Why No One is Clicking Your CTAs (And What to Do About It)

0:00
- In this video
0:01
I'm going to show you exactly how to create
0:03
the perfect call to action, CTA,
0:04
for your affiliate, e-commerce,
0:06
or service-based website.
0:07
And I'm going to be backing this up
0:08
with years of psychological research and A/B testing data.
0:12
You're going to learn how to pick the perfect button color
0:14
that's going to grab eyes off visitors
0:16
that visit your website
0:17
and how to write texts that gets the clicks.
0:20
I'm also going to be sharing the exact CTAs
0:22
that I've A/B tested to get the best results.
0:24
With solid CTA optimization,
0:26
you can literally double your conversion rate,
0:28
and I'm going to be showing you proof of that later.
0:30
And my goal with this video is to teach you how to do this
0:33
so you can do it for your own website.
0:35
Now, before I go into beast mode talking about CTAs,
0:37
can you just say one second to smash the like button?
0:40
No, really, it just takes one second.
0:42
And once you do it,
0:43
I promise to make these arrows stop cluttering the screen.
0:45
Okay, awesome, let's get rocking.
Button Color
0:47
The first and funnest thing to tackle
0:48
when it comes to your CTAs is your button color.
0:51
You need your call to action buttons
0:53
to stand out from the background of your site.
0:55
So my question for you is what color is your website?
0:58
If we look at my site, diggitymarketing.com,
1:00
you'll see that the general theme of the website
1:02
is green and I've chosen red as my CTA color
1:05
because it pops off the page, you can't miss it.
1:08
How did I know to choose red,
1:09
easy, Google the term color wheel,
1:11
and you're going to see a whole bunch of images
1:13
that look like this.
1:14
Identify the color of your website,
1:16
and then look at the opposite end of the color wheel
1:18
to find your optimal CTA color,
1:20
also known as the primary action color.
1:23
This color will be both complimentary
1:25
and opposite from your website, and will pop off the page.
1:28
So as you can see in my case,
1:29
I have a green website and red is on the opposite end.
1:33
- Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
1:35
- I want to highlight the importance
1:37
of having a single color theme of your website.
1:39
If your website looks like a bag of Skittles
1:41
was dumped on it, then no colors are gonna stand out at all.
1:44
Websites like these are a hot mess.
1:46
Some tips for CTAs, avoid hot reds like this one,
1:49
it's just too abrasive to the eyes,
1:51
and it makes it overly difficult to read
1:52
the actual text on the button,
1:54
A red like this one is much better,
1:56
as long as it works with your site.
1:57
Also the opposite, but complimentary color
2:00
to blue is orange.
2:01
Many people have blue website themes, and unfortunately,
2:04
orange isn't the best converting color,
2:06
but you got to stick to best practices, so orange it is.
2:09
What you can do is play around
2:10
with the hue of your orange by split testing,
2:13
which I'm going to show you how to do later.
2:15
Now, once you decide on your primary action color
2:17
for your CTAs, you're never going to use that color
2:20
anywhere else on your website.
2:21
You want to make sure that the only time you use
2:23
that color is for your call to actions.
2:26
This trends your readers to only take action
2:28
when and where you want them to,
2:30
namely when you're making money,
2:32
and this is called color discipline.
2:34
But what if you have multiple things
2:35
that you want your visitors to do on the page?
2:37
Let's say your primary action is getting them
2:39
to make a call and get a free quote,
2:42
but you also want to invite them to read customer reviews
2:45
if they're not quite ready to pull the trigger.
2:46
Enter the secondary action color
2:48
where you just invert the colors,
2:50
it's still going to draw the eye,
2:51
but just not as much as the primary action colors.
2:54
Easy breezy.
2:55
You can also try an adjacent color in the color wheel,
2:58
but now we're getting back to a taste the rainbow situation.
3:00
So just do the inversion technique.
3:02
Now, before I get into some concrete examples of CTAs
3:05
I've tested that bring in the big bucks,
3:06
I want to give you some advice
3:08
on how to write them yourself.
Writing CTAs
3:09
Here's five tips for writing the words
3:11
that go within your call to actions.
3:13
First, make it short and sweet.
3:15
Generally short phrases are going to outperform long phrases
3:18
on the buttons.
3:19
Second, make your buttons time-sensitive
3:21
by using words like now and today,
3:23
such as download now.
3:25
Third, the word free is a magic word,
3:27
so if anything is being given away for free,
3:30
like a free quote or whatever, make sure to mention that.
3:33
Fourth, always include an actionable verb
3:35
in the call to action.
3:36
So free quote today isn't going to perform
3:39
as well as get a free quote today.
3:41
And fifth, you want to describe what the user
3:43
will expect to get once they click.
3:45
The CTA on my homepage lets people sign up
3:48
for a free training I have on affiliate SEO,
3:50
and it's been split tested at least a dozen times.
3:53
It's short, uses the word free,
3:55
has an action word, get,
3:56
and describes exactly what you'll get when you click it.
3:59
Now over the years,
3:59
I've collected tons of call to actions
4:01
that do extremely well in various categories,
4:03
affiliate sites, e-commerce,
4:05
local services, and lead magnets.
4:07
Let's take a look, when it comes to affiliate websites,
Examples of CTAs
4:10
readers typically have two concerns
4:12
that prevent them from clicking.
4:14
First, they want to be sure that they're reading
4:15
a real review, and that's all on you and your copy.
4:18
But beyond that, they really just want to know
4:20
that if they click that link,
4:21
that they're going to get the best price possible.
4:24
In this experiment, we were split testing
4:26
this visit official website call to action
4:28
that a client had on their site, not a bad CTA,
4:31
at least it's actionable and describes a result.
4:33
We put it up against, click here for lowest price,
4:37
which also conveys the benefit, saving money.
4:39
The result, all four buttons that we replaced
4:41
on the page increased conversions.
4:43
In the lowest case by 85%, in the highest case by 283%.
4:48
This client doubled their affiliate earnings
4:50
with that simple tweak.
4:52
But then we tested the new CTA versus
4:54
a red version of itself,
4:55
and increase the clicks by an additional 33%.
4:58
This is the power of split testing,
5:00
which we'll get to later.
5:01
Click for best price or click for lowest price
5:04
are both amazing for our affiliate websites.
5:06
But the jury is out on whether or not
5:08
that's legal for Amazon associates sites,
5:10
depending on which Amazon employee you asked
5:12
it may or may not be okay.
5:14
So don't take the risk and instead go
5:16
with my recommendations for Amazon sites,
5:18
check current price or check lowest price.
5:20
The language on these CTAs implies that the price
5:22
could change and you need to click to find out.
5:25
For funsies, I want to show you
5:27
the worst call to action possible.
5:29
- This is going to be interesting.
5:32
- Feast your eyes on this thing, why is it so bad?
5:34
Especially because it's been generated by Amazon.
5:36
Well, first the reader doesn't need any information anymore,
5:39
they know the price, they know where to get it,
5:41
and guess what?
5:42
They don't need to click anything to find out,
5:44
they'll go buy this product when they're off work
5:46
and have more time.
5:47
Second, it doesn't even look like a button.
5:49
Third, a 4 cent discount?
5:51
Now I wonder why Amazon would create a button like this.
5:53
- Do we?
5:54
Okay, I don't know.
5:56
- Another example of a bad one
5:58
is this learn more button, really?
6:00
Didn't I just have to learn about this product
6:02
by spending five minutes reading this review?
6:04
Now you're telling me I need to learn more?
6:06
No, then we have this other check price
6:08
and availability on Amazon button,
6:10
which is great for Amazon.
6:12
Never tell someone where they can find something
6:14
because they don't need to click anymore once you do.
6:16
The jury is also out on whether or not you need
6:18
to have Amazon written on your Amazon CTAs,
6:20
but as far as I know, there's no enforced requirement.
6:23
Now I know I've been pooping on Amazon a lot,
6:25
but when it comes to making e-commerce CTAs,
6:28
there's no better model to look at than Amazon themselves.
6:31
Their yellow add to cart buttons pop off
6:33
their navy blue pages, super actionable,
6:36
short and sweet.
6:36
The buy now button is straight to the point
6:38
and uses time sensitivity,
6:40
and their buy now with one click button
6:42
is the same thing on steroids, instant satisfaction.
6:45
For local, service-based websites,
6:47
here's a list of my favorites.
6:48
Free personalized quote, get a free report,
6:51
book a free consultation, get a free inspection,
6:54
get quote in one minute.
6:56
With the exception of the last one,
6:57
all include the word free.
6:59
Why?
7:00
Because it works.
7:01
Now, if you have email lead magnets on your website,
7:03
which I recommend everyone does, even affiliates,
7:05
here's what I recommend.
7:07
First, your best call to action placements
7:09
are typically in the middle of the content,
7:11
with what's known as an inline button,
7:13
and the text here needs to fill up the button,
7:15
otherwise it just looks weird.
7:16
So break the short and sweet rule,
7:18
keep it benefit-driven, and use all the trigger words.
7:21
Now I just gave away a ton of effective CTA,
7:24
but the truth of the matter is if you want to move
7:27
from an A to A+, you need to split tests.
Split Testing
7:30
All websites are different, they have different goals,
7:32
different customers, and different layouts.
7:34
Only A/B testing will reveal
7:36
what is the absolute perfect CTA for your site?
7:40
With a split test, you're comparing one version
7:42
of a call to action to another,
7:43
and you're dividing up the visitors to your website.
7:45
So half of them are going to see version number one
7:47
and half of them are going to see version number two.
7:49
For example, see this SEO done for you button
7:53
at the top of diggitty marketing that goes to my agency.
7:54
I didn't just choose this at random,
7:56
I split tested it against hire me, SEO agency,
7:59
and outsource your SEO, and it outperformed them all.
8:02
And the thing is I'm not done split testing,
8:05
I'm not assuming that our winning CTA
8:07
is the ultimate champion of all time.
8:09
Split testing is a full-time endeavor.
8:11
Now, if you're an affiliate website owner,
8:12
I got an outside the box,
8:14
little nugget for you that I've discovered
8:15
with split testing, at the beginning of your article,
8:17
put a last modified note with a recent date,
8:20
we found that it increased button click-through rate by 14%.
8:24
My favorite paid tools for split testing
8:26
are VWO and Optimizely.
8:28
In the description below, I put a link to a video
8:30
on how to set up a split test with Optimizely.
8:32
Now, if you're looking for a free tool,
8:34
I can recommend Nelio, and also in the description,
8:36
I've left a link to a video that my homegirl Julie made
8:39
on how to use Nelio.
8:40
Now here's some absolutely crucial, best practices
8:43
when it comes to making call to actions.
CTA Best Practices
8:45
Don't place aggressive CTAs
8:47
too early in the buyer awareness cycle.
8:50
If someone is searching for something like
8:51
the benefits of juicing, they're not quite ready
8:54
to buy a juicer, they're just curious about its benefits.
8:57
So instead get them into a free guide
8:59
like this diet guide that Healthline uses.
9:01
Next, if you're doing affiliate marketing,
9:03
having a comparison table at the top of your post
9:06
is almost always going to convert better
9:07
than not having one.
9:08
But you need to make sure that your comparison table
9:11
is 100% mobile responsive and that it looks good
9:14
on mobile devices.
9:15
Otherwise the CTAs will bleed off the right side of the page
9:18
and they won't be visible to your readers.
9:20
Next, make sure you're putting a CTA
9:22
all the way at the bottom of your page.
9:24
A lot of readers don't want to read
9:26
because they know what they want,
9:27
they're ready to convert and they expect
9:29
there's going to be a call to action
9:30
at the bottom of the page.
9:31
So give it to them and make sure to subscribe
9:33
for more content, just like this.