Software has the hardest creative problem in advertising: there is nothing to photograph. In the Hello Radio archive, a live archive of real ads from more than 300 brands refreshed every morning, 31 software and app brands run 6,370 ads, and 68.3 percent use a Learn more call to action, the highest concentration of any category. The longest running is a Datadog ad at 811 days. Measured August 2026.
That combination, heavy on explanation and unusually durable, describes a category that has to teach before it can sell.
Nobody buys software from a feed
| Call to action | Share of software ads |
|---|---|
| Learn more | 68.3% |
| Sign up | 18.2% |
| Download | 2.7% |
| See details | 2.6% |
| Listen now | 1.9% |
Compare apparel at 98 percent Shop now. Software is the mirror image, and for a good reason. Buying software means changing how you work, and often convincing other people. That decision does not happen between two scrolls.
Sign up at 18.2 percent is the free trial path, which is the category's version of a low-commitment first step. It works because the real conversion happens inside the product, not in the ad.
Software creative is durable
At 16.6 percent of ads still running past 90 days, software sits well above the archive-wide 9.8 percent, behind travel at 24.7 percent and pets at 19.4 percent.
The reason is the same as travel's, arrived at differently. A software product's core value proposition does not change seasonally. If an ad explaining what your product does was true in March, it is still true in September. There is no drop, no season, no expiring promotion forcing turnover.
The 811-day Datadog ad is the extreme version. So is Shopify at 791 days. Both are among the longest running ads in the entire archive, and both belong to companies that found a way to state their value clearly and then simply kept saying it. See when should you turn off a Facebook ad.
Version counts are the lowest of the major categories
Software ads average 2.5 creative versions each, below the archive-wide 3.5 and far below retail at 4.7 or auto at 5.0.
That follows from having no catalog. A software company usually sells one product, or one product with tiers. There is no equivalent of showing you a sofa instead of a lamp. The variation that matters is by use case and by audience, which is better handled as separate ads than as versions inside one.
Video carries the demonstration
Software creative is 42.2 percent video, the same share as travel, and notably higher than retail at 17.4 percent or footwear at 15 percent.
This is the answer to the nothing-to-photograph problem. If the product is invisible, show it working. A screen recording of the thing doing the thing is the most honest advertisement a software company can make, and it is cheap to produce compared to almost any other category's video.
The static half of the mix does different work: stating the outcome, naming the customer, and carrying the claim that makes someone curious enough to watch. See static versus video ads.
What a smaller software company should take from this
- Sell the outcome, then show the mechanism. The headline is what changes for them. The video is how. Reversing that order loses people before they care.
- Ask for a small step. Learn more and Sign up account for 86.5 percent of the category. Asking for a purchase in the feed asks too early.
- Name the customer. Generic software copy is the most common failure in the category. An ad that says who it is for qualifies its audience and lowers cost per real lead.
- Let winners run. Software creative can last years because the value proposition does not expire. Replacing a working explainer on a schedule is throwing away an asset.
- Show the product, not a metaphor. Abstract imagery about productivity is the default and the weakest option available.
- Answer the switching cost. In a category where the real objection is the pain of changing, the ad that addresses it directly outperforms the one that lists features.
Common questions
Do Facebook ads work for software companies?
Yes, when the goal is a step rather than a sale. Software ads in the archive overwhelmingly ask for consideration or a trial, with Learn more at 68.3 percent and Sign up at 18.2 percent. Asking for a purchase directly matches how almost nobody buys software.
How do you advertise a product you cannot photograph?
Show it working. Software creative is 42.2 percent video, much of it demonstrating the product itself. A recording of the product solving the problem is more persuasive than any abstract image.
How long do software ads run?
Longer than most. Nearly 17 percent pass 90 days, and the longest in the archive has run more than 800 days, because a software value proposition does not expire seasonally.
Should software ads offer a free trial?
It is the category's most common low-commitment ask after Learn more. A trial works when the product demonstrates its value quickly. If it takes weeks to see value, a trial can convert worse than a guided demo.