AI copywriting refers to the use of artificial intelligence tools to create written content. This technology streamlines the writing process, making it much easier to create engaging blog posts, social media captions, marketing emails, product descriptions, and other types of content.
But how can it be leveraged correctly? Our comprehensive guide answers all of your questions regarding AI copywriting, including its benefits and limitations, best practices, and popular tools to augment your content strategy.
Table of Contents
What Is AI Copywriting?
The technology behind AI copywriting relies on machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) algorithms that have analyzed vast amounts of data to generate human-like text. By studying language structures, word usage, and writing styles, AI tools can generate content quickly and efficiently.
The global AI market has been growing exponentially in the last few years — it is currently valued at $184 billion in 2024, a $50 billion jump from 2023. While AI has many applications across different industries, in the world of digital marketing, most agencies currently use AI-powered writing tools to boost productivity.
Furthermore, businesses use AI to produce marketing materials such as landing page copy, search engine optimized blog posts, email campaigns, social media captions, and other types of content. These tools are particularly useful for generating large volumes of content or when facing tight deadlines.
How AI Copywriting Works
High-quality written content is key to effective marketing, regardless of the mechanism used to create it. According to Google Search guidelines, “Automation has long been used in publishing to create useful content. AI can assist with and generate useful content in exciting new ways. Appropriate use of AI or automation is not against our guidelines. This means that it is not used to generate content primarily to manipulate search rankings, which is against our spam policies.”
AI and copywriting complement each other by enhancing efficiency and creativity in content creation. AI-powered tools help copywriters ideate concepts, overcome writer’s block, and maintain consistency in their output. While AI handles drafting and automation, copywriters refine and add emotional depth.
Three key technologies power copywriting with AI:
- Natural language processing: With NLP algorithms, AI can interpret context and intent, use sentence structures and synonyms to generate human-like sentences, and adapt to different tones and writing styles.
- Machine learning: ML algorithms are trained on billions of text samples to learn how language works, how ideas are structured, and how different writing styles are applied. Over time, the AI learns text patterns to generate new, original content.
- Generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models: Language models use deep learning techniques to predict the next word in a sentence based on the preceding words. They generate cohesive sentences, paragraphs, or entire articles.
Step-by-Step Guide to AI Copywriting
AI copywriting enables brands and content creators to generate written material more efficiently. How to use AI for copywriting? Here’s a detailed breakdown:
1. Define Your Content Needs
To set the foundation for AI copywriting, establish the purpose, audience, format, and tone of your content:
1.1 Purpose
AI tools need clear guidance on what you want to achieve with your written content. Do you want to educate, persuade, or entertain? Are you trying to build brand awareness, drive traffic, generate leads, or boost sales?
Defining your purpose will help your AI tool tailor its output toward that objective, ensuring it effectively serves its intended function.
1.2 Target Audience
Who is your ideal reader or customer? Age, location, profession, gender, and interests should factor into your audience profile. You should also know the type of language they respond to, whether it’s casual, professional, relatable, technical, etc. Understand what they are looking for or struggling with and position your content to address them.
1.3 Content Type
Each content type has a unique structure and requires specific inputs:
- Blog posts: Longer-form content is divided into sections (introduction, body, headings, and conclusion) for ease of reading.
- Social media posts: Concise, engaging text with effective messaging and an emphasis on relevant hashtags.
- Email campaigns: Personalized content aligned with email marketing strategies.
- Product descriptions: Concise yet detailed descriptions of the item’s key features and how customers can benefit from purchasing it.
- Ad copy: Persuasive, action-oriented text with a focus on selling.
- Video or podcast scripts: Outlines, engaging dialogue, and key talking points for webinars, podcasts, and long-form video content.
- Chatbots: Conversational copy and responses for customer service chatbots increase user interactions and improve service experiences.
1.4 Key Topics and Keywords
Keywords are vital to ensure your content ranks well on search engines. You can further refine keyword density later in the process, but specifying your primary topic and keywords allows the AI to focus on producing content that suits your needs.
Define the core subject of your content and the primary and secondary keywords to include. If you’re creating long-form content, break it down into subtopics or bullet points you want the AI to elaborate on. For example, if you’re writing about sustainability in retail, you could include subtopics like the consumer demand for environmentally friendly products and the benefits of sustainable business practices.
1.5 Tone
Customize the tone of your content to match your brand voice and your target audience’s preferences. Common content tones include:
- Casual: Friendly and conversational content is ideal for connecting with younger audiences on social media or blog posts.
- Formal: Authoritative, professional language is used for academic or corporate audiences.
- Neutral: A factual and informative tone is great for technical content or news articles.
- Humorous: Playful and lighthearted content is highly engaging and effectively creates emotional connections.
- Persuasive: Action-oriented copy is often used in sales or advertising.
2. Tweak AI Settings
AI copywriting tools are highly customizable, so you can have better control over the content creation process. By fine-tuning AI settings, you can get more relevant, accurate, and tailored outputs from your tools.
AI tools will ask for the following inputs:
- Length: You can instruct the AI to generate short snippets (ad copy, product descriptions, social media captions) or long-form content (blog posts, reports, guides).
- Structure: If you are creating long-form content, AI tools can include H1, H2, and H3 headings for ease of reading. You can also generate bullet points, numbered lists, and other formatted elements.
- Writing style: Adjusting writing style (direct, conversational, authoritative, narrative) ensures that the content remains consistent with your established brand messaging and is suitable for your chosen content type.
- Creativity: Setting your AI tool on low creativity generates straightforward, factual content for technical writing. High creativity is ideal for creative writing and brainstorming more imaginative outputs.
Advanced AI copywriting tools may offer options to control keyword density and optimize titles, meta descriptions, and other search engine optimization (SEO) elements.
3. Refine Output
Refining AI-generated content is crucial to ensure it meets your specific needs and audience expectations. Beyond a simple grammar and spell check, you need to take a close look at the output to ensure it is ready for posting. Divide lengthy paragraphs into smaller chunks and add subheadings or bullet points to improve navigation and readability. Ensure that transitions between sections are smooth to make the piece more cohesive.
Cross-check all facts and figures stated and validate the integrity of all sources referred to in the AI output. Ensure the proper use of industry jargon or technical terms, as AI may sometimes misuse specialized language.
Check for repetitive phrasing and add hooks or more compelling storytelling elements to make the content more dynamic and engaging. Rewrite sentences to make them flow more naturally and feel human. If your brand tone is relatively casual, inject more personality or emotional appeal to better connect with your audience.
4. Analyze Performance
Monitor how the content resonates with your audience and contributes to your business goals. Tracking the following metrics will help you gain valuable insights into performance:
- SEO: Google Analytics will show you if specific blog posts or landing pages drive organic growth. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can help you track keyword rankings over time.
- Social media: Management tools like Sprout Social and Buffer track performance to see if your posts resonate with your followers. You can also use social listening tools to monitor sentiment around your content.
- Conversions: Use Google Analytics to track how many website visitors complete a specific action (purchase, newsletter subscription, etc.) after reading your content. If your campaign involves social media and paid ads, use internal sales data to see if they had an impact on conversions.
- Heatmaps: Tools like Hotjar can help you visually analyze how website visitors interact with landing pages, blog posts, and product descriptions. Analyze which parts of your content draw the most attention and engagement.
Gather user feedback to see if readers found the content valuable, engaging, or in need of improvement. You can solicit feedback through surveys, customer emails, support interactions, or even the comments section on your social media posts.
Adjusting your content strategy based on this data will help you maximize the value of copywriting with AI, ensuring all output drives your desired outcomes.
Benefits of AI Copywriting
According to McKinsey, 65% of organizations regularly use generative AI in 2024. This is nearly double the percentage from its 2023 survey. Furthermore, the global market value for AI in marketing is projected to grow to $36 billion in 2024.
Clearly, organizations worldwide are benefiting from and excited by what AI can bring to their operations. Here are the specific benefits of leveraging AI technology for copywriting:
- Speed: AI copywriting tools generate high-quality content in a fraction of the time it takes humans to write. Businesses can generate multiple versions of copy for testing and maintain a consistent content schedule.
- Consistency: AI delivers the same tone, style, and messaging across all content. Brands that maintain a uniform voice are more recognizable and engaging.
- Productivity: Writers can easily overcome creative blocks through AI that provides ideas, drafts, and starting points for content. The technology is available 24/7, so content can be created anytime without delays.
- Customization: Tweaking AI settings enables you to customize its output based on specific audiences, tones, and formats. The ability to personalize content enhances engagement and ensures more targeted and effective communication.
- Cost efficiency: Automating content creation reduces the need to spend money on a large team of writers. Small teams can do more and focus their time and energy on strategy and creativity rather than repetitive tasks.
Limitations of Copywriting With AI
The growing use of AI across industries clearly demonstrates its value and importance to business operations. However, it comes with key limitations that are important to be aware of and mitigate:
- Repetition: AI tools often reuse similar phrases or structures across different sections of a long-form article or even in multiple pieces of content. Formulaic and redundant copy can come off clearly as AI-generated and lacks a human touch.
- Lack of creativity: Because it is trained on billions of existing data points, AI lacks the human ability to craft truly original, imaginative ideas and tell unique stories. AI output often also needs more depth and intricacy.
- Limited emotional connection: It can be challenging for AI to produce persuasive messaging and content that connects on a human level. AI-generated copy often feels impersonal, with no empathy or deep personal resonance.
Because of these stark limitations, AI copywriting still requires human oversight and manual editing to ensure quality, accuracy, and alignment with brand messaging. While experts encourage its use for content generation, many remain firm that AI cannot outright replace content professionals.
Instead, AI is an excellent tool that performs best when given specific instructions and precise input. And its output must be curated and edited thoroughly to maximize its value and resonance with audiences.
Best Practices for AI Copywriting
Using AI effectively for copywriting requires careful planning and robust content strategies. These best practices can help ensure AI-generated content is engaging, accurate, and on-brand:
- Use AI as a supplement: Blend AI's speed and efficiency with human writers’ nuance and emotional intelligence. AI is not a replacement for labor but a supplement to your content creation process.
- Incorporate human insight: Creativity, intuition, and strategic thinking will enhance AI-generated output and make it more engaging and resonant.
- Add creative elements: Unique ideas and personal insights will help make your content more original.
- Choose the right tools: AI copywriting platforms cater to specific needs, whether it’s short-form ad copy, long-form articles, or SEO-driven content. Choose the one that will deliver the best type of content for your strategy.
3 Best AI Copywriting Tools
Copywriting with AI has revolutionized how businesses and content creators generate written material. The following AI writing tools leverage advanced algorithms to produce high-quality content quickly:
1. ChatGPT
ChatGPT by OpenAI is a versatile and efficient tool that generates content quickly and on a large scale. It leverages NLP technology to produce high-quality output, with team and enterprise offerings for businesses and marketers.
Key Features
- Conversational abilities and interactive dialogue
- Multilingual content
- Custom data retention
- Dedicated workspace for team management
Pros
- Quick and versatile
- User-friendly interface
- Regular updates and improvement
Cons
- Occasional inaccuracy
- Repetitive language
Pricing
- Free
- Plus: $20/month
- Team: $30/user/month (billed monthly) or $25/user/month (billed annually)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
2. Scalenut
Scalenut is an AI-powered content research and copywriting tool with a focus on SEO. It streamlines the content creation process from ideation to final draft and refinement, using advanced algorithms to generate keyword-rich, engaging copy.
Key Features
- Automated content outlines
- Customizable brand voice and tone
- Real-time optimization
- Keyword performance and web traffic analyzer
Pros
- Detailed performance insights
- SEO-based content planning
- Real-time SEO score
Cons
- Advanced features are only available in higher plans
Pricing
- Essential: $39/month (billed monthly) or $19/month (billed annually)
- Growth: $79/month (billed monthly) or $39/month (billed annually)
- Pro: $149/month (billed monthly) or $74/month (billed annually)
3. Hypotenuse AI
Hypotenuse AI is a powerful content generation tool that supports a wide range of use cases, from generating bulk eCommerce product descriptions to creating SEO-optimized content. It's ideal for creatives brainstorming ideas or small eCommerce businesses needing to quickly produce hundreds of product descriptions.
Key Features
- Bespoke brand voice
- Automated bulk workflows
- Accurate and optimized image descriptions
- SEO score and checklist
Pros
- Various eCommerce and CMS integrations
- Content in 30+ languages
- Robust SEO monitoring
Cons
- Limited creativity
Pricing
- Entry: $29/month (billed monthly) or $19/month (billed annually)
- Essential: $87/month (billed monthly) or $56/month (billed annually)
- Blog Pro: $230/month (billed monthly) or $150/month (billed annually)
- Blog Custom: Custom pricing
- Basic Ecommerce: $150/month (billed annually)
- Ecommerce Pro: $500/month
- Ecommerce Custom: Custom pricing
AI Copywriting Takeaways
AI copywriting tools offer significant advantages in terms of speed, cost-efficiency, and scalability for content creation. To maximize its benefits, it’s best to use the technology as a supplement, allowing human oversight to refine and personalize AI-generated content for more authentic and impactful communication.
Hiring marketing professionals and top copywriting agencies ensures a robust and effective content strategy aligned with your overall business objectives. They understand how to refine and optimize content for SEO and maximize AI’s effectiveness while avoiding its pitfalls.
AI Copywriting FAQs
1. Will AI replace human copywriters?
No, AI is best used as a tool that automates repetitive tasks and generates drafts quickly. Human oversight is needed to ensure accuracy and add creativity and emotional depth to AI-generated output.
2. Is AI copywriting good for SEO?
Yes, many AI tools are equipped with SEO features to integrate keywords and optimize content structure for search engines. Note that manual adjustments are still required to ensure natural keyword use.
3. Who can use AI for copywriting?
Individual users and businesses across all industries can use AI for copywriting. AI tools are designed to be user-friendly and accessible for individuals with varying levels of writing experience.
