How To Know If Your Conversion Copywriter Is Actually Good

Okay, I just had such an interesting conversation that I knew I needed to bring out of the Voxer chat and onto the podcast:

“Should I evaluate how good a conversion copywriter is by how much revenue they generate?”

A multi-6-figure founder asked me this with so much respect and genuine curiosity. And I think it’s a great question that honestly isn’t talked about enough. This brought up so much that I’ve learned and experienced over the last 7 years as a DFY conversion copywriter. 

Today, I’m walking you through what actually determines whether a conversion copywriter is doing good work, what you should actually be measuring, and how to know if you’re getting real value from your investment in copywriting.

This is practical, honest, and essential if you’re considering hiring a conversion copywriter…or if you’re already working with one and wondering if it’s working.

Conversion Copywriting Is Only as Powerful as the Marketing System It Lives In

Let’s start with the foundation: Copywriting does many different jobs. And not all of those jobs are measured by sales.

When you hire a copywriter to build your brand voice, clarify your positioning, or write podcast show notes, those projects matter enormously. But they’re not measured by how much money they generate. A conversion copywriter who nails your brand voice might be the difference between sounding like everyone else and sounding like you. That’s not a direct sale. But it’s the foundation every sale stands on.

When Copy Is About Revenue, the Entire Marketing System Has to Align

This is where so many founders get confused. They assume all copywriting is about driving sales right now. But the best conversion copywriter understands that some of their most important work happens before anyone is ready to buy.

Same with positioning. If a conversion copywriter helps you articulate what makes you different—your unique perspective, your values, your approach—that clarity ripples through everything else. Your messaging becomes stronger and your ideal clients recognize themselves. But you can’t draw a direct line from “positioning clarity” to “$10,000 in revenue” because that positioning still needs to be executed through a marketing strategy. 

Examples of Conversion Copywriting Experiences

For example, I followed up with a client months after they launched their campaigns. The ads I wrote for them got clicks…But they used an outdated sales page  and an email sequence written by someone else and none of it worked together…so the sales were not where we wanted them to be. My ad copy did exactly what it’s supposed to do: it compelled people to click to get to the next step. The ads brought the traffic. However, the emails that came next weren’t cohesive. The sales page someone else built didn’t fit. The funnel had gaps.

“My copywriting brought in the traffic. But the rest of the marketing funnel didn’t hold up. So even though the copy did its job, the business didn’t see the revenue.”

Copy can drive people to the door. But it can’t make them walk through a broken funnel.

This isn’t about copywriting quality. It is about your customer journey through your marketing funnel. And when that is off, you don’t get results, no matter how good your words are.

Think of it like this: You can have the most compelling ad in the world, but if it’s driving traffic to a landing page with confusing messaging, to emails that don’t build trust, to an offer that’s priced way off market, the copy doesn’t get to do its job. The marketing system has to be there.

I’m not shirking responsibility here; I’m saying that we (copywriters) need to take more responsibility. Or, at the very least, you need to be clear on what results you want your copywriter to be responsible for.

If you’re vetting a conversion copywriter, ask them these 11 questions before hiring. 

How Do Conversion Copywriters Measure Success?

Different stages of your funnel need different metrics. And most people measure the wrong thing.

If I write ad copy, we measure success by clicks. If I write a landing page, we measure conversion rate on that page—but only if it has sufficient qualified traffic hitting it. If I write emails, we measure open rates and click-through rates—but only if deliverability and list health are solid. The problem is that people often measure revenue as the success metric for every stage. 

We need to measure the metric that corresponds to the job the copy is actually doing.

Here are a couple examples for you: 

A physical therapist I worked with panicked when his email open rates dropped 50%. He first wondered about the copywriter and subject lines.

But when we dug into the data together, it wasn’t a copy problem at all. He’d recently rebranded and changed his business name. His subscribers didn’t recognize the sender. The copy was fine. The list needed a simple re-introduction sequence. I share more about this in The 3 Questions I Ask Before Fixing Your Email Marketing Strategy.

Another example from the beginning of my career: a client paid me to write a sales page. I interviewed him to get all the information I needed, I captured his voice, I captured the specific nuance that he wanted, and we both felt really good about how it turned out. When I checked back in with him after the launch, his reaction was lackluster. I thought I absolutely crushed writing this sales page. After troubleshooting with him to figure out what happened, it turns out he only had 50 people hit his sales page, and he wanted 100 sales. 

 “You can have the best copy in the world, but if only 50 people see your sales page, the problem isn’t conversion rate. It’s traffic. And that’s not a copy problem—it’s a marketing strategy problem.”

This is where strategy and copywriting have to align. Because if you’re measuring the wrong metric, you’ll never know what’s actually working, what needs to shift, or even who you actually need to hire as a result of what the metrics are telling you.

Curious what it looks like to work with a copywriter successfully? See how Outsourcing Copywriting Helped Micala Quinn Triple Her Teaching Income As A Work From Home Mom.

What Actually Moves the Revenue Needle (Conversion Copywriting Is More Than Just Words)

Here’s what I’ve learned after seven years of being inside these marketing systems: there are five levers that have to work together (in no particular order).

1. 1. Pricing alignment

If your offer is priced way below market value—or above what people perceive as valuable—no copy will fix that. Great copy reveals value. It can’t create value that isn’t there. I’ve seen founders with brilliant copy and strong traffic who still can’t convert because the pricing doesn’t match what people believe they’ll get. When pricing is misaligned, copy has to work twice as hard. 

2. 2. Offer architecture

Is it clear what you’re actually selling? Can someone understand your offer in 10 seconds? Or do people have to read three pages to figure out what they’re paying for? Clarity comes first. If your offer is fuzzy, even the most compelling copy will struggle. This is about positioning and structure, before we ever touch messaging.

3. 3. Traffic volume and quality

Amazing copy on a page visited by 50 people a month is invisible. You might have a 10% conversion rate and still make zero sales. The system needs enough qualified traffic to work. Traffic strategy and copywriting have to align. You need both.

4. 4. Email List Health and Nurturing

The best landing page copy in the world falls flat if the emails leading up to it don’t build trust or establish context. Each piece of copy has to set up the next. Your email list health consists of technical back end things like deliverability AND it also includes how well you are nurturing before you sell or launch. 

5. 5. Messaging hierarchy

Is your core positioning clear? Do people understand what problem you solve, for whom, and why they should care? If the messaging hierarchy is fuzzy, the copywriting will feel like an uphill battle. Strategic positioning has to come before tactical copywriting. Otherwise, copy is just trying to fill gaps like a round peg in a square hole. It’s just not going to work. 

Good copy rides on the shoulders of all these other marketing components 

If you know you are good on all these components, then maybe you can get away with hiring a copywriter that’s just good at writing copy. Nothing wrong with that. But if you’re not sure or if you’re done also being the CMO of your business, you’re going to need a copywriter who can do both. 

Here’s what I’ve learned from seven years of working behind the scenes with multi-six and seven-figure service businesses: Copy is one lever in a multi-lever system. When the other levers aren’t aligned—pricing, offer clarity, traffic volume, email nurture, messaging hierarchy, deliverability—even exceptional copy can’t generate the revenue your business deserves. You need the marketing system around it set up properly to let good copy succeed.

This is why I’ve shifted into a fractional CMO + copywriter model. Because I don’t want to write copy into a broken system. I audit the whole thing first, identify which lever is actually the bottleneck, and then build from there. You can see my testimonials, case studies, and some results here!

When one person owns both strategy and execution, there’s no gap. No handoff where something gets lost. The strategic vision and the words work together. And that’s when you get both conversions AND retention…because let’s be real: Conversion Copywriting Isn’t Enough Anymore (Here’s What Works)

How to Know What Actually Needs to Shift So That Your Copywriting Converts

Before you hire anyone (copywriter, strategist, or designer) you need to diagnose the system.

I think of it like this: You see symptoms and you have a hypothesis. But you don’t know what’s actually happening until you test it.

Here are the diagnostic questions I ask before I touch the copy:

Is there enough traffic hitting this page/funnel/email? If the answer is no, we need a traffic strategy first. Copy won’t matter if no one sees it.

Is your offer priced in alignment with the value you’re delivering? If you’re underpriced, copy will bring people in—but they’ll negotiate or ghost. If you’re overpriced, copy will struggle because the perceived value isn’t there yet.

Is your core messaging and positioning clear? Does your audience understand what you do, for whom, and why it matters? If this is fuzzy, copy has to fill that gap—and it shouldn’t have to.

Are your emails actually landing in the inbox? Open rates dropped? Check deliverability. This is a technical issue, not a copy issue.

Does your messaging make sense across all touchpoints? Has your messaging been updated to reflect your current evolution of your business and your brand? It all needs to be coherent across the entire customer journey. 

“Before you change the copy, diagnose the marketing system. Sometimes the copy is perfect—the funnel just needs alignment.”

Is your goal to get reach, to build trust, or to sell? Each of these different types of content would have different metrics that are appropriate.

Once you answer these honest questions, you know where to focus. And more importantly, you know which outcomes to actually measure and build a system that works.

Why This Matters for Your Business (And Your Peace of Mind)

Here’s what happens when you understand this:

You stop blaming copy for strategy gaps. You stop second-guessing your messaging when the real problem is pricing or traffic or mismatched goals.

And you finally hire the right expert for the actual problem.

If your copy is the issue? Find a brilliant copywriter. If your offer clarity is fuzzy? You need strategy first. If you’re not driving enough traffic? That’s a different lever entirely.

The goal is to set up a system where good copy can actually do its job.

This is also why I have a fractional CMO + copywriter model. Because I want full visibility into your marketing system. I want to audit what’s actually blocking your revenue, build your customized marketing strategy first, and then execute the copy in a way that works inside a healthy system.

When one person owns both the strategy and the words, there’s no gap. No handoff where something gets lost. No way for a founder to be left wondering, “Is this a copy problem or a strategy problem?”

It’s both. And they have to work together.

The founders who see the biggest revenue wins are the ones with simplified marketing systems and dialed in messaging. Copy is the final expression of that. It’s the layer that makes an already-solid system irresistible.

Let’s Make Your Marketing Work For You (Without Taking All Of Your Time)

Copywriting is essential. But it’s not enough on its own. Revenue comes from a system where copy, strategy, offer architecture, pricing, traffic, and messaging all align.

Instead of asking “Is my copywriter good enough?” ask “Is my system set up for a copywriter to succeed?”

If you’ve hired copywriters before and still didn’t get the results you expected, I hope this gives you some insight as to why that might be and how the way I think and operate makes your success more inevitable. If you’re interested in working together, get started here.

If your marketing system is good and it’s the messaging or copywriting that’s slowing you down, join my free Why Isn’t This Converting? 5-Day Challenge to identify the hidden blocks in your copywriting.