Refining Ad Copy
Refine takes ad copy you already have and makes it better: tighter wording, corrected grammar, a sharper hook, and a clearer call to action. Crucially, it does not invent anything — no new prices, no new claims, no new statistics. Whatever facts went in are the only facts that come out.
Why you would use it
- Your draft says the right things but reads clumsily.
- Your post is too long for a Telegram caption and needs trimming without losing the offer.
- Your copy has no real call to action and buries the hook in the third line.
- You need the same message in a punchier tone for a different channel.
- Your copy has already been approved by a client, a partner, or a channel owner and must not change its factual content.
If you have nothing written yet, use Generating ad copy instead.
Before you start
- Be signed in. See Opening the AI Creative Studio.
- Check the AI text today meter. Refine spends one action from the same allowance as Generate.
- Have your existing copy on the clipboard, ready to paste.
Step by step
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Open the Studio at https://onflowads.com/telegram/dashboard/ai-studio.
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In the Ad copy card, click the Refine pill. The form swaps from the brief-and-voice layout to the two Refine fields. Anything you typed under Generate stays there if you switch back.
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Paste your existing ad text into "Your copy". This field accepts up to 2,000 characters — comfortably more than a single Telegram post, so you can paste a long draft and let the AI cut it down. Text beyond 2,000 characters is trimmed before the AI sees it.
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Optionally fill in "How should it change? (optional)". This is a one-line editing instruction, up to 300 characters, for example:
Instruction you type What it steers "shorter, add a stronger call to action" Length and closing line "more formal, drop the emoji" Tone and decoration "lead with the discount" Which fact goes in the hook "make it work for a crypto audience" Vocabulary and framing Leave it blank and the AI applies its standard improvements: tighter wording, fixed grammar, sharper hook, clearer call to action.
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Click Refine copy. The button disables itself and the status line reads "Writing…" while the AI works.
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Read the improved version in the output box below the form.
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Click Copy to put it on your clipboard. The status line confirms "Copied to clipboard."
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Compare before pasting. Your original is still in the Your copy box, so you can read the two side by side and decide. If you prefer the original, simply don't use the result — nothing is overwritten anywhere.
What Refine changes, and what it never changes
| It will | It will not |
|---|---|
| Tighten wording and cut filler | Add a price, discount, or statistic that wasn't there |
| Fix grammar and punctuation | Add a guarantee or promise you didn't make |
| Move the strongest idea into the hook | Invent a deadline or a scarcity claim |
| Add or sharpen the call to action | Change your product into a different product |
| Cut the post to fit under 600 characters | Add links you didn't include |
| Rework the tone toward your instruction | Keep formatting other than bold, italic, and links |
That "will not" column is what makes Refine safe to run on copy that has already been signed off elsewhere. It is also why Refine is the right tool when a channel owner has asked for a small change to an approved creative.
Statuses and outcomes
| What you see | What happened | Did it cost an action? |
|---|---|---|
| "Writing…" | The request is with the AI | Not yet — reserved, refunded if it fails |
| Improved post in the output box | Success | Yes, one text action |
| "Copied to clipboard." | You pressed Copy | No |
| "Paste some copy to improve first." | The Your copy box was empty | No — nothing was sent |
| "That request breaks our content policy. Please try a different, on-topic prompt." | Your copy or your instruction matched a content rule | No |
| "The AI couldn't generate that just now — no action was used. Please try again in a moment." | The AI failed to respond | No — automatically refunded |
| "The AI returned an empty result — no action was used. Try again." | The AI answered with nothing usable | No — automatically refunded |
| "You've used today's AI text actions." | Your daily text allowance is spent | No |
| "You've used your AI text allowance (daily and/or monthly). Daily resets at 00:00 UTC, monthly on the 1st." | One of your two text windows is full | No |
| "AI is paused on your account while a review is open. It returns as soon as the review is resolved." | Your account is under review | No |
| "Too many attempts. Please wait a minute and try again." | Too many requests in a short burst | No |
| "AI is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly." | The AI service is briefly down | No |
| "Please sign in again." | Your session expired | No |
| "Network error. No action was used." | Your connection dropped mid-request | No |
Limits and tier gates
- Refine is available on every plan, including Free.
- It shares one meter with Generate. There is no separate Refine budget: both draw from AI text today, alongside every AI text helper elsewhere in the product.
- Two windows apply — daily, resetting at 00:00 UTC, and monthly, resetting on the 1st. Whichever fills first blocks the next attempt.
- Reliability can reduce the allowance. A low or recovering reliability score throttles your text actions until you're back in the Fair band.
- Hitting a wall shows a panel, not just an error: it names the wall you hit and the way forward. Seeing it is free.
Full detail in AI quotas and limits.
Pacing between refinements
After each attempt the Refine copy button disables itself and shows a live countdown, for example "Please wait 30s", before re-enabling. This is normal pacing. The exact wait is shown on the button. The countdown is skipped when waiting wouldn't help — for instance when you're out of quota or signed out.
Rules and edge cases
- Empty input is caught immediately. "Paste some copy to improve first." appears before anything is sent, and costs nothing.
- Very long input is trimmed to the first 2,000 characters; a long editing instruction is trimmed to the first 300.
- Refine does not add links. If your copy has no link, the result won't have one either. Link tracking is part of the Generate flow, not Refine.
- Refining a refinement works. You can paste the result back into Your copy and run it again with a different instruction — each pass costs one action.
- Your instruction is checked too. The content policy is applied to your copy and your instruction together, before any generation. A declined attempt costs nothing. See Content rules for AI.
- Output is sanitised. Only bold, italic, and safe links survive; everything else is stripped. Long results are trimmed at a line break so formatting is never left broken.
- Nothing is saved. The Studio keeps no history. Copy what you want before generating again — a new result replaces the one on screen.
"Shorter" plus "more formal" plus "add urgency" plus "mention the bonus" in one line pulls the AI in four directions. Run it once for length, read the result, then run it again for tone. Two clean passes beat one crowded instruction.
Refine is instructed not to invent claims, but you are still the publisher. Read the result before it goes into a paid placement — especially prices, dates, and anything a channel owner's rules care about.
FAQ
Does Refine keep my links?
Yes — links already in your copy are preserved, as long as they are ordinary web or Telegram addresses. It will not add new ones.
Can I refine copy that the AI generated?
Yes. Copy the generated post, switch to Refine, paste it into Your copy, and give an instruction. That second pass costs a second text action.
Will it translate my copy?
Ask for it in the instruction, for example "rewrite in Spanish". Treat the result as a draft and have a native speaker check it before a paid placement.
Why did it cut my post so much?
The AI is instructed to keep the result under 600 characters, which is roughly the length of a strong Telegram promo post. If something essential was dropped, re-run with an instruction such as "keep the pricing details".
Is my original copy stored anywhere?
The text you paste is used to produce the result and is not kept as a saved draft you can browse later. The Studio has no history page — copy anything you want to keep.
Does Refine check my copy against a channel's rules?
No, that's a different tool. When you're booking a paid promotion, the booking composer has a 🤖 AI compliance check button that reviews your creative against that specific channel's rules, plus 🤖 Fix to pass to rewrite it. See AI helpers across Onflow Ads.
Next: Generating ad images — pair your finished copy with an original promo graphic.