How to check marketing copy your AI wrote before you publish it

The checks

Twelve questions, each with what real companies do

Quotes are the companies' own copy as captured in the record, tagged verified when seen on the page, in the store listing or in code, and inferred where the record gives our reading. The companies are examples of the mechanic, not endorsements; several of them appear in the "avoid" lists of the same records.

1. Does the copy next to the button say how long the trial is, what is charged today, and what renews at what price?

   "Start your free trial" with the terms somewhere else is the most common gap in AI drafts. The length, the $0 today, the renewal price and the period belong in the same line as the button.

   What companies do

   • Calm's web signup puts Total due today $0.00 on its own line and, under the button, 14 days free, then $6.67/month, billed annually at $79.99 + applicable taxes/year. Cancel anytime. calm verified
   • Superhuman's Stripe checkout shows Due today $0.00 and promises a reminder email 7 days before the first charge after the 30-day trial. superhuman verified
   • myIQ states a paid trial in full on the landing page: Your 1.00$ trial lasts 7 days. Unless you cancel before it ends, your subscription renews automatically at 29.99$ every 28 days. myiq verified

2. Is every proof claim a specific number a reader could check, rather than "thousands of happy users"?

   A round word is not proof. Use one figure with its source and date, or cut the line. Numbers are the companies' own claims; the point is that they can be checked, not that they are true.

   What companies do

   • Leave Me Alone runs a live counter: Join 437,186 people like you who have unsubscribed from a total of 7,521,811 emails. leavemealone verified (site's own claim)
   • 16Personalities shows 326K+ Tests taken today / 1.59B+ Total tests taken / 91.2% Accuracy rating on the homepage. 16personalities--ha-paid-competitors verified (site's own claim)
   • OpenRouter's proof is a count anyone can reproduce from its public API: 457 models, 68 model makers, 116 provider entries at the time of the record. openrouter verified
   • myIQ shows Rated 4.1 / 5 from 151,263 reviews from Trustpilot, and its loader line adds Showing our 3, 4 & 5 star reviews. A specific number with a visible filter is still better than no number, and the filter is the part a reader will remember. myiq verified

3. Does the button name the action and the thing, and change when the offer changes?

   "Get started" and "Learn more" name nothing. The button should say what happens on the next screen in the product's own nouns, and it should not say "free" when the plan picked has no trial.

   What companies do

   • Cleanfox: Connect my mailbox. Clean Email: Try it Now For Free. myIQ: Start My IQ Test. 16Personalities on the locked result: Unlock full results. cleanfox clean-email myiq 16personalities verified
   • Calm's plan picker heading reads Start your free trial of Calm Premium and changes to Get Started with Calm Premium when the visitor picks the monthly plan, which has no trial. calm verified

4. Is every urgency line attached to something that really expires, at a stated moment?

   "Limited time only" with no end date is decoration, and readers who return and see the same line stop believing the rest. If a timer exists, something must change when it ends.

   What companies do

   • Calm's quiz paywall runs a 10-minute countdown. At 00:00 the bar reads This offer has expired, the annual plan is removed and the monthly price goes from $13.49 back to $14.99. The end time is held in the browser, so the same link in a new browser shows the full discount again. calm verified
   • Moonly shows 92% discount reserved for: 10:00. When the countdown reached 0:00, the page kept the same discount and the same price. moonly verified
   • Leave Me Alone's first-visit banner, here's up to 72% off! Deal expires in 11:59:55, restarts in each new browser. leavemealone verified

5. Does the page make one ask?

   A free trial, a discount, a plan list and a newsletter box on one page compete with each other. Decide what the page is for and cut the rest, or move it below the decision.

   What companies do

   • Moonly's paywall shows one plan and no choice: a $4.99 7-day trial into one monthly price, one button. moonly verified
   • Truity sells one thing on the result page, a $29 report, with one price and one guarantee. truity verified
   • The counter-example is also instructive: 16Personalities makes six or more money asks on one result page, all for the same $9 report, and keeps the locked sections visible as scrambled text with counts so every ask points at the same unlock. 16personalities verified

6. Is the price given with its plan, its period and its renewal, instead of "from $X/month"?

   "From" hides which plan the reader will get and what it turns into. State the plan, the period, and what renews at what price. If a cheap first period renews higher, the renewal is the price.

   What companies do

   • Shortical's small print: an intro offer of $8.49 for the first 2 weeks, then $25.00/2 weeks with auto-renewals. The struck $25.00 on the plan card is the renewal price, not an old price. shortical verified
   • Hint: $1 for 7 days, then $34.99 every 28 days; the second number is the one that matters. hint-astrology verified
   • Calm's large $6.67/mo is $79.99 billed annually; the fine print says so in the same block. calm verified

7. If the copy says "cancel anytime", does it say where, and is that the real path?

   AI drafts add "cancel anytime" by reflex. If cancelling needs an email to support, say that; the complaint that follows a mismatch is the one that ends up on Trustpilot.

   What companies do

   • myIQ names the path: You can cancel anytime in Account settings under Manage Subscription, or by emailing help@myiq.com. myiq verified
   • Moonly's terms say You can cancel the subscription by contacting our customer support. That is the path, so the copy should not promise a self-serve cancel. moonly verified
   • Optery's guarantee text states the sequence: cancel, then email support; refunds in 5 to 10 business days. optery verified
   • What a mismatch looks like from the outside: a Superhuman Trustpilot reviewer wrote You can't cancel by yourself!!! You have to reach out to them and ASK FOR IT! superhuman--superhuman verified (one review, self-selected)

8. Is every struck or "save X%" price a price someone paid?

   Anchors built from monthly times twelve, or from the renewal price, are arithmetic, not history. The reader can do the same arithmetic.

   What companies do

   • Calm's quiz annual plan shows $179.88 struck and SAVE 61%. $179.88 is 12 x $14.99, and against Calm's own public yearly price of $79.99 the quiz annual at $69.99 saves $10.00, not 61 percent. calm verified arithmetic
   • Clean Email strikes $119.88 against its $29.99 yearly plan; $119.88 is 12 x the $9.99 monthly price. clean-email verified arithmetic
   • Moonly's 92% DISCOUNT APPLIED is measured against the $59.99 first-month price, not against anything a customer paid before. moonly verified

9. Can the reader verify each claim, or at least see the mechanism behind it?

   "Learns your patterns" and "sleep better tonight" are promises with nothing to check. Name what the product measures, how, and what the reader gets, in units.

   What companies do

   • 16Personalities sells a 33-page personal growth guide and 12 additional trait scores. The number is checkable, and the record checked it: 33 pages for one type, 20 for another. A specific claim invites the check; make sure it passes. 16personalities verified
   • Optery states coverage per tier in counts: 380+, 560+ and 631+ brokers, with the lower count without its Expanded Reach option beside each. optery verified
   • Calm names the mechanism behind its 2026 ads, EMDR-inspired bilateral audio, instead of a bare outcome, and attaches a window to the outcome claim: Feel the difference in 3 nights. calm verified (the claim itself is Calm's)

10. Does the first line say what it is and for whom, in plain words?

    An outcome headline ("Sleep better tonight") needs the category and the job on the next line at the latest. Many of the records' headlines are just the verb and the object.

    What companies do

    • Leave Me Alone: Easily unsubscribe from emails. Clean Email: Clean your inbox of emails you don't need. Then keep it clean. leavemealone clean-email verified
    • 16Personalities: Free Personality Test, with question 1 of 60 on the landing page itself and no start screen. 16personalities verified
    • Calm pairs the outcome line with the category claim on the next line: Calm your mind. Change your life. then The #1 app for sleep, meditation and relaxation. calm verified (the #1 is Calm's claim)

11. Is the trust copy at the step where the reader hands something over?

    Privacy and billing reassurance belongs beside the card field, the inbox-connect button or the data upload, not in a footer. Say what you do with the thing and when you will remind them.

    What companies do

    • Clean Email puts We never sell or share your data ... You can revoke access to your account at any time. on the mailbox-connect step, the scariest step in its funnel. clean-email verified
    • Calm's app answers the billing fear in the trial copy: Worried about being charged by surprise? Calm will remind you 2 days before your trial or subscription renews. calm verified
    • SaneBox puts No credit card required on the trial and takes the card later, in the dashboard, at Buy now. sanebox verified

12. If there is a guarantee, does it state the days and the condition? If not, is there really none?

    "Cancel anytime" is not a guarantee. A guarantee has a number of days and a condition, and the condition should be one the reader can meet.

    What companies do

    • Truity: We provide an unconditional, 60-day money back guarantee on your report purchase. truity verified
    • 16Personalities: 30-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied. 16personalities verified
    • Moonly's 30-day guarantee applies if you can demonstrate that you followed the plan but didn't see any results, a condition few readers can meet. moonly verified
    • Calm's quiz paywall states the opposite plainly: partial refunds are not available. Saying there is no refund is better than implying one. calm verified

Worked example

The twelve checks on a sample landing page

"DreamWell" is an invented product and this copy is an invented sample, written to look like a typical AI first draft. Nothing here describes a real company.

• 01
  Trial terms: fails.

  "Start your free trial today!" has no length, no "$0 today" and no renewal. The reader does not know whether a card is taken or what happens on day 8.

  Fix: "14 days free, then $12.99 a month. $0 today. We email you 2 days before the first charge."

• 02
  Proof number: fails.

  "Join thousands of happy sleepers" is a round word with no source and no date.

  Fix: one real figure with its source ("4.6 from 2,310 App Store ratings, October 2026"), or cut the line.

• 03
  Button names the action: fails.

  "Get Started" names nothing. The button should say what the next screen is.

  Fix: "Start my 14-day trial" or "Take the 2-minute sleep quiz", whichever the next screen is.

• 04
  Urgency: fails.

  "Limited time only" is attached to nothing. No price or offer on the page changes at any moment.

  Fix: delete it, or name the thing that ends and when.

• 05
  One ask: fails.

  Eight lines carry three asks: a free trial, a limited-time offer and a plan list.

  Fix: the page is for the trial. Move the plan list below the decision and drop the offer line.

• 06
  Price with period and renewal: fails.

  "Plans from $12.99/month" hides which plan the trial converts to and whether $12.99 is a monthly or an annual-billed figure.

  Fix: "Monthly $12.99. Annual $X, billed once a year." with the trial converting to a named plan.

• 07
  Cancel path: unknown.

  "Cancel anytime" states no path. If cancelling needs an email, this line is a future complaint.

  Fix: "Cancel in Settings, no email needed", if true.

• 08
  Anchor price: passes by absence.

  No struck price and no "save X%". Keep it that way unless the anchor is a price customers paid.

• 09
  Verifiable claims: fails.

  "Sleep better tonight" and "learns your patterns" give the reader nothing to check: no measure, no data source, no window.

  Fix: name what it reads (phone, watch, a 5-question check-in), what it produces (a bedtime window, a weekly report) and in what units.

• 10
  What it is, for whom: passes.

  Line 2 names the category ("AI sleep coach"). The audience is implied rather than stated, which is acceptable for a consumer app.

• 11
  Trust copy at the scary step: fails.

  A trial that takes a card, or an app that reads sleep data, has no reassurance next to that step.

  Fix: beside the card field, the reminder promise; beside the data permission, what is read and what is not.

• 12
  Guarantee: none, and none implied.

  No guarantee is claimed, and "Cancel anytime" is not one. If there is no refund, say so near the price.

Score: 2 pass, 1 unknown, 9 fail. A page like this is normal for a first draft; the checks are what the second draft is for.