A specialist conversion writer vs a general copywriter

You've just drafted your first paid ad campaign—a landing page and three Facebook ads promoting your new online course. You're ready to send them to a writer, but you're staring at two options: a specialist conversion copywriter who charges more and wants to dig deep into your sales metrics, or a talented general copywriter who writes crisp, engaging copy and costs less.

They're not the same person, and hiring the wrong one will hurt in different ways.

When a general copywriter is enough

A general copywriter knows how to write well. They understand tone, audience and narrative. They can craft a compelling About page, a witty social media caption, or a brand story that feels genuine. If your brief is to establish voice, communicate a concept, or build awareness, this is often the right fit. They work faster, think in terms of craft and creativity, and typically charge less.

Hire a general copywriter if you're not primarily concerned with driving a measurable action—a purchase, sign-up, or download—or if you're testing a new channel and don't yet have data to work with. If your campaign is brand-building, community-focused, or descriptive (explaining what you do rather than persuading someone to buy), a skilled general writer will deliver professional, readable copy that serves the purpose.

They're also the right choice early in product development, when you're exploring positioning without heavy conversion pressure, or when budget is tight and you need quality words fast.

When you need a conversion specialist

A conversion copywriter thinks differently. They start by asking: what's the single action you want someone to take, and what objection is stopping them right now? They care about metrics—click-through rate, cost per lead, abandonment rate on the page. They might interview your customers, analyse your sales data, or A/B test headlines. They'll structure a sales page to address the specific friction points your buyer experiences. And they'll tie their work to an outcome: they want to know whether the copy moved the needle.

Conversion specialists cost more because they're treating copy as a revenue tool, not a creative exercise. They take responsibility for performance.

Hire a conversion copywriter if you're running a paid campaign with clear commercial intent—selling a product, capturing leads for a service, driving app downloads. Hire one if you've already got conversion data from previous campaigns and want to improve on it. Hire one if your ads or page are underperforming and you need to diagnose why. Hire one if you're scaling a campaign that already works and need refinement, not a rewrite from scratch.

The cost of choosing wrong cuts both ways. A general copywriter on a high-stakes sales page will produce something that reads well but leaves conversions on the table—your landing page looks great and gets traffic, but nobody buys. A conversion specialist on a brand awareness campaign is overkill and expensive, their expertise unused.

The middle ground is also real: some copywriters—often those with a few years of digital marketing experience—blend both skills. They're good at craft and curious about data. They may charge somewhere between the two poles.

Before you brief either type, know your own answer: is this copy meant to drive a specific, measurable action, or to communicate something broader? Do you have data from previous campaigns? Are you testing an untested channel, or optimising something that's already working? A general copywriter will give you professional words. A conversion copywriter will give you professional words engineered to convert. Neither is wrong—the context is.

When you're ready, Strove makes it easy to find either: filter for copywriters with conversion copywriting credentials if you're optimising for sales, or browse general content writers if you're building brand voice. Read case studies and past work to confirm they've solved your specific type of problem before.