# Messaging

Course: [Google Ads for B2B Teams](https://www.devtutorials.ai/learn/google-ads) · Section: Build the Campaign
Source: https://www.devtutorials.ai/learn/google-ads/build-the-campaign/messaging

> Pick the buyer, the problem and the promise before you write a word of ad copy, then turn them into a one-page brief.

<aside className="gads-glance" aria-label="At a glance">
<p className="gads-glance-title">At a glance</p>
<ul>
<li>Decide three things before writing any ad: <strong>who</strong> is searching, <strong>what problem</strong> made them search, and <strong>what you promise</strong> them on the next page.</li>
<li>Use the buyer's words, not your product team's. Sales call notes, support tickets and review sites are the best source.</li>
<li>One campaign theme gets one core message. Different problems get different ad groups and pages.</li>
<li>Proof beats adjectives. "Used by 1,200 finance teams" works; "powerful, intuitive platform" doesn't.</li>
<li>Write it down as a one-page brief. Ads, landing pages and your LLM prompts all start from it.</li>
</ul>
</aside>

<p>Search ads are short. You get a few headlines of 30 characters and a couple of descriptions. That forces a choice about what to say, and most weak ads come from not making that choice.</p>
<p>This lesson gets you to a one-page messaging brief in an hour or two.</p>

## Buyer, problem, promise

<p>For each campaign theme, answer three questions in plain language.</p>

<ol>
<li><strong>Buyer:</strong> who types this search? Job title, company size, and what they're responsible for. "Finance manager at a 50 to 500 person company who owns month-end close" is useful. "Decision makers" isn't.</li>
<li><strong>Problem:</strong> what happened that made them search today? Think about the trigger: an audit is coming, the spreadsheet broke, the team doubled, a current tool got more expensive. The trigger shapes the headline.</li>
<li><strong>Promise:</strong> what will they get if they click, stated as an outcome they care about, with proof? "Close the books 3 days faster. See how in a 20-minute demo." The promise must be something the landing page delivers immediately.</li>
</ol>

<p>Then add the <strong>reason to believe</strong> (customer count, named logos, a review rating, a certification, a concrete number) and the <strong>next step</strong> (the conversion).</p>

<div className="gads-var" data-goal="trial">
<h3>Example: free trial</h3>
<div className="gads-table-wrap">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Theme</th>
<td>"API monitoring tool" searches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Buyer</th>
<td>Backend or platform engineer at a 20 to 300 person SaaS company, often choosing the tool themselves</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Problem</th>
<td>Customers report API failures before the team notices; current setup is scattered scripts and logs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Promise</th>
<td>Get alerted before customers notice. First monitor running in 5 minutes, no credit card.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Proof</th>
<td>4.7 rating from 300+ reviews; free tier used by 10,000 developers; SOC 2 Type II</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Next step</th>
<td>Start free trial (sign up with work email or GitHub)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>For trials, the message has to lower effort and risk: speed to first value, no card, no sales call. Technical buyers want specifics, so lead with what the product does, not how it makes them feel.</p>
</div>

<div className="gads-var" data-goal="demo">
<h3>Example: demo request</h3>
<div className="gads-table-wrap">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Theme</th>
<td>"Contract management software" searches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Buyer</th>
<td>Legal operations lead or general counsel at a 200 to 2,000 person company</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Problem</th>
<td>Contracts live in email and shared drives; renewals get missed; audit requests take days</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Promise</th>
<td>Every contract searchable, every renewal flagged. See it with your own contract types in a 30-minute demo.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Proof</th>
<td>Used by 600 legal teams; named mid-market logos; average go-live in 6 weeks</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Next step</th>
<td>Book a demo (calendar booking right after the form)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>For demos, the message has to justify giving up 30 minutes to a salesperson. Say what they'll see and why it's tailored ("with your contract types"), and show you work with companies like theirs.</p>
<p>Price signals help too: "plans from" or "for teams of 50+" filters out people who'll never buy.</p>
</div>

## Where to get the buyer's words

<p>You don't need a research project. In an hour you can collect enough raw language to write from:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>Sales call recordings or notes:</strong> the first five minutes, where prospects explain why they took the call. That's your problem statement.</li>
<li><strong>Review sites</strong> (G2, Capterra, TrustRadius) for your product and competitors: what reviewers liked, and what they complained about in the competitor's product.</li>
<li><strong>Support tickets and onboarding questions:</strong> what new customers were trying to do.</li>
<li><strong>Your search terms report</strong>, once the campaign runs. It's the most honest record of how buyers describe the problem.</li>
<li><strong>Lost-deal notes:</strong> why buyers didn't choose you tells you who not to target and what to address up front.</li>
</ul>

## The one-page messaging brief

<p>Write one brief per campaign theme. Keep it to a page. It's what you'll paste into your LLM when writing ads or landing pages, so it pays to be specific.</p>

```text readonly title="Messaging brief template"
MESSAGING BRIEF: [campaign theme]

Buyer:        [role, company size, industry, what they own]
Trigger:      [what happened that made them search today]
Problem:      [in their words, one or two sentences]
Promise:      [the outcome, stated as they would say it]
Proof:        [3-5 concrete facts: numbers, logos, ratings, certifications]
Next step:    [the conversion: free trial / demo / contact sales]
Offer detail: [no card needed / 14-day trial / 30-minute demo / pricing from ...]
Not for:      [who we don't want: students, enterprises >10k, a different use case]
Words to use: [buyer phrases from research]
Words to avoid: [internal jargon, claims legal won't approve]
Regions:      [where this runs, and any local differences in price, language, proof]
```

## Keeping it focused on the buyer

<p>Most B2B ads drift toward talking about the company. Two quick tests catch it:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>The "so what" test:</strong> read each line and ask "so what?" as the buyer. "AI-powered platform" fails. "Flags risky clauses before you sign" passes.</li>
<li><strong>The swap test:</strong> replace your company name with a competitor's. If the line still works, it says nothing specific. "Trusted by leading teams" works for everyone; "Used by 600 legal teams, live in 6 weeks" doesn't.</li>
</ul>

<div className="gads-var" data-region="eu india apac latam mea">
<div className="gads-callout gads-callout-region">
<p className="gads-callout-title">Local markets</p>
<div className="gads-var" data-region="eu">
<p>In the EU, run ads in the language people search in. German, French and Dutch buyers often search in English for software categories but respond better to local-language ads and pages.</p>
<p>Proof should be local where you can: European customer logos, EU data residency, GDPR compliance. Quote prices in EUR or GBP.</p>
</div>
<div className="gads-var" data-region="india">
<p>In India, most B2B software searches are in English. Price sensitivity is higher, so INR pricing, a local customer or two and a clear free tier or trial often matter more than polish.</p>
<p>Be careful that "free" doesn't attract mostly students and job seekers; say who it's for.</p>
</div>
<div className="gads-var" data-region="apac">
<p>Across the rest of APAC, language and buying habits differ a lot by country. Japan generally needs Japanese ads, pages and local proof.</p>
<p>Australia, Singapore and New Zealand respond to the same English messaging as the US, with local currency and time-zone support mentioned where relevant.</p>
</div>
<div className="gads-var" data-region="latam">
<p>In Latin America, run Spanish and Portuguese (Brazil) separately; don't translate one into the other.</p>
<p>Local-currency pricing, local payment methods and support in the local language are real proof points, often stronger than US customer logos.</p>
</div>
<div className="gads-var" data-region="mea">
<p>In the Middle East and Africa, English works for most software searches, with Arabic and French for specific markets. Local data hosting, regional partners and named regional customers are strong proof.</p>
<p>Make the offer concrete, since buyers often see many vague international vendors.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>

<details className="gads-deeper">
<summary><span className="gads-deeper-tag">Go deeper</span> Positioning versus messaging</summary>
<div className="gads-deeper-body">
<p>Positioning is the company-level decision about which market you compete in, against whom, and why you win. Messaging is how you express that to one buyer in one context.</p>
<p>Search ads need messaging, and you can write good search messaging even if company positioning is fuzzy, because the search itself tells you the context.</p>
<p>If you find yourself unable to write a promise that's specific and true, that's often a positioning gap. Note it and raise it with product marketing, but don't block the campaign on it.</p>
<p>Pick the most specific true claim you have and test it.</p>
</div>
</details>

<section className="gads-donow" aria-labelledby="donow-messaging">
<h2 id="donow-messaging">Do this now</h2>
<ul className="gads-checklist" data-module="messaging">
<li data-id="collect">Collect raw buyer language: 5 to 10 call notes, a review export, or a batch of support tickets.</li>
<li data-id="extract">Run the extraction prompt and pick the two or three strongest problems for search.</li>
<li data-id="brief">Write a one-page messaging brief for your first campaign theme.</li>
<li data-id="test">Run every line through the "so what" and swap tests and rewrite the ones that fail.</li>
<li data-id="share">Share the brief with one salesperson and ask: "Is this what buyers actually say?"</li>
</ul>
</section>

Next: **Creating Ads**