Every click that doesn’t convert is money set on fire – and bad copy is holding the lighter.
Some of the highest-converting eCommerce sites use words you’d find in a 5th-grade book. Because the goal isn’t to impress – it’s to connect. Most brands write like they’re pitching a boardroom. But your customers?
They’re scrolling in sweatpants.
Your product isn’t the problem. Your targeting might even be dead-on. But if your copy doesn’t hook, hold, and help your customer say “yes,” none of it matters.
Joanna Wiebe, founder of Copyhackers, puts it bluntly: “Clarity trumps cleverness.” Most brands get that backwards – then wonder why their ads bleed cash. Bad copy doesn’t just underperform. It compounds losses, amplifies friction, and quietly kills your ROAS.
And the worst part? You rarely know it’s the copy. So you keep testing, keep spending, keep losing. Until someone finally rewrites the damn thing – and conversions spike overnight.
Let’s break down why your copy is quietly wrecking your margins – and how to fix it before you torch another dollar.
1. If your copy isn’t doing the heavy lifting, your ad spend is.
Your copy is either closing the sale – or shoving it onto your budget.
Bad messaging forces good ads to work overtime. And when you don’t see results, your instinct is to boost spend, not rethink your words. You assume the targeting’s off. The funnel’s wrong. The traffic sucks. But what if the problem is staring you in the face on your product page?
Ads attract – but it’s copy that converts. If the message doesn’t land, the conversion never happens. Joanna Wiebe calls this the “leaky bucket” problem – and most founders are too busy pouring in traffic to notice the hole.
You’re not scaling – you’re stuck funding inefficiency. Your CAC creeps higher. Your margins shrink. And you can’t figure out why your great product isn’t taking off.
Real growth doesn’t come from spending more. It comes from copy that does its job.
2. Clarity isn’t a luxury – it’s conversion oxygen.
Design doesn’t sell – understanding does. And if your copy takes more than 3 seconds to “get,” your customer is already gone.
The brain avoids effort. Confusing copy is effort. Neville Medhora, creator of Copywriting Course, teaches the “grunt test”: if a caveman wouldn’t get it, you failed. You’re not writing to impress your college professor. You’re writing for someone on a cracked iPhone, bouncing between apps, half-scrolling.
Simple sells. And clear beats clever every single time. Bad copy makes people pause. Good copy pulls them forward. Friction kills flow – and flow is what leads to “Add to Cart.”
When people hesitate, they leave.
If you’re serious about profit, get serious about clarity. Because clever copy wins awards – clear copy wins wallets.
3. Customers don’t bounce because of bad offers – they bounce because they feel nothing.
Most eCommerce copy doesn’t get ignored because it’s wrong. It gets ignored because it’s invisible. Flat words. No feeling. No punch. Just static.
The opposite of conversion isn’t rejection – it’s indifference. Joanna Wiebe says, “Copy should make your reader lean in.” If your page doesn’t create emotion – urgency, curiosity, desire – your reader bounces. Not because they hated it. Because they didn’t care. And that’s the most dangerous outcome of all.
You don’t need hype. You need humanity.
Speak to the transformation, not the feature list. Sell the after-state, not the spec sheet. Forgettable copy doesn’t just lose sales – it loses trust.
If they don’t feel it, they won’t act on it.
Bad copy doesn’t look dangerous – that’s why it’s so expensive. It hides in plain sight, wrecks your metrics, and steals from your bottom line while you obsess over targeting.
The fix isn’t flashy. It’s not complicated. It’s about writing for people, not platforms. It’s about empathy, simplicity, and words that pull their weight.
If your copy doesn’t convert, your budget isn’t buying growth – it’s buying silence.
If this resonated, here’s what to do next:
→ If you’re tired of content that fills space instead of driving sales, let’s talk. Schedule a quick demo.
→ If you’re ready to turn product pages, email flows, landing copy, and more into silent salespeople for your brand, subscribe to either our Unlimited Standard Plan or Unlimited Professional Plan to get started.
Your story deserves better than generic copy.
We make it unforgettable.