Your website is the go-to place that car buyers visit to learn more about your dealership. To drive qualified prospects to your website through paid search ads, you need to engage users with a strong call-to-action (CTA) that compels visitors to click and learn more. The key to an effective CTA strategy is getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Here are five tactics to consider when writing CTAs for your paid search ads.

1. Use a strong action verb to start your CTA

Be clear, concise, and get straight to the point. With limited ad space, you don’t have many words to get your message across. Let your audience know exactly what you want them to do by starting the CTA with a strong action verb. Use words like “buy” or “test drive.” Instead of writing, “the 2017 models are now here,” move users to action by saying “test drive our brand-new 2017 models.” Creating informative, yet direct CTAs will improve your click-through rate.

2. Give your audience a reason why they should act

How will your dealership offer value to potential buyers? Include language like “call today to schedule your free test drive!” or provide some sort of incentive to come into the dealership. You have stated the action you want the user to take, but you have also provided them with a valuable reason why they should take that action.

1. Crafting Strong CTAs: Three Key Features of a Successful Call to Action On September 10, 2018 September 1, 2018 By Ashley Baer In Marketing and Business As long as there has been marketing and advertising, there have been calls to actions.
2. Your landing page or marketing campaign is most effective when it’s built around a single conversion goal. That conversion goal is represented on the page as a call to action. This might take the form of a single button (click-through page) or a form (lead generation).
3. If your CTA is a part of a graphic, David Aneja of Blogreaders India suggests, “A tip writing a high converting call-to-action is to include some cool graphics or designing on the image which excites the viewer.” Be loud with colors and text.

Call to Action Example #3: Gain? Or Just Not Lose? This is far and away the most effective call to action a/b test in this article, and it taps into a psychological conversion factor called “loss aversion.” As the name implies, “loss aversion” is the general idea that people don’t like to lose things.

3. Create a sense of urgency

Fear of missing out is an extremely effective motivator. When there is a sense of urgency, people are quick to jump at the opportunity for fear that it might not come around again. Promote a sale that is running for a three-day weekend or announce that you have a limited inventory of a particular model. Provoking fear of missing out in your CTA is sure to drive traffic to your site; it’s tough to ignore a time-sensitive prompt.

4. Customize CTA for Mobile Ads

Consumers using mobile devices exhibit different behavior and search intent than desktop users. Users searching for something on their smartphones are often looking for a quick answer, so tailor your CTA to meet their need. Mobile searches are often spur of the moment and will also likely result in a phone call. For mobile CTAs, focus on generating more phone calls. You could try something like “call now to learn more” or add a call extension so they can easily click-to-call. Google allows you to set a mobile preference for your ads so you can designate certain ads to only appear for searches completed on mobile devices.

5. Think Outside the Box

Keep your CTAs fresh and don’t be afraid to experiment with some creative content. Use A/B testing to identify which CTAs bring you clicks and which ones don’t generate traffic. You never really know how certain messages will perform until you try them. Test and refine your CTAs to see what brings the most success.

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If you’re running a business, you don’t want people to just read the information you’ve published on your website or blog. You want them to do something, like subscribe to your email list, enroll in a workshop, or buy a product. How do you make this happen? By including a strong call-to-action (also known as a “CTA”).

The problem is that most websites and blogs don’t get as many conversions as they could because their calls-to-action are weak or MIA altogether. So how do you write a call to action that gets your audience’s attention and converts? We break it down below.

Crafting A Strong Call To Action For Conversion Chart

Increase your subscribers, sign ups, or sales by placing your calls-to-action in the right places on your website.

Download my FREE cheat sheet on the 8 key places to insert your call-to-action.

What is a call-to-action?

Before I tell you how to write a strong call-to-action, let’s talk about what a call-to-action actually is. A call-to-action is the part of your website copy where you tell visitors what you want them to do on a page. That is, it calls on them to take some sort of action. (Get it?)

Here’s an example from Coschedule’s home page:

The anatomy of a strong call-to-action

A strong call-to-action contains up to three elements: a headline, an offer, and a button or link.

1. The headline

The headline is the first section of copy in your call-to-action. Like all good headlines, a strong call-to-action headline grabs your visitors’ attention. But that’s not all it does. It also conveys the benefits of what you’re offering in exchange for the action you want visitors to take.

For example, let’s say you want people to subscribe to your email list in exchange for your vegan recipe ebook. If you’re like a lot of brands, you might write a call-to-action headline that looks something like this:

“Get our 35-page ebook, which contains over 50 recipes for vegan appetizers, entrées, and desserts.”

What’s the problem with this headline? It focuses on the features of the ebook instead of on the benefits. As I’ve mentioned before, focusing on features instead of benefits is one of the biggest website copywriting mistakes you can make. Why? Because your audience doesn’t care about the specs of your products or services. They want to know what’s in it for them.

Write a strong call-to-action headline that hooks your website visitors by staying laser focused on the benefits of your offer. Here’s how I revised the vegan ebook headline:

“Make weeknight vegan dinners simple so you can spend more time with friends and family.”

Note that you might not always include a headline in your call-to-action. It makes sense to include one in the main calls-to-action on your website. See this example from Melyssa Griffin’s home page:

However, if you decide to insert calls-to-action in the middle of content or copy on a page, leaving the headline out might be less disruptive and create a better user experience. Check out this call-to-action in one of Neil Patel’s blog posts:

Related:

2. The offer

The next section of a strong call-to-action is the offer. This is where you tell your visitors in plain English what you want them to do and what you’ll give them in return.

It can be tempting to be unique or quirky by writing clever offer copy. However, your visitors are most likely to follow your call-to-action if you make it clear. Good offer copy is short and to the point, so don’t beat around the bush or craft cryptic messages.

Here’s an example of offer copy for the vegan ebook example:

“Make weeknight vegan dinners simple so you can spend more time with friends and family.

Get 50 free recipes of easy-to-make vegan appetizers, entrées, and dessert.”

You can also take a look at this example from HubSpot:

3. The button or link

A strong call-to-action ends with a button or link. This is what your website visitors click on if they decide to take action.

It can be tempting to quickly throw together some copy for your button or link so you can get your call-to-action done. After all, you’ve already spent lots of time crafting your headline and offer copy. But remember that the copy you use on your button or in your link text can make the difference between a website visitor who converts and one who doesn’t.

Instead of using vague or dreaded words like “submit,” “learn more,” or “buy” in your button or link, be specific.

One trick that’s particularly helpful here is thinking of the phrase “I want to _______” and using the text you’d place in the blank as your button or link copy. (“I” represents your website visitor, not you).

So if you want visitors to watch a masterclass video, you might use “watch the video” as your button or link copy. Similarly, if you want visitors to sign up for your vegan recipe ebook, you might use “get my free ebook.” See this example from TOMS.

Tips for writing a strong call-to-action

Write a strong call-to-action by using these tips to craft your headline, offer, and button or link copy:

Crafting A Strong Call To Action For Conversion Calculator

Use action words:specify the action (“watch,” “sign up,” or “enroll”) you want your visitors to take.

Create urgency or scarcity: If your offer has an end date or is limited in quantity, emphasize this to encourage people to take action. You can also mention what people will lose if they delay acting on your offer (e.g., “Don’t waste another year losing customers to bad copy.”)

Minimize risk: No one wants to invest money or time in something that doesn’t end up being worth it. If you’re offering something for free or have a money-back guarantee, mention this to minimize the perceived risk.

Use first-person pronouns: Some brands have boosted their conversion rates by using first-person pronouns in their calls-to-action (e.g., “Send me the guide”)

Avoid friction words: There are certain words that make people reluctant to take action. These friction words include “buy,” “order,” and “submit.” Steer clear of these in your call-to-action.

Related: 7 characteristics that make your website copy persuasive + free checklist

Craft a call-to-action that converts

Your call to action may be the last thing you think about when writing copy for a page on your website (or for a blog post). But without a strong call-to-action to tell your website visitors what you want them to do, you’re setting them up to slip through the cracks. Patch up the leaks in your sales funnel by using these tips to craft a strong call-to-action your visitors can’t resist.

Increase your subscribers, sign ups, or sales by placing your calls-to-action in the right places on your website.

Download my FREE cheat sheet on the 8 key places to insert your call-to-action.