Call To Action

A call to action (CTA) prompts the consumers of a marketing campaign or visitors to a website to act. A call to action can be in text form or as an image, or as a combination of both media. The CTA is often a prerequisite for the user to interact with the site. At the same time, a sensibly placed call to action can increase the conversion rate.

Definition

A CTA is always referred to as a call to action if the recipient is asked to deal with the product in a certain way within the framework of advertising. However, a direct conversion is not necessarily always the goal of a call to action. A CTA is also an effective way to generate leads, or a simply to encourage the reader to stay on the website longer by directing them to other sub-pages.

Possible goals of a call to action

• Purchasing a product
• Scheduling a consultation in a specialist shop
• Viewing a particular web page with more information
• Adding an item to your shopping cart
• Requesting information
• Request for a call
• Application for a newsletter
• Registration on a website
• Agreeing on a test drive at a car dealership
• Starting a download
• Request to read further
• Recommending further products or pages or a website

A call to action is an absolute must in any marketing campaign as it has proven to improve response rates or conversions. Calls to action are not only used in print and online advertising, but also in television and radio spots.

Application possibilties

• Landing pages: Classical landing pages work specifically with CTA to generate conversions.
• E-mails: In newsletter marketing or e-mail marketing, CTAs can play an important role in ensuring that users react to the letter.
• Websites: E-Commerce websites can use CTA to generate conversions and increase sales.
• TV and radio commercials: Radio and TV commercials contain CTAs prompting the user to act.
• Print advertisements: In the print sector, too, advertising is designed in such a way that the consumer is explicitly asked to take action.
• Display ads: Banner advertising usually works with CTA.
• Online ads: Text ads via programs such as Google AdWords contain a call to action on limited space. Google itself recommends these call to actions for text ads.
• Meta Description: Meta descriptions used for snippet in the SERPs should contain a CTA to optimize the CTR.

Placement of the call to action

The CTA should be positioned in such a way that the recipient of the ad can perceive and understand the message. There are two possible ways to position it. It can be placed at the beginning of the ad, called “above the field,” but it is usually placed at the end. This is more effective, because at the end of an end, the user has already formed an impression of the product or business, and is then more likely to respond to the offer. The call to action is therefore the highlight of a text or graphic, for example "Buy xy cheap online now!!" at the end of a product description in an online shop.

Design of the call to action

A call to action must always be formulated in such a way that the consumer does not feel domineered. Instead, it should make them want to act. A call to action should be brief, and should not exceed two sentences - ideally, it should be just one sentence or a few words. The call to action should be clearly distinguishable from the rest of the ad in regards to its appearance.

In Internet media, so-called "buttons" are often used. These are buttons labelled with the action prompt that directly triggers the respective action. Often they stand out from the rest of the website in terms of colour. The design of the buttons is usually very simple and consists of a text element with a contrasting background.

Example of a call to action

In addition to this simple "button solution", a call-to-action can also be combined with a strong image. For example, websites have proven to work with faces because they inspire confidence among visitors. These CTAs are often used, for example, to encourage visitors to make a call.

Click rate optimization with call-to-action

The meta description can be optimized with a call to action to improve the click through rate. The meta description of a website is used by search engines for snippets in the SERPs. When a user enters their search query into the search engine and receives the search results, there are only a few milliseconds before they decide to click on a result. If a call to action is included in the snippet, there's a higher chance that the user will click on this result and be taken to the landing page. The call to action can thus contribute to an improved CTR in the SERP. In this way, the call to action also becomes an important element of on page optimization.

Link with artificial scarcity

The response to a call to action can be improved when working with a so-called artificial shortage. The advertiser creates a sense of scarcity artificially, such as by offering certain discounts only for a limited time or a limited number of copies of the offer. A typical example of artificial scarcity is this call to action: “The first 50 buyers will get 20% off. Get your special offer now!”

Significance for online marketing

Digital advertising media or websites without call to actions often mean that the user will look at the content, but will not act in the desired way. A call to action prompts the user to act. The call to action can be very simple and appear in the body of the text to keep the reader on the page. However, regardless of how a call to action is ultimately implemented, it is a central element of any advertising campaign and just as important for visitors to interact with a website. A call to action is therefore something that all online marketers should consider using for effective search engine optimization.