When it comes to kicking conversion butt with your PPC campaigns, the importance of Facebook CTAs is often overlooked by even the most experienced eCommerce entrepreneurs.
Yes, it is important to put a lot of effort into your visuals, targeting and headlines. However, a good CTA (call to action) is, more often than not, the deciding factor on whether or not a potential shopper who may be on the fence clicks your ad. While your targeting ensures you reach the right audience and your visuals and text tell them ‘what’ (the benefits) your brand and products bring, your Facebook CTA is the ‘why.’
Don’t take my word for it; here are some stats to drive the importance of CTAs home: According to Unbounce, over 90% of potential shoppers who read your headline will also read your CTA copy. A more recent Hootsuite study found that global eCommerce average CTRs have risen from 1% to 3% – in other words, in general, advertisers have a higher chance of getting more clicks (traffic) on average for their ads.
Bonus Content: For more on these and other Facebook stats, click here.
The main difference between someone who sees your ads on Facebook versus someone who sees your ad in Search is that unlike with Search, you are not only reaching people who are very actively searching for what you’re selling. That means you have to work harder to rise above the noise.
So how do you optimize your Facebook CTAs for maximum campaign success? In this post, we give you all the top Facebook CTA tips and hacks you need to drive more traffic (and sales) to your online store.
1. Keep Your Call to Action Short and On Point
You have microseconds to persuade a potential shopper to click your ad. And that is after you have mere seconds to grab their attention in all that Newsfeed noise. This means your CTAs should be short, to the point and engaging all at once.
The thing is, the shorter you can make your CTAs, the quicker and easier it will be for potential shoppers to read and the bigger the chance is that they will then act on it. Here are some examples of brands that have created simple, powerful CTAs that are both in line with products and brands, and short and to the point.
ClassPass’s CTA ‘Try two weeks free’ is simple, clear and to the point. Their potential shoppers know exactly what they are getting when they click the ad and why they should click it – in just four words.
Another example of a short but effective Facebook ad CTA comes from one of my favorite eCommerce brands, Dollar Shave Club. Asking a simple question, playing on the curiosity of their target audience, it’s simple yet effective.
2. Think Benefits, Not Products
One of the best Facebook CTA hacks you have at your disposal, helping you to utilize the limited attention span you have, is to tap into the key benefits of your products and/or brand. This means focusing on what benefits a product will give them when they click, not what product they will be getting.
Let’s say you have an online leggings store; your product benefit could be the quality and feel of your product – like eCommerce success story Noli Yoga – or you could take GearBunch’s approach of focusing on interest-based, unique designs. Highlighting these benefits, not just what you’re selling, will have better results.
Another example of a short but sweet CTA is from MyUndies, who highlight their key benefit with a simple line of CTA copy: ‘Feel Good in Your Undies.’
3. Use Action Words to Promote Action
Another Facebook CTA copy technique you can try is implementing action words, otherwise referred to as ‘command verbs.’ There is a number of ways you can do this, such as using key action words like ‘click,’ ‘join’ or ‘subscribe’ to describe what they need to do literally on seeing the ad, or you can combine it with other elements such as the benefits we discussed in the above point. Here’s a great example of a brand doing just that.
As you can see, they use command verbs, but with their benefits. Some other more straightforward CTA examples with command verbs include ‘Subscribe to our newsletter and win,’ ‘Get X% off now!’ or ‘Click to see sale’…
Here are some action word examples to get you started:
- Act
- Add
- Book
- Buy
- Call
- Check
- Click
- Discover
- Get
- Find
- Join
- Order
- Save
- See
- Shop
- Start
- Take
- View
- Visit
4. Be Straightforward
Another way to grab attention with your CTAs in your Facebook ads is by going negative. But before you do, though, you need to seriously consider your target audience and your brand voice to ensure going negative doesn’t stray too far.
Negative doesn’t imply you should be going full-blown meany or overtly imply your audience is stupid. There are subtle nuances in your copy that you can implement, making your whole headline text a CTA. A good example of this is this ad from Mailchimp.
Pro Tip: It’s not just Facebook CTAs that can benefit from a little negativity. In one case study, they found that in 2017, anxiety words were the top-performing emotion for eCommerce email subject lines.
Here are some negative words you could test in your Facebook ad CTAs:
- Confused
- Killer
- Hate
- Miss out
- No
- Sick
- Stop
- Suck
- Terrible
- Tired
- Worried
5. Evoke Enthusiasm and Emotion
Going negative isn’t the only way you can evoke emotion with your CTAs; enthusiasm can also be very effective. Why? Because if you are able to get potential customers enthusiastic and excited about your products and/or their benefits, your chance of converting them is so much higher.
A good example of a brand that is able to evoke emotion to get the clicks is Shopify, with their ‘do what you love’ CTAs for potential eCommerce entrepreneurs.
Another example is this ad from Warby Parker, with their CTA ‘find your perfect frames!’ eliciting excitement and enthusiasm.
6. Ask Your Potential Shoppers the Right Questions
Tweaking a winning CTA for your Facebook ads can be as simple as asking the right question. Tapping into the questions potential shoppers are already asking can be hugely effective, especially if your products are the answer to that question. CTAs like ‘need a mother’s day gift?’ or ‘want X% off your next purchase?” can be effective. Here’s an example from brandless, where their question CTA is a text overlay.
Some other things you could ask are, ‘what have you got to lose?’ or ‘ready to check out?” – the possibilities are endless.
7. Use Urgency
Using urgency – tapping into your potential shoppers’ FOMO – can help you drive more online sales. Urgency can be used to let shoppers know that there is limited time, products, sales, deals, etc.
As you can see in the above ad, where their secondary CTA is in their ad text, they are tapping into urgency by saying the sale is limited. Some other terms that elicit a sense of urgency that you can test include:
- Deadline
- Ends tomorrow
- Expires soon
- Last chance
- Limited supply
- Limited time
- One-time offer
- Only a few left
- Expires soon
- Urgent
8. Use Numbers
Tying urgency, benefits, questions or other CTA elements to numbers is another Facebook CTA hack that can have powerful results. Numbers such as percentages, discounts, promotions, coupon values, etc. will help you relay product or promotion value while also ensuring people who click know exactly what they would be paying, thus improving conversion potential.
In the above example, Project Repat doesn’t just cleverly use eCommerce UGC; they integrate a lot of these techniques (including price) to turn their header into a CTA.
9. A/B Test CTA Placements in Your Ads
Yes, you know that you should be testing various CTAs as part of your Facebook ads to ensure you are able to create a high-performing (converting) ad. But another thing you should consider is where you are putting your primary CTA for your Facebook ads.
As you can see from all the eCommerce Facebook ad examples in this post, there are a variety of places you can put your CTAs, such as in:
- Headlines
- Descriptions
- Buttons
- Link text
- Overlays on images/videos
Bonus Tip: Capitalizing on Facebook Call to Action Options
A post about Facebook ad CTAs wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Facebook’s Call to Action buttons. The options that apply to eCommerce, depending on the intent of the ad or brand, include:
- Book now (book a sales call)
- Contact us (contact the brand)
- Shop now
- Sign up (for newsletters or sales)
- Watch video
- Learn more
Conclusion: Don’t Be Afraid to Get a Little Creative
Yes, you want to test all these Facebook CTA hacks to help ensure peak performance for your Facebook ads. However, you also want to ensure you use these as a guideline and get as creative as you want to, testing copy and ideas that are tailored to your brand and market. You also want to ensure, like with all Facebook copy and ad elements, that you are keeping them fresh and mixing them up to fight ad fatigue.
If you want a free assessment of your Facebook ads and their elements, including your copy effectiveness, ad set up, targeting, segmentation and more, check out this free eCommerce app and tool, Growth Hero.
Nicole is a content writer with over sixteen years experience and flair for storytelling. She runs on a healthy dose of caffeine and enthusiasm. When she's not researching the next content trend or creating business content strategies, she's an avid beachgoer, coffee shop junkie and hangs out on LinkedIn.
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