Reading Time: 7 minutesThis post was updated on February 18, 2025.
Your call to action (CTA) is the chance to motivate your audience to take real steps toward becoming a customer or client. It can be the determining factor between a lead and a conversion. Many argue that the call to action is the most important part of your site or ad campaign. Skipping the CTA is a grave mistake that won’t bode well for your company. There is a reason the CTA button has become such a staple on site content and in ad copy – five reasons, in fact.
What’s the Purpose of Calls to Action?
Whether you want to ease the customer experience in accessing your provisions, meet their expectations, boost your conversions, or for whatever reason, incorporating CTAs into your SEO and paid marketing campaigns primarily serves one purpose. The importance of a call to action is to improve the likelihood of users taking action as they read your posts and ads. Well-crafted CTAs make it a breeze for consumers to navigate your website and move between your channels to access what they need.
The top five reasons why including CTA buttons is an excellent idea are:
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- CTAs Motivate Your Sales Funnel
CTAs and sales funnels go hand in hand. The calls to action serve as transitions between the phases of the buyer’s journey. They instruct the user on what to do next, prompting them to take immediate action. Whether you want your user to visit your blog, give you their contact information, download an e-book, or subscribe to an email list, you must provoke this action with a well-placed CTA in the sales funnel. Use CTA best practices such as wording the copy on your button in a way that highlights the benefits. For example, use “Get More Tips” instead of “Subscribe!”
The easier you make it to take the next step, the more people will do so. Your CTA creates a better user experience. Instead of making your audience guess and wonder about how to proceed, you give them the answer in an eye-catching, brightly colored button that guides them to the next phase of the buying process. You’ve given your buyers the easiest route to the next step, eliminating the need to solve a problem. Buyers are conditioned to seek out and use the CTAs. Facilitate a smooth buying process by giving the people what they want.
- Customers Want Them
Calls to action aren’t just important for business – customers want and expect them. Many people depend upon the CTA at the end of the page to take the next step. They’ve read your ad copy, are interested in engaging with your brand, and look for the CTA button to learn what to do next. Omitting the CTA can confuse readers and hurt your chances of sealing the conversion. CTA buttons make it easy for customers to do what you want them to do. That’s good for them and good for business.
There are some circumstances when you want your brand to be predictable. Predictability makes your company trustworthy and easy to engage with. The CTA is one area where it pays to be as predictable and intuitive as possible. Visitors look for your “Call Now!” or other CTA button, and feel confused and disappointed when they don’t find it. Strong calls to action on social media, websites, the end of videos, copy messaging, digital advertising, and elsewhere are expected parts of the campaign.
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- They Boost the Success of Digital Advertising
Digital advertising is all about generating hype about your product or service, grabbing consumers’ attention, and encouraging them to seal the deal.
The call to action is the missing puzzle piece that emphasizes the power of the ad copy. Without the CTA, your copy messaging will fall flat. It won’t have the final hook that inspires customers to take the next step.
CTAs are especially important in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Adding a call to action to your PPC campaign will help you convey the campaign’s intent to your audience.
You often have just one chance to make a good impression on your target audience. With PPC ads and other forms of digital advertising, there is no time to waste. Even the smallest missed opportunity can lead customers to pass over your brand in favor of the competition.
Emphasize the importance of a strong, inspiring call to action on your marketing team during the creation of ad campaigns. Make the CTA a focal point of your ad creative.
Otherwise, you run the risk of your campaign falling on deaf ears. For most companies, this isn’t a risk they can afford.
- Enhance Readability and Improve the User Experience
When a searcher lands on your ads or blog post, they likely already know what they’re looking for if they used transactional keywords. In fact, 73% of individuals skim through your content, only spending 52 seconds per post. Bold, strategically positioned call-to-action buttons with a clear value proposition make it a cinch for people to spot your ebook link, contact, or whatever offer you have and take the next steps.
Imagine someone looking for a “plumber near me” and landing on your six-minute post on why your company is the best in their location. Chances are they’ll just check out one or two subheadings that pique their interest and scroll down to your contact buttons to request a quote, chat with support, etc. A brightly-colored “Call Now” button above the fold or “Get Your Home Fixed Today” message at the end of the piece reduces the likelihood that a potential customer will bounce because they can’t find ways to contact you fast enough.
- Encourage Users to Share Your Content
Social share buttons below your products and at the end of your posts allow users to easily share interesting things with their network.
In fact, customers are 16 times more likely to share products they like when presented with sharing buttons. Here’s why: Rather than copying links and leaving your site before logging into a social app to promote you, social buttons allow customers to log into their desired platform right from your site. This reduces the steps one has to undertake to share your offerings, increasing the chances they’ll do so.
Besides referrals, you can encourage users to comment, rate, or react to your content, which increases engagement.
Why Are Call-To-Action Buttons Important?
Call-to-action buttons are important, more so than those placed within your text, as they’re more likely to attract conversions. In fact, CTA buttons get 28% more clicks than those inserted within the general text.
Since they stand alone, CTA buttons are easier to spot. They often use bigger and bolder fonts than calls to action within the main text. The vibrant color blocks that house them beckon your eyes, making them one of the few things someone scheming your post will likely spot.
Are Multiple Calls to Action a Good Idea?
While you can use multiple CTAs in your post, having too many negates the benefits of including them and leaves users wondering what to do/click next. Hence, use a reasonable number of CTAs and make the most important ones stand out to ensure you don’t scatter your efforts.
Why Are Multiple Calls to Action Important?
Occasionally, you may want to feature primary and secondary calls to action in your content to give users several options.
For instance, you’ll often see e-commerce listings feature a “Buy/Shop Now” button and another for those who’d like to “Add to Wishlist.” Having both options ensures you cater to shoppers who are ready to buy and those interested in the products but not ready to purchase yet. The latter are excellent candidates to target with your email marketing campaign and offer incentives for them to acquire the items they were eyeing.
Likewise, you may want several CTAs for different offer tiers to maximize your opportunities to sell products and services to consumers with different budgets.
In short, multiple CTAs (when done right) keep users on your website for longer and provide more avenues to earn conversions.
How Many CTAs Are Effective?
While there isn’t a golden rule for what CTA count is effective, avoid adding too few or too many in one post, as users may leave your site to seek solutions elsewhere.
The problem with a few CTAs is that they may not be descriptive enough to guide users to their desired solutions or leave some without an option to proceed to the next step. Meanwhile, excess CTAs clutter your landing page, leaving visitors unsure of what to do first. Any confusion along the purchase journey hampers the chances of a conversion.
Nevertheless, some pages often need only one CTA, such as:
- Dedicated landing pages
- Contact pages
- Individual service/product pages
How Should You Arrange Multiple CTAs?
Place the primary CTA front and center (ideally, above the fold) where users can easily spot it as they scan your page.
When it comes to ads, place CTAs in the headline to draw attention or at the end of your ad copy. CTAs at the end of your post or ad are a great idea since users often expect one toward the end. More importantly, they come after your value proposition, so visitors already know what you offer and are more likely to follow through with your calls to action request.
The Takeaway: Don’t Ignore the CTA
A call to action is the finishing touch on any type of content. It is the cherry on top that every user (consciously or subconsciously) wants.
Your lead has read or at least scanned your content and may be unsure about taking the next step. The right CTA at the perfect moment can push the person in the right direction, sealing the conversion and, ideally, creating a loyal customer. The CTA can be a subtle or blunt way to tell your customers that they should take action now for the best benefit.
Whether you use your CTA to create a sense of urgency or to gently steer your users toward the checkout line, the important thing is that you do it. Ignoring the CTA is a rookie mistake that could drastically reduce your numbers.
Next time you create site content or ad copy, let your call to action shine. The results will follow.
Speaking of shining, check out these five CTA mistakes that are costing you a bunch of conversions. Or contact us, and we’ll provide a detailed CTA diagnosis for your ads, social media, emails, and website content.
At Vizion Interactive, we have the expertise, experience, and enthusiasm to get results and keep clients happy! Learn more about how our status as a Google Partner, along with our PPC Management, Google Shopping Ads, Social Media Advertising, Amazon Advertising, and other Paid Media services can increase sales and boost your ROI. But don’t just take our word for it, check out what our clients have to say, along with our case studies.
