The Copywriting Showdown: Comparing the Cost of Humans and AI

If you are a business owner or marketing department head, there is a strong possibility you have encountered the shock that comes with learning how costly professional copywriting services can be. “How much could it be?” you might wonder. Content is just words, right? Can’t everyone write? Yes, but no. Great content is more about writing to sell, than it is about just writing. 

Successful copywriting takes a substantial amount of time and resources, and while you can find cheap writers, generally speaking, you get what you pay for. Oftentimes when you try to cheap out, you end up paying more in the long run. I am talking about having a direct impact on sales, profits and even experience. 

AI has advanced drastically over the years spreading to all industries. It has recently made a splash in copywriting being able to handle the necessary amount of parameters for good copy, completely shaking up the game with its cost-effective, efficient approach to the skill. It is able to generate content at speeds humans simply cannot compete with and can cost notably less. While it can be an extremely beneficial tool, it should be understood that it works best in conjunction with human writers as they both play an integral role in the content creation process. 

How Much Do (Human) Copywriters Cost?

A low-cost copywriter will take the information you provide to them and begin writing based off of that. Conversely, a higher priced writer will sit down with you and try to understand your business and goals holistically, then conduct their own research to inform their strategy for creating the perfect content. 

With all that goes into a successful piece of copy, the high price point should not come as a surprise. Let’s take a closer look at the price ranges for copywriters. 

Craftly AI 

Copywriter $50.00-$200.00 / Hour $29-259 Per Month

SEO Blogging $150.00-$1,200 /Post

Website Copywriting $250-$1,000 / Page

Social Media Posts $30-$80 / Hour

PPC Ad Copywriting $40-$80 / Ad

Product Descriptions $50-$150 / Ad

Case Studies / Essays $500, 5,000

Copywriters

One of the biggest parts of their job occurs before they even start writing which is the preliminary research. Because of their unique ability to quickly learn something new and transfer it into a piece of content that attracts attention, you can expect a good copywriter to charge anywhere from $50.00-$200.00 / hour. 

SEO Blogging

SEO bloggers are a specific type of copywriter who understand the ins and outs of SEO research and writing and are able to put together engaging and searchable content for a variety of clients. SEO blogging has a technical aspect to it which makes it a very niche skill giving these writers the ability to charge anywhere from $150-$1,200 / post.

Website Copywriting

With services ranging anywhere from $250- $1,000 / page, website copywriters are responsible for creating engaging copy that makes people want to stay on your website, engage with it and ultimately fill out a contact form or even better, make a purchase. Writing in a way that connects with people while sticking to the brand voice and nailing the message can be a highly tedious process involving many rewrites.

Social Media Posts

Social media posts require packing a lot of punch into short-form text. This is a unique skill that certain copywriters excel at.  You can expect to pay a social media copywriter anywhere between $30-$80 / hour for their ability to create impact stories in a few sentences.

PPC Ad Copywriting

Ads require you to convince someone to take an action in limited words. While the content output may appear minimal, the copywriter does need to put some time into it to ensure they are nailing the messaging. Copywriters specializing in PPC Ads usually charge between $40-$80 / Ad. 

Product Descriptions

In order for your product to be discoverable, it needs to be written with strong keywords prioritizing its searchability while also convincing the reader that the product will better their life in some way. The product description copywriter is a true craftsman and generally costs about $50-$150 / Ad.

Case Studies / Essays

Case studies and essays are evergreen content that can be used as a lead capture or simply to build your brand’s reputation by demonstrating authority in your industry. You can have a professional write this for you for approximately $500 – $5,000 / piece.

Enter AI 

There is a lot more that goes into copywriting than opening a word doc and typing away. The manual time and effort it takes to thoughtfully research and prepare an effective piece of copy is the reason behind the steep prices copywriters can command. Luckily, the advancement of AI has created a solution making copywriters more efficient and saving businesses money.

AI Copywriters use GPT-3 which is an advanced computing language model that relies on deep learning to produce human text. What this means is by inputting a small amount of descriptive text, you can essentially have a robot write an entire piece of content for you in a fraction of the time it would take a human writer. Not only are these robots extremely efficient in their delivery but they have proven to write better performing headlines and advertisements than their human counterparts. 

The Cost

An AI Copywriter tends to run on a monthly subscription based model which can cost you anywhere from $25.00 – $250.00 / month. 

The Common Misconceptions About AI Writers

So if AI writers are so much cheaper and efficient than human writers and at times more effective, why would you ever hire a human in 2022? Well, AI can create an excellent first draft, alleviate writer’s block by cultivating ideas and generate proven-to-convert headlines but where they are lacking is in the department of human oversight. 

When it comes to sitting down and writing, there are so many factors at play that make the process long winded and tedious. Think of AI as a magical writing acceleration tool. You tell it what you need, it saves you time on research and outline and from there you take what it has given you and piece together what you need in a fraction of the time the task would have taken manually. 

How to Save the Most Money and Get the Best Results

To summarize, copywriting is a niche skill which is why writers come at a cost. On the other hand, you have your AI writing tools which are significantly cheaper but can not carry out the task on their own.

‍So what’s the solution then?

The best way to save money and get the best results is to use both! Think about it. A copywriter is expensive because of the time intensive and tedious nature of the job. By using an AI copywriter as a tool in their own writing process, the copywriter will create better content in less time ultimately costing businesses less money. Sounds like a win-win for all!