Do you know the word “CTA”? CTA is an important guideline when running a website or running an Internet advertisement.
However, many people have heard of the term CTA but don’t understand what it means or why it’s important. CTA is a word that you should definitely know if you are doing
web marketing
, and you must make good use of CTAs in order to carry out more effective marketing.
In this article, we will explain what CTAs are, why they are important, and how to use them.
What is CTA (Call to Action)?
CTA (Call to Action) is an abbreviation for “Call to Action”.
There must be a purpose behind running a website or advertisement, such as getting customers to buy a product or register for a free monitor.
CTA refers to the method used to get customers to take action according to the stated purpose on the site/advertisement you operate. A typical example is a case where a button is placed on the LP to explain the product and get people interested, and then to get them to buy the product.
Importance of CTAs
CTA is a measure to get customers to take some action, so it actually holds the key to increasing the effectiveness of advertising and site operations. Therefore, improving the quality of your CTAs will be a major stepping stone to achieving your goals.
CTAs are also important in preventing users from leaving your website. For example, let’s say you’re interested in cosmetics, and when you were looking at a website, you got interested and wanted to buy the product. At that time, if the CTA, such as a purchase button or a website URL with detailed information, is complicated and cannot be understood at a glance, the user will leave even if they are interested.
On the other hand, if you have an illustration that is easy to understand at a glance, or a CTA such as a register button or purchase button in an easy-to-understand section, it will be easier for users to take action. In this way, CTA is important in getting interested users to act smoothly without leaving them.
Examples often used as CTAs
An example of a commonly used CTA is the purchase button mentioned earlier. It is also used to encourage membership registration, inquiries,
email newsletter
registration, subscriptions, customer service, etc. CTAs are meaningless unless they can be recognized at a glance on the page, so they are often placed in the following five locations.
Please keep in mind that these locations should be used differently depending on the purpose and compatibility with what you are explaining.
How to effectively use CTAs
Here we will explain how to use effective CTAs. Knowing how to use it can make a difference from several months to several years in terms of its effectiveness, so be sure to understand it thoroughly before using it.
Clarify the actions you want users to take
It is very important to be clear about the actions you want your users to take. If you can’t convey what kind of action you want the user to take, they won’t be able to take action even if they are interested.
For example, if you have a CTA for purchasing a product, rather than simply using text to say “Click below for details,” you can use better text, illustrations, and placement to say something like “↓↓Click below for details↓↓.” That’s fine. Also, be aware of things like changing the color of the text to emphasize it so it’s more visible and makes it easier to understand what to do.
Reduce choices as much as possible
In order to improve the quality of your CTA, it is important to reduce the number of options as much as possible. Even if you are interested, having too many CTA options can dampen your desire to take action.
In fact, there is a tendency in human behavioral psychology called the “law of decision avoidance,” in which people try to avoid choosing one when there are too many options. It’s true that there are cases where providing multiple options makes it easier for users to become interested, but there are many cases where users don’t take action as a result. Therefore, it is very important to carefully select and prepare the options you want to take.
Ideas to visualize the link destination
Illustrations that give an image of
the link
destination and the use of easy-to-understand words also play a role in improving the quality of the CTA.
For example, instead of a lengthy CTA for email newsletter registration that says, “Click here to receive subscriptions (free),” try simply saying, “Click here to subscribe to our email newsletter (free).” By providing concise and easy-to-understand explanations, it will be easier for the other person to understand your content.
In addition, if you introduce “Click here for an article about ○○” in the main body of the article without giving an answer or conclusion, you can capitalize on the user’s desire to know more, which may increase the number of accesses to other articles. .
In this way, if you clearly visualize what kind of page the link is going to and what it can do, you will be more likely to take action.
create a sense of urgency
It is also effective to create a sense of urgency to increase CTAs. When people feel a sense of urgency, they feel like they’ll lose out if they don’t get something now.
The “law of loss aversion” works, which means that people try to avoid losses rather than gain, so if you use this law well, users will be more likely to take action.
On the other hand, if you don’t create a sense of urgency, you’ll end up feeling like it’s not a good time, and in many cases you won’t end up making a purchase. Therefore, by creating a sense of urgency, you can encourage them to take action by showing them “why they need to buy now.”
Ideas to effectively appeal to the visual sense
It is also very important to devise ways to effectively appeal to the visual sense. People who look at websites and advertisements do not read all the text.
Even if I do read it, I only read the main points, and I often make judgments based on the illustrations and the atmosphere of the pages. Therefore, the number of accesses and the effectiveness of the CTA will depend on how visually appealing you are. A typical example is adding bold font or color to only important words or sentences.
In addition, you can use simple techniques such as using warm or cool colors to create an image in the user’s mind, so let’s try a little trick.
Lower psychological hurdles for users
Lowering the psychological hurdles for users is also necessary to increase CTAs. For example, if there are 10 steps required to get a user to take an action, no matter how interested and motivated the user is, it is likely that the user will lose interest.
Additionally, humans tend to be wary and distrustful of things that are new or seem to have no risks, so it is extremely important to find a way to lower psychological hurdles. For this reason, many CTA’s include words that make it easy to do, such as “You can do it in just 1 minute!” or “No need to register!”
In order to prevent users from losing interest in their actions, let them lower their psychological hurdles by showing them how easy it is to do so.
Points to note about CTAs
If you only focus on ways to improve your CTAs, you will eventually fail. That’s because there are some points to be careful about when using CTAs.
Check the data after installation
After you set up your CTA, check the data to see what the results were. The location you set up when creating the page is just a virtual location, and you won’t know if it’s actually accessed or if it’s effective unless you check the data.
If you neglect to check the data, no matter how good the location is, the number of daily accesses will gradually decline without being able to respond to changes. In addition, by checking the data, you can accumulate know-how about successes and failures, such as “what went wrong” and “what went well”, which will become a great asset later on.
Don’t neglect improvements and innovations
In order to improve the quality of your CTA, the most important thing is to keep making improvements and ingenuity. Even websites and advertisements that are already motivating a large number of people to take action are being improved day by day to make them even better. Once you create a page, you should avoid leaving it as is and not doing anything with it.
Depending on the product or service, the number of accesses may change depending on the season or timing, so improvements and ingenuity must be made to respond to these changes. Please understand that steady efforts and improvements can greatly differentiate you from your competitors.
Don’t increase the number too much
Having too many CTA buttons is also a bad idea. This is because if there are too many CTA buttons, it will be stressful for users who are trying to gather information, and the risk of them leaving the site will increase.
In addition, increasing the number of CTA buttons too much will lead to dispersion of user behavior, which may result in ineffective results and the inability to obtain useful data. Therefore, consider the priority of the destination and decide the number of CTA buttons.
How to create a CTA
To create an effective CTA button, focus on the following components:
CTA design
The design of the CTA is very important, so design it in such a way that you can tell at a glance that it is a button. If the button is not recognized as a button or if there is no link attached, it will not be clicked and it will be difficult to convert.
If the same condition occurs on multiple other pages, it may lead to a decrease in the “CVR (conversion rate)” of the entire website. To prevent this from happening, pay attention to the following elements when designing your CTA.
CTA color
It is best to use a CTA color that stands out and contrasts with the background. For example, warm colors such as red, yellow, and orange are said to attract attention, but if warm colors are used in the background of a web page, they will not stand out, so contrasting blue Choose a cool color such as or purple. Since the background of a normal web page is white, use warm colors as is.
CTA size
Generally speaking, the larger the size of the CTA, the better it will stand out. Being too large is not a good thing from a usability perspective, but if you blend it into the background according to the structure of the web page, it will be harder to recognize as a button and this will lead to a lower click rate. In the case of a CTA, it needs to stand out, so make it a large size so it doesn’t blend into the background.
CTA shape
There are many different button shapes, but the basic one is a rectangle, which has a simple and classic image. It is easy to recognize as a button, and its design feels integrated with the web page.
In some cases, a circle, square, or rounded corner may be a better design, but you should avoid designs that are too elaborate or cannot be recognized as buttons. It is also recommended to make the buttons dynamic by incorporating hover effects (changes when the mouse is on).
CTA text
Regarding the CTA button text, we will focus on the following two elements:
labeling
Labeling refers to the so-called text inside the button. Also called a button label, it concisely describes what happens when you click the button. For example, it is effective to include catchphrases that are concise and easy to understand, such as “Register here,” “Download materials here,” or “Register and log in here.”
microcopy
Microcopy is a short piece of text placed around a button. It clearly shows what benefits the user will receive or what purpose they will achieve by clicking the button.
For example, “You can download it for free right away without registering!” “There’s no need to pay! We’ll give you everything for free!” “Easy to register in 1 minute!” etc. will be conveyed in a concise and easy-to-understand manner.
You can also expect to improve your click-through rate by including language that dispels users’ psychological concerns.
For example, use language that clearly states that users will not encounter unexpected problems, such as “You can cancel your registration at any time,” “You can return it within one week,” and “You will not be charged for this sample.” is very effective.
How to improve your CTAs
To improve your CTAs, take the following measures:
reduce choices
One way to improve your CTAs is to reduce the number of options listed on your website. Too many options can cause users to get confused. For example, there is a theory in psychology called the magical number 7, and research shows that humans can only remember up to 7 numbers in their short-term memory.
With too many options, users may get confused and end up not being able to convert any of them. For this reason, try to narrow down your options to only those projects that you really want to connect to your CV.
Clear call to action
By clearly indicating what you want the user to do on the web page, the user is more likely to take that action. Even if a single button with insufficient explanation is placed on the web page, the user does not know what to do.
Since you have no idea what this button is, what will happen if you click it, and what will happen at the destination, there is a high possibility that it will not be clicked.
To improve this, place microcopy with a clear call to action near the button you want users to click.
dispel psychological anxiety
Dispelling users’ psychological anxiety may also lead to improved CTA. For example, by indicating that the button in question is safe, you can dispel the user’s psychological anxiety.
However, simply stating “it’s safe” doesn’t make users understand “what is safe” or “is it really safe?” Therefore, we have taken measures to make people aware of specific details such as “You can try it for free for 7 days,” “Register for free! There are no membership fees!” and “Download is free!” to eliminate psychological anxiety. I’ll do it for you.
CTA case study
CTA is already being practiced by many companies and its effectiveness has been confirmed.
Amazon
Amazon places various CTAs on its e-commerce site. For example, regarding purchase buttons, we have made the labeling easy to understand and have two types of yellow buttons, “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now,” to encourage purchase.
In addition, near the button, there are many microcopies that give details about the product, such as “Best Selling”, “Delivered in XX Days”, “Free Shipping”, and “10% OFF”. This allows you to see at a glance how popular the product is, when it will arrive, whether there will be shipping charges, and whether there is a discount available.
In other words, customers can make a purchase decision right away without having to dig into the website. Amazon has CTA mechanisms like this all over the product page, and this kind of consideration leads to improved usability.
Netflix
When you access the Netflix website, the first thing you see is a very simple structure with an email address input field and a red “Start now” button.
In addition to these CTA-oriented buttons, there are micro-textures near the buttons that dispel anxiety and encourage guidance, such as “Cancel anytime,” “You can watch soon,” and “Start or restart your membership.” A copy is placed. This is a very impressive and easy to sign up CTA.
domino pizza
When you access the Domino’s Pizza website, the first thing you’ll see are the “Delivery Order” and “Take-out Reservation” buttons at the top of the screen.
First of all, the “Order” and “Reservation” buttons are clearly color-coded and arranged at an appropriate size so that customers can quickly make a purchase without getting lost on the website.
In addition, there is a conspicuous red button that says “Click here for more information” just below each advertisement, which clearly guides you to the individual page. It is also worth noting that the size of the button is changed appropriately depending on the size of the advertisement.
summary
CTA is a very important metric when running advertisements and sites. Many people actually design and operate advertising pages and sites based on CTAs.
However, no matter how high-quality advertisements and sites you create, the CTA and number of accesses will eventually decline, so it is important to keep improving and inventing new ideas. Not only will your steady efforts produce results, but you will also accumulate know-how and increase your market value, so try searching for effective CTAs.