the one-second test for the WHO, the formula underneath cannot save it.
- One CTA. Two asks split attention and lower both.
## Good output looks like
Two labeled drafts a founder can paste into Ads Manager, honest about where proof is missing, with the beats visible enough to learn the formula by reading it.