Best Practices for Creating a Call-To-Action

One of the key components of digital marketing and advertising is the use of a call-to-action. This can include a button or a link that you put on your website, your social media, or within your banner ads, for example.

Before you can start on things such as programmatic advertising and ad optimization, you need to have a clear idea of how to design the most effective advertisements.

A call-to-action is a big part of that, and the following are some critical considerations to keep in mind as you come up with your next one.

What Do You Want To Accomplish?

Before you can create the perfect CTA, it’s important that you know what you want to achieve.

Some of the primary objectives of a CTA might be to generate leads, encourage people to share your content socially, lead nurturing, closing a sale, or promoting a specific event.

You need to have a clear idea of your own goals before you can design a CTA that leads your readers or visitors to take a particular action.

Make It Benefit-Focused

Don’t just ask your customer or reader to do something. Show them why doing that action will benefit them.

If people don’t understand the value clicking your CTA is going to bring to them, they have no compelling reason to do it.

If you create an ad asking people to purchase a book on investing, for example, frame your CTA around the benefit reading that book will bring, such as creating a safer investment strategy.

Make It Instant

No one likes to feel like they’re wasting their time or waiting around for something. We live in a world of instant gratification, and this is important with your CTA.

If you’re asking someone to click your CTA, make sure they get instant access to something that’s beneficial or them.

For example, if you’re capturing leads by giving away a free e-book or whitepaper, have it available right away once someone clicks the call-to-action button.

Give A How

You might already know the importance of including the why in your call-to-action, but do you give the same attention to the how?

One of the biggest reasons CTAs aren’t successful is because while they might outline things like the benefits of clicking, they don’t give the audience specific instructions on the how. Tell them, in very clear terms, how to get the free download, or how to sign up for your emails. If it requires any effort or digging to figure it out, you’ve probably lost them.

Also, make your wording actionable. The first word of your CTA should be something action-oriented, such as download, click, try, reserve, share, etc.

Of course, as a final note, as with anything in digital advertising and marketing, make sure you test it. No matter how great you might think your newest CTA is, you’ll never get it exactly right without some A/B and multivariate testing. You need to delve into how even minute changes impact conversion rates, so try out different options until you have the optimal combination.