CTA – what is it and how to create it for effectiveness?

Today we are surrounded on almost every side by various messages, advertisements and Internet banners. This, unfortunately, makes it harder and harder for advertisers to attract users and encourage them to interact. However, one of the simpler solutions that can definitely help us get that potential customer is the use of the so-called Call to Action. I will now discuss exactly what it is and provide some tips to consider if we want it to be effective.

What is a CTA?

CTA (Call to Action) is a kind of strategy to attract users’ attention and encourage them to perform an action they desire – fill out a form, make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, etc. A CTA most often takes the form of a short, catchy sentence placed on a graphic, a button or a pop-up window on a website.

Benefits of using CTAs

Using the right CTA in your advertising materials or your website can bring us tangible results at little cost. Among the biggest advantages we can highlight are: 

• Generating a potential customer base
  A call to action can attract new audiences who may become our customers in the future. We can encourage users to visit our website, follow us on social media, or subscribe to our newsletter.
• Increase conversion results
  Call to action (CTA) is especially important in e-commerce. Proper use can significantly improve conversion results and, consequently, the sales results of our online store. Of course, if your main goal is not shopping but, for example, acquiring leads, a CTA will also work well in this case.
• Lower cost of advertising
  Using the right CTA can translate into a lower cost for ads that rely on an auction system (such as Meta Ads or Google Ads). Ultimately, the more catchy the call to action, the more clicks on our ad, the higher the CTR, and possibly, the lower the cost.

Where can we use CTAs?

We can really use CTA in a variety of places. Most often, it is placed in such locations as: 

• Internet ads
  We can use the call to action in our paid online ads. It can be placed on the graphic – in the case of banner ads, but also in the headline or in the ad text. In the CTA, we usually put phrases that are directly related to our ad — if it is a lead ad we will use the slogan „Fill out the form and receive a personalized offer”, and in the case of a sales ad „Buy now at a promotional price”.

• Social media
  It is equally popular to use Call to Action in social media. We can place them in the content of our posts, on the photos or videos we share, and in the bio of our profile. CTAs include: „Learn more about the new collection” or „Check out our offer and take advantage of the promotion”.
• Website
  Our website is also an ideal place to put CTAs on it. We can add them on the home page or individual sub-pages as a button or a pop-up window. However, remember not to overdo the number of different CTAs. It is best to place a few of them in strategic places that your audience most frequently visits. In this case, you do not want to attract users’ attention but to keep them on the site and encourage further engagement.
• Mailing campaigns
  CTA can also be used in your newsletter. By including it in the body of your email, you can increase your audience’s engagement dramatically. For example, you can encourage users to check out the latest offer on your website or read a new blog article.

How to write an effective CTA?

If we want our CTA to be effective, it must be eye-catching and not too pushy so that users don’t feel pressured by us to perform an action. Hence, the golden mean is very important in this, which we can try to achieve by following some of the following tips.

Use direct phrases

When creating CTAs, don’t be afraid to indicate emphatically what you want them to do to recipients. Using imperatives like „Click”, „Check”, etc. will work well for this. Preferably, they should be a direct address to the addressee. Such a tone is far more convincing when taking action than a requesting and sometimes even begging form.

Equally good are phrases in the first-person singular, such as „I am checking”, „I am receiving”, and „I am buying”. This is because using this form makes it easier for our recipients to decide.

Pose a clear message

The user should know what will happen when they respond to our message. Therefore, our CTA must answer questions such as „Why should the recipient click on our ad or button?”, „What action should they perform?”. 

In addition to the fact that our message should be concise and specific – it must also accurately reflect customers’ needs. Therefore, limiting ourselves to just a slogan: „Click” may not be a good idea. It is too dry and does not indicate why the user should click our button. Instead, a CTA: „Click and receive a discount coupon” will definitely work better.

Present benefits

Customers buy a product to be able to do, achieve or express something with it. That’s why it’s important, when creating a CTA, to use arguments that will convince them to take advantage of your offer specifically. What benefits you use depends on what you are offering your audience. You can emphasize, for example, the possibility of saving money, expanding knowledge, and exclusivity. 

Additionally, you can also make a promise here, i.e., inform the user of what they will gain by clicking on a button with a CTA, e.g., „I want to receive a free e-book”, „Receive a free gift”. What’s more, you can emphasize a certain exclusivity in these messages — focus on making users feel that the offer is targeted specifically to them, but its availability is limited. An example might be: „Join our newsletter and receive a 15% discount on your first purchase”.

Take advantage of the power of FOMO

In calls to action, any phrase indicating that the offer is limited works very well: „Today only”, „Take advantage of the last hours of the promotion”. This is related to the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect. Therefore, if our offer is only during a certain time, don’t forget to emphasize it.

Expose the CTA and place it in a prominent place

It should come as no surprise that even the best-crafted CTA may not be effective if it is not placed prominently. Users usually scan a website quite superficially with their eyes and stop at those places that are most prominent to them. Therefore, when creating graphics or preparing your website, consider highlighting the call-to-action button with a more vivid colour or a different font. 

In addition to the proper prominence of the CTA, you should also keep in mind its proper location. We should try to place buttons with a call to action at the top of a website, in the body of an email or blog post. For example, many people limit themselves to adding CTAs only at the end of an article. However, such a solution may not be sufficient, as not every user always reaches the end. 

Remember that audiences are different and have different preferences and expectations, so test different ways of placing CTAs. Also, try to change them occasionally because, as online users, we tend to unconsciously ignore things that are repetitive and in the same place.

Try to change them from time to time, as we tend to ignore things that are repetitive and in the same place.

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How to test whether my CTA is effective?

Whether we have succeeded in creating an effective CTA can be verified very simply, namely by the CTR (click-through rate). This is nothing more than the ratio of the number of clicks on a link to all impressions. For example, if 1,000 people and 40 users saw our ad and clicked on our CTR, the CTR is 4% (the value is always given as a percentage). 

The value of CTR may vary depending on the industry is what product we are selling, as well as the target audience itself. However, it is generally accepted that such a suitable ratio should not be lower than 1-2%. In many cases, a CTR above 3% is already a really super result. 

Another way to assess whether our CTA is effective is to create an A/B test. In short, they involve changing one element (the colour of our CTA, its content, etc.) and seeing which version brings us better results. For example, in advertising campaigns, we can easily perform such tests with A/B tests on Facebook or with experiments in Google Ads For website testing, it’s a good idea to use A/B testing applications. One of the simpler programs, for example, is Google Optimize

Alternatively, we can use a so-called heatmap to test the effectiveness of CTAs on our website. It indicates the areas that most strongly attract users’ eyes. Programs such as Hotjar or Yandex Metrica can be used for this. You can also consider creating a survey for your customers, asking for their opinions (for example, using Surcicate).

Summary

CTA is an extremely important element of our ads, newsletters, or websites. Properly constructed, it can help us increase the click-through rate, which can directly translate into a high conversion rate. The most important thing, however, is that the call to action fits our offer, is prominently displayed and is in the right place.