AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
I once spent two weeks obsessing over whether every heading on a SaaS landing page should start with a verb. Two full weeks. While competitors were launching features and capturing market share, I was stuck in grammatical paralysis.
This wasn't an isolated incident. Throughout my freelance career building landing pages for SaaS and e-commerce businesses, I've seen this pattern repeatedly: teams following copywriting "best practices" while their conversion rates stagnate. The problem? Most copywriting advice treats your audience like they're all the same person reading the same message at the same moment.
But here's what I discovered after testing copy across dozens of projects: the highest-converting copy often breaks every rule in the copywriting playbook. Instead of following formulas, it matches the specific mindset of people in specific situations.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why "benefit-focused" copy often performs worse than feature-heavy alternatives
The context-matching framework that doubled my client's email signups
How to write copy that works for your specific audience, not generic "best practices"
The simple test that reveals whether your copy will convert before you publish it
Why landing page design matters less than copy-audience fit
Stop following copywriting formulas that were created for someone else's audience. Start writing copy that actually converts for yours.
Industry Reality
What every copywriter teaches (and why it's incomplete)
Walk into any copywriting course, and you'll hear the same mantras repeated like gospel: "Focus on benefits, not features." "Use emotional triggers." "Create urgency." "Tell them what's in it for them." The AIDA formula, the PAS framework, the before-and-after story structure.
These aren't wrong. They work... sometimes. For some audiences. In some contexts. The problem is that most copywriting education treats these frameworks as universal truths rather than starting points.
Here's what the industry typically recommends:
Benefits over features: Always focus on what the customer gets, not what the product does
Emotional appeals: Tap into fear, desire, or urgency to drive action
Social proof everywhere: Testimonials, reviews, and user counts build trust
Clear value propositions: State your unique selling point prominently
Strong calls-to-action: Tell people exactly what to do next
This conventional wisdom exists because it's measurable and teachable. You can A/B test headline formulas. You can count emotional trigger words. You can measure the impact of adding testimonials. But here's where it falls short: it ignores the fact that your audience isn't reading your copy in a vacuum.
They're coming from somewhere specific - a Google search, a Facebook ad, a colleague's recommendation. They have a particular problem they're trying to solve right now. They're in a specific mindset, with specific expectations, and specific levels of awareness about their problem and your solution.
Generic "best practices" copy treats all these people the same. That's why it often falls flat.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The turning point came when I was working on copy for a B2B SaaS client's landing page. They had decent traffic from Facebook ads, but conversions were terrible. The classic "benefits-focused" approach wasn't working, despite following every copywriting best practice in the book.
The client sold project management software to creative agencies. The existing landing page led with emotional benefits: "Stop feeling overwhelmed by scattered projects" and "Finally get your team organized." It had testimonials, social proof, and a clear value proposition. By every copywriting standard, it should have worked.
But here's what I discovered when I dug into their analytics: most visitors were bouncing within seconds. The "direct" traffic (which was actually people typing the URL after seeing their ads) showed the same pattern. People weren't even scrolling to see the testimonials.
So I tried something that went against everything I'd been taught.
Instead of emotional appeals, I rewrote the page to focus entirely on features. The new headline read: "Project Management Software With Built-in Time Tracking, Client Portals, and Automated Invoicing for Creative Agencies." No emotional language. No "transform your business" promises. Just a clear, specific description of what the software actually did.
The results? Conversion rate doubled within two weeks.
Why did this work when conventional wisdom said it shouldn't? Because I finally understood who was actually reading the copy. These weren't overwhelmed agency owners looking for emotional relief. They were people who had already decided they needed project management software and were comparing specific features across different options.
They came to the page asking: "Does this tool have the features I need?" The emotional copy was answering a question they weren't asking. The feature-focused copy matched their actual mindset.
This experience taught me that context matters more than copy formulas. The same message that converts on one traffic source might completely fail on another, not because the copy is bad, but because it doesn't match where the reader's head is at.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After that breakthrough, I developed what I call the Context-Copy Matching Framework. Instead of starting with copywriting formulas, I start by understanding the specific context in which people will read the copy.
Here's the exact process I use:
Step 1: Map the Reader's Journey
I don't just look at the landing page. I trace the entire path someone takes to get there. If they're coming from a Facebook ad, what did that ad say? What was their mindset when they clicked? If they're coming from a Google search, what were they specifically looking for?
For the project management client, I realized people were clicking ads that mentioned "features for agencies" then landing on a page that talked about feelings. The disconnect was obvious once I mapped it out.
Step 2: Identify the Specific Question They're Asking
Every person who lands on your page has a question in their head. It might be "Is this legit?" or "Does this solve my specific problem?" or "How much does this cost?" Generic copy tries to answer all possible questions. Effective copy answers the one question that specific traffic source is actually asking.
I created a simple template: "Someone coming from [traffic source] is asking: [specific question]." Then I made sure the copy answered that exact question first, before anything else.
Step 3: Match the Copy to Their Awareness Level
This was the biggest shift. Instead of assuming everyone needs to be "educated" about their problem, I started matching copy to how aware they already were.
Problem-aware traffic (from content marketing): Focus on problem agitation and solution introduction
Solution-aware traffic (from comparison searches): Lead with specific features and differentiators
Product-aware traffic (from retargeting): Address objections and provide social proof
Step 4: Test Context-Specific Variations
Instead of A/B testing headlines in isolation, I started testing complete copy approaches based on traffic source. The same landing page might have three different versions: one for cold Facebook traffic, one for warm Google searches, and one for email referrals.
For another client (a Shopify store), I created separate landing pages for each major traffic source. The Facebook ad version focused on social proof and lifestyle benefits. The Google search version was feature-heavy and comparison-focused. The email version assumed familiarity and jumped straight to the offer.
The key insight: Stop trying to write copy that converts everyone. Start writing copy that converts the specific person who will actually read it in the specific context they'll read it in.
Test First
Before writing copy, map where readers come from and what question they're asking when they arrive.
Context Match
Write different copy versions for different traffic sources rather than trying to convert everyone with one message.
Question Focus
Lead with answers to the specific question that traffic source is asking, not generic value propositions.
Awareness Level
Match your copy complexity to how much your audience already knows about their problem and your solution.
The results from this approach have been consistent across projects. For the project management SaaS, we saw conversion rates jump from 1.2% to 2.8% within the first month. More importantly, the quality of leads improved - people who converted had clearer expectations and better product fit.
But the most telling result was what happened when we applied this framework to other clients. A Shopify store selling handmade goods saw email signup rates increase from 3% to 8% when we matched their popup copy to the specific product pages people were viewing. Instead of generic "Get 10% off" messaging, the popup referenced the exact product they were looking at.
An ecommerce client running Facebook ads saw cost per acquisition drop by 40% when we created traffic-source-specific landing pages. The Facebook traffic got lifestyle-focused copy with social proof. The Google traffic got feature comparisons and specifications. Same product, different copy, dramatically different results.
The pattern became clear: When copy matches context, conversions improve not just in quantity but in quality. People convert because they found exactly what they were looking for, not because they were persuaded by clever copywriting tricks.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key lessons I learned from testing context-matched copy across dozens of projects:
Context beats cleverness every time. A boring, direct headline that matches the reader's mindset will outperform a creative, emotional one that doesn't.
"Best practices" are starting points, not endpoints. Use copywriting frameworks as inspiration, but always adapt them to your specific audience and context.
Traffic source determines copy strategy. The same offer needs different copy depending on where people are coming from and what they're expecting to find.
Questions matter more than answers. Figure out what specific question your traffic is asking, then answer that first. Everything else is secondary.
Awareness levels vary dramatically. Someone Googling "project management software" needs different copy than someone who clicked a Facebook ad about "feeling overwhelmed."
One size fits none. Generic copy that tries to appeal to everyone usually appeals to no one. Better to be highly relevant to some than vaguely relevant to all.
Test the whole context, not just headlines. The most impactful tests involve changing the entire copy approach, not just swapping individual elements.
The biggest mistake I see teams make is obsessing over copy perfection while ignoring copy-context fit. Your copy doesn't exist in a vacuum - it exists in the specific moment when a specific person with a specific problem clicks through from a specific source.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, implement this by creating separate landing page variations for each major traffic source. Map your Google Ads traffic versus organic search versus email referrals, then write copy that matches what each audience is actually looking for when they click.
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores, use dynamic copy that matches the visitor's journey. Someone viewing a specific product category should see copy focused on that category's benefits, not generic store messaging.