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Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 6/16/23 - 6/22/23 to stay ahead of the curve:
This post was written by a human, but by 2030? Who knows: A new report from Forrester predicts that artificial intelligence will lead to the loss of 33,000 US advertising agency jobs by the end of the decade. This article takes a look at some of the positions that may be most at risk.
It’s Cannes Lion season, when the ad industry’s best and brightest descend on the French Riviera to celebrate creativity, innovation, and (let’s be honest) go to some killer parties. Keep tabs on all of this year’s winners with this handy, regularly updated list.
It’s been quite a dramatic time for TV advertising, and the plot twists show no sign of slowing. This piece breaks down what’s going on with TV pricing and advertisers’ budgets, and what it all means for this year and beyond.
Despite many countries’ efforts to ban the app, TikTok remains a social and video (and even search!) powerhouse: It’s forecast to overtake YouTube in daily screen time, and 75% of US brands are planning to increase their spend on the channel this year. This piece takes a look at how brands can succeed on the platform.
On the heels of getting hit with yet another antitrust charge from the European Commission last week, Google is now facing a lawsuit from Gannett, the largest US newspaper chain, which alleges that Google is “trying to corner the market for online advertising by monopolizing ad technology.”
Economic uncertainty is presenting a silver lining for podcasts and programmatic advertisers alike: Pressured to maximize their media investments, buyers have pulled away from podcasts, pushing podcasters to open their inventory to programmatic transactions. As a result, advertisers are gaining access to more inventory at lower CPMs, while podcasters are monetizing unclaimed ad slots.
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Populated by chocolate giraffes, songs about corn, and skateboarders drinking cranberry juice to Fleetwood Mac, TikTok is an inherently ridiculous place.
As such, it’s easy to dismiss the platform as a passing trend that’s used exclusively by Gen Z. But by the numbers, TikTok may surprise you.
While Gen Z does represent 44.6% of the United States’ total TikTok users, US adults overall spend almost an hour on the platform each day—more than YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram! That screen time is growing even faster than expected, creeping up on the likes of Netflix. And even under threat of a potential (but unlikely) ban, 75% of US brands are planning to increase their spend on the channel in the coming year.
Pleasantly surprised yet? That’s what TikTok is all about!
To reduce any unpleasant surprises as you test and learn on the platform, check out some “do’s” and “don’ts” for TikTok marketing below.
The age of the perfectly filtered Instagram post is over. Experts across the board agree that brands can’t afford inauthenticity. So, what exactly does authenticity look like? Across platforms, consumers want to buy from brands whose internal actions align with their external messaging.
On TikTok specifically, more than half of users say they feel closer to brands that publish unfiltered, human content on the platform. As TikTok itself puts it, “Creative that blends seamlessly into the platform's culture of authenticity and community-driven entertainment consistently outperforms repurposed or adaptive ads.”
This is one of the most important tips for marketing on TikTok, as users love to pounce on messaging that strikes them as fake. Want an example? Check out this TikTok where Fenty Beauty partnered with beauty influencer @golloria to highlight the lack of darker shade options in makeup. The authenticity here comes from the fact that Fenty Beauty doesn’t just talk the talk—the brand offers a truly inclusive range of makeup shades, and partnered with a well-known influencer who was willing to use and promote their products.
On TikTok, you have to blend in to stand out. While the idea might sound complicated, marketers are well-versed in the practice of tailoring content to specific platforms (you wouldn’t run an audio ad on CTV, would you?)
In addition to the basics (video orientation, length, etc.) blending in on TikTok means making your brand’s content similar to the rest of the content users are interacting with on the platform. We’ve already covered one characteristic that’s important to blending in—authenticity—but there are others to be aware of.
Silliness is a big one (did we mention the songs about corn?) TikTok is an entertainment platform, after all! Challenges are also huge: upload a video that shows a specific action or dance accompanied by a hashtag, and if the content is captivating enough, TikTok users will copy your action and upload their own video along with the hashtag.
Granted, goofiness and viral challenges might not be your brand’s bag, and that’s OK! The point here is that marketers should have a solid understanding of what other content looks like on TikTok to inform the creation of their own.
Take, for example, the following video from Starface, a brand that sells star-shaped patches that heal acne. They partnered with influencers @cocoandbreezy to create a video that A) showcases their product, and B) features dancing (classic TikTok!) In addition to posting the video on its own page, Starface had @cocoandbreezy post another video to their page—a savvy move, as posts from influencers typically garner more engagement than those from brands.
Once you’ve spent some time perusing the wild, wild world of TikTok content, it’s time to dig into the platform’s advertising options.
In-feed ads are the standard and what might automatically come to mind when you think about TikTok advertising. These native ads look like organic TikTok videos and are added into a user’s feed as they scroll. However, TikTok also offers brand takeovers, TopView Ads, branded hashtag challenges, and even branded effects, which allow brands to create their own custom TikTok filters.
As with the above “blend in” recommendation, this is all about knowing the playing field. Take some time to read up on the different ad formats available within TikTok, and from there start strategizing about which ones are a good fit for both your audience and your product or service.
Need some #inspo? Check out the following video to see how Netflix used the branded effect feature to create a TikTok game promoting its Florida Man TV series.
Let’s kick off the “don’ts” with a no brainer: as with marketing strategy in general, it’s key to perform competitive audits to see what has and what hasn’t worked for the other players in your space. Since TikTok is more of a wild card than other advertising formats, competitive intelligence is especially important here. Perusing competitor feeds will also help you to identify what other industry influencers and personalities are doing.
The following video is a great example of how competitive analysis can spark ideas. Wendy’s created their own national holiday, #NationalRoastDay, and used it as an opportunity to invite tons of user generated content (UCG) from TikTokers who wanted the brand mascot to roast them.
TikTok is the home of viral challenges, and it can be tempting to participate in all of them (OK, maybe not all of them). TikTok is fickle: viral trends rise and fall, interests come and go, and sometimes it all seems to be happening too fast for a brand to thoughtfully weigh in.
But for all TikTok’s virtues, it’s still a social media platform—and when advertising on social, brand safety must be front-of-mind. With misinformation and disinformation proliferating on social platforms, it’s critical to perform a “brand safety check” on any new trend before joining in.
So, when you spot a trend or challenge you think would be perfect for your brand, take a few moments to get to know the premise, research the users who kicked it off, and spend some time with the content others are creating around it. Checking if the people, groups, or audiences behind the trend pose association-based risks is truly priceless, given the lasting consequences of hopping on the wrong bandwagon.
Because of these brand safety concerns, and because of how swiftly trends rise and fall on TikTok, it’s critical that marketers remain knowledgeable and nimble. Tools and tech can be a big help here—particularly those where marketers can track performance of their TikTok ads alongside the rest of their social, programmatic, site direct, and search spend. By accessing that kind of comprehensive and centralized reporting, marketers can make adjustments at any stage of a campaign—even midflight—to shift spend from one channel (or creative set) to another and ensure ad dollars are generating the highest possible ROAS.
Of course, there are some TikTok trends that show no signs of slowing—take ASMR, for example. This next video shows how Panda Express tapped into TikTok’s ASMR community thoughtfully and effectively, with a full video shoot and an influencer contract.
Finally, salesiness is a no-no on TikTok. Again: this is an entertainment platform! Plus, its giant user base is mostly made up of millennials, Gen Z, and the succeeding generation, Generation Alpha—users who are too digitally savvy not to scroll past anything that remotely looks like an ad.
Herein lies the challenge for many brands: while it can be fairly simple to repurpose an ad concept across display, CTV, and audio, repurposing that same concept on TikTok is a different beast.
On the flip side, TikTok offers a refreshing creative challenge for marketers, asking them to think about audience entertainment (and a nice potential boost in brand awareness) first, and CTAs second.
Here’s a great example from B2B brand Shopify on how to sidestep the sales and prioritize the entertainment:
There’s an awful lot to consider for brands branching out into TikTok, but the platform’s mantra for advertisers says it all: “Don’t make ads, make TikTok videos!” Those brands that approach their TikTok marketing strategies from the perspective of TikTok users—who seek entertaining, authentic, and unique content—will be well on their way to TikTok marketing success.
Want to learn more about how to make the most of TikTok? Get the latest insights straight from TikTok experts in our webinar, Seizing the TikTok Advertising Opportunity.
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 6/9/23 - 6/15/23 to stay ahead of the curve:
Anyone else feeling a bit “you never know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” over Reddit the past few days? ICYMI, many of the platform’s communities have gone dark in response to the introduction of a fee for its once-free third-party API, and the drastic drop in traffic has cost Reddit’s marketers a lot of niche-but-valuable attention.
Google is in the doghouse with European regulators yet again, with Wednesday marking the tech behemoth’s fourth recent charge for violating European antitrust laws. This time, the European Commission is accusing Google of leveraging its dominance in digital advertising to undermine its competitors.
Are advertisers barking up the wrong tree when it comes to the privacy-first future? The piece outlines the true questions at the heart of our industry’s identity crisis and clarifies how advertisers can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
According to a recent report, digital ad spend is forecast to increase by 8.4% in 2023—but any concerns over “single-digit growth” should be considered in the context of the size and maturity of digital over the past decade and a half. Drivers of this growth, per the report, include retail media, connected TV, and digital out-of-home.
Authentic cultural representation matters—whether we’re talking about films, TV shows, advertisements, or any other kind of media. For brands looking for tips on how to do it right, the newest film in the Spider-Man franchise offers several important pointers.
Show off your marketing chops with our question of the week. This week’s hot topic: data privacy.
Like Taylor Swift, third-party cookies have a big reputation. What percentage of consumers say that data privacy is a growing concern?
Click here for the answer and to—ahem—Swift-ly learn about an important solution for weathering the identity crisis using lessons from a certain pop star who’s current enjoying her Eras era.
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The death of third-party cookies has clients scrambling to ask their advertising partners: “How do we replace cookies?”
Makes sense, right? Not quite! The market is loudly, clearly, and repeatedly telling us (through new privacy legislation and otherwise) that they don’t like cookies. Finding a cookie replacement is just replacing a problem with a slightly different problem.
The question we should be asking is, “How can we show advertisers that their advertising dollars are working—without cookies?”
First, let’s recap why cookies are important. Cookies serve two critical functions:
It’s number two that has media planners worried. How can advertisers show that their digital advertising works and that their digital spend is worthwhile?
Twenty-five years ago, if you wanted to advertise, you placed ads in the newspaper or on TV. But advertisers had no way of knowing whether their ads worked. Sales might have gone up after an ad campaign, but it was impossible to directly connect an ad to a specific customer’s purchase.
The internet (and cookies) changed that. Now, it's at least theoretically possible to track a consumer from ad to purchase. This ability to measure ad effectiveness is a central feature of modern digital advertising.
Now that cookies are going away, the digital ad world is scrambling to find replacements, such as unified IDs, and IP “fingerprinting.” But these replacements aren’t listening to what the market (and lawmakers) are telling us: People don’t like the intrusive nature of the cookie. A whopping 86% of US consumers say they are concerned about data privacy. That means we’ll need to do more than just find a cookie-like solution to the third-party cookie. We’ll need to embrace a new, privacy-friendly approach to digital advertising.
Advertisers, however, expect to see how their dollars work. They're accustomed to seeing the effectiveness of their ad spend, and aren’t going to easily give that up and go back to the days of TV and newspaper advertising.
As a result, there will be continued demand for cookie replacements in the short term. But if these replacements offend consumers in the same way cookies do, they won’t last long.
Which is why we should all be working to answer a different question: How can we show return on ad spend without cookies or other intrusive tracking methods? There are a number of alternatives out there—from contextual targeting, to better leveraging first-party data by creating targeting segments with your CRM or tapping into lookalike audiences. (We’ve got plenty of resources if you want to read all about the latest in privacy and identity—check them out!)
So, what does the long-term future of identity look like? There is no single answer to that question yet. But focusing on finding the answer will allow our industry to develop a privacy-friendly, consumer-first approach—instead of repeating the same mistakes of the past.
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Want to learn more about the future of identity? Check out our guide, Beyond Third-Party Cookies: Your Guide to Privacy-Friendly Advertising.
With regulatory bodies, browser developers, and operating system owners continuing to focus on user data collection and sharing, signal loss is inevitable.
Most of those conversations around adtech focus on a single direct impact area: the cookie-based audience targeting for demand side platforms (DSPs). But while the cookie conversation is among the loudest, there are other use cases impacted by identity changes, including frequency capping and attribution. The problem extends beyond DSPs to search and social buying platforms, affecting virtually all adtech providers.
What this means for the industry is a reimagining of how the impacted use-cases can be brought forward in a privacy-friendly manner. Audience targeting will continue, but with a significantly heavier reliance on contextual targeting than in the past. Where brands are well-positioned in capturing first-party data, most publishers are laggards; however, we expect publishers to begin to place higher importance on the capture and utilization of this data as the impact becomes more real. This presents an opportunity for companies that are well-positioned between the two to provide services that allow for greater fidelity in identifying overlapping populations to help guide the allocation of media spending from brands to publishers who speak to a higher population of the brands' desired audience for a particular campaign or initiative.
What can advertisers do to better prepare for the future of advertising? Download our guide to explore how you can overcoming the identity crisis.
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 6/2/23 - 6/8/23 to stay ahead of the curve:
Elon Musk may insist that most of Twitter’s advertisers have returned, but the numbers appear to tell a different story: US ad revenue is down 59% from a year ago. It’s likely this decrease has been driven by factors like the increase in hate speech and problematic content on the platform, which recently led Ben and Jerry’s to stop paid advertising on the platform (a development that speaks to the larger problem at hand).
Twitter isn’t the only social giant losing ad spend: In response to turbulence both related to the economy and within the world of social media, some advertisers have shifted their spend away from platforms like Snap and Meta, leading to an uptick in spend in OOH and DOOH. This piece explores the latest numbers, as well as the reasons behind these trends.
At its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled Apple VisionPro, its new AR/VR headset. While its advertising capabilities are yet to be known, one thing is for sure: The $3,499 price tag had conference attendees clutching their pearls, not grabbing their Apple Wallets.
In the wake of other cost-cutting strategies, including some major layoffs, Amazon reportedly plans to join the ad-tier streaming world, à la Netflix, Max, and Disney+. TV advertising is one fast-moving drama these days, no?!
We know, we know, the looming loss of third-party cookies and the implications of our industry’s larger identity crisis is a stressful topic. But you know what makes it less stressful? Taylor Swift. Yup. Here, forget your stress and enjoy a Billboard Hot 100-worthy love story between privacy-friendly advertising and advertising automation (it’s more romantic than it sounds, we promise!).
Show off your marketing chops with our question of the week. This week’s hot topic: CTA conversions.
True or false: It’s best practice to offer multiple choices to audiences when crafting a CTA (i.e., offering different levels of services or methods to sign up).
Get the answer, plus a deep dive into 15 best practices to increase CTA conversions, right here.
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While swifties are enjoying their Eras era, the world of adtech is grappling with its identity crisis era. Under pressure from regulators and consumers alike, advertisers are working to balance the demand for personalization with the need for increased data privacy. And while many marketers might wish they could just shake it off (à la 2014 Taylor), the need for privacy-friendly advertising solutions isn’t going anywhere.
If, like TSwift, you know this challenge all too well, then this post is for you. Though there’s no quick fix to the identity crisis, there are tools and solutions that can help.
One of the most powerful solutions for advertisers to have in their identity crisis toolkit? Digital advertising automation. Today, we’re exploring how advertising automation can help marketers survive—and, dare we say, thrive—as they navigate the identity crisis.
As we wrote this post, we couldn’t help but notice how seamlessly TSwift references and puns slipped their way into it. Maybe it’s because she’s secretly a marketing whiz; or perhaps it’s because we’ve been spending hours each day bingeing videos from her Eras tour. Whatever the reason, buckle up for a deep dive into how automation can help your team through the identity crisis—as told through a collection of Taylor Swift lyrics, song titles, and gifs.
Let's dig in.
Long story short: the conflicting demands for increased data privacy and for personalized advertising experiences are coming to a head.
Was Taylor Swift talking about these competing pressures when she wrote this line?
To add a bit more detail: Over the past several years, more and more data privacy-focused regulations and changes have popped up (both in the US and across the globe), including the impending deprecation of third-party cookies in Google Chrome.
Who knew third-party cookies could develop such a big reputation?
Though there’s a lot of hype around Google, other browsers have long since parted ways with third-party cookies. Couple this with the recent explosion of privacy-related legislation and regulation and the fact that 86% of consumers say they have a growing concern about data privacy, and it’s clear that now is the time for advertisers to explore privacy-friendly solutions.
To make things even more complex, consumers still want personalized advertising experiences from brands and companies. In fact, 90% of consumers say they enjoy receiving personalized offers, and 56% expect all offers to be personalized.
It’s a perplexing problem to address. How can marketing teams adapt to the identity crisis and balance the complexities of today’s digital media landscape and still provide personalized advertising experiences that resonate with audiences? It’s a question we’re all figuring out together—but let’s explore how digital advertising automation can help.
Advertising automation is a term that encompasses a wide range of technologies and strategies aimed at optimizing the campaign process from start to finish. And if it sounds like something out of your wildest dreams, we get it. We’re enchanted by it too (Too many TSwift song references in a row? Sorry, [we’re] not sorry!) Especially within the context of the privacy-first transition, automation can simplify marketers’ jobs in many ways:
In the privacy-centric present, first-party data is of the utmost importance. Since it’s data that audiences willingly give to brands and companies, it is inherently privacy-friendly and allows for accuracy in personalization and targeting. As such, it’s something that, in the words of Taylor Swift, will never go out of style.
But what does automation have to do with first-party data? Since it is collected and housed in a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, the process of uploading this CRM data can often be complicated and time-consuming. By using an advertising automation platform with built-in integrations that allow direct uploading of CRM data, advertisers can speed up the process and access targetable audiences with greater ease.
The average advertiser uses seven platforms in a typical day and nine in a typical campaign. NINE. DIFFERENT. PLATFORMS.
Same, Taylor. We feel the same.
Embracing advertising automation means consolidating those point solutions into a single, universal platform where teams can handle every stage of the campaign—from planning, to automated media buying, to reporting and billing.
Making this shift can significantly free up marketers’ time and energy, thus allowing and empowering them to test different privacy-friendly solutions and determine those that work best for their brand and audiences.
Remember how we mentioned that consumers not only want increased privacy, but also want personalized ads? Yeah, like TSwift once said, it’s a delicate balance (okay, we might be paraphrasing, but you get the gist). Luckily, advertising automation makes it easier to use the latest technological advances to reach audiences with personalized messaging.
For example, artificial intelligence-enabled predictive modeling can help advertisers to quickly identify audiences and serve them personalized placements. And dynamic creative optimization (DCO) offers the ability to automatically craft thousands of creative variations to serve to distinct audiences.
Just remember—if Taylor made it out of these woods, you can make it out of the identity crisis.
Advertisers today face a significant challenge: They must connect with audiences in privacy-friendly ways, while still personalizing ads based on individual consumers’ wants, needs, and preferences. Advertising automation is a powerful solution that can free up marketing teams’ time and resources, as well as allow them to create impactful, personalized advertising experiences.
To sum it up, identity crisis + advertising automation =
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Learn more about the power of advertising automation with our guide Meeting the Moment with Advertising Automation.
It can entice a swipe up, a sign-up, or even a bona fide conversion. Of the many elements that your ad needs to contain, the call to action (or CTA) is one of the most important.
Why? Because your CTA is what gets your audience to do what you want them to do. It will often be the first thing they see in your ad, so it has to be compelling. It needs to cut through the noise of the thousands of other ads that vie for a consumer’s attention, so it has to be memorable. And, it must communicate what action you want someone to take, so it has to be crystal clear.
In the spirit of making your CTA as strong as it can be, below are 15 best practices that will lead to higher returns and a greater number of conversions.
We know, this one might seem obvious! But it’s not uncommon for landing pages to fail because the CTA is either buried in other content or missing altogether. In some cases, marketers fail to set the CTA apart from their other text. In others, they provide too many options—or they have a button but fail to ask for any compelling action.
Your CTA should be easy to see and understand. Set it apart from the other text by adding space and making it large and distinct enough to convert. Do not trust that someone will click through to a services page, home page, or any other page without explicitly saying that’s what you want. The action you want them to take should be spelled out clearly right on the landing page.
Remember, your CTA is a call to action. Think about the various actions your visitors could complete, and use the most action-oriented copy possible. "Receive our newsletter" doesn't have quite the same punch as "Check out our newsletter" or "Sign up to read more." The first example is passive—it describes what will happen to your prospect after they do what you want. Instead, focus on what you want them to do.
By using action verbs and concise language, audiences will feel more compelled to participate. Tried-and-true options like "Buy now," "Sign up," and "Register" all fall within this category.
However, you can also write a CTA that focuses on the results that users will get. "Jumpstart your tech career," for instance, can drive someone to sign up for an online course. "Learn the secret to high conversions" can get someone intrigued enough to sign up for your free report on landing pages.
The color of your CTA button and text could be the most decisive factor between a successful landing page and one that compels fewer conversions. Testing a range of color options can help you figure out which are most likely to work well with your audience.
Studies show that red is a hot (pun slightly intended) color for CTA button success. However, marketers should also take into account other design elements on a page to ensure the CTA button stands out and remains an appealing part of the design. An orange button on a red background, for example, may not be visible enough to make an impact (or aesthetically pleasing enough for someone to stay on the page long enough to read it!)
Experiment with several combinations to determine which works best. One quick trick is to step back and squint at the page. Can you still see your CTA button even when you can't make out the details? Does it fit nicely into the rest of the page while still being noticeable? These are signs of good CTA button design.
Do you find yourself using the same rectangle every time you create a CTA button? Try changing shapes to see if it improves your results. While the most popular shapes for CTA buttons are rounded or squared-off rectangles, other shapes like scalloped edges or ovals can also be effective. To see what works with your audience, A/B test different options and record the results.
You can also play with effects and even subtle animations to see if these draw results. Try an animated version, for instance, that changes color every so often, or one that gives a small shake after a few seconds. Too much of a good thing can be annoying, but minor effects can stand out just enough to elicit attention. If you find a combination that seems to have a positive effect, make note of your results so you can repeat them for your next campaign.
A large and easy-to-read CTA is imperative: Someone glancing at the CTA for half a second should easily be able to read and parse your text.
That being said, make sure you also don't go too far in the other direction. CTA text that is far larger than the text around it can come off as obnoxious or demanding. Readers may find themselves subconsciously put off by text that is too big.
To make sure your CTA text and button are the right size, try looking at your page in a number of browsers and on a number of devices. While responsive design should be able to make every element work well, this extra step ensures that everything is working correctly, and allows you to put yourself in your prospect's position to truly see what they'll see when they arrive at your page.
CTA writers are faced with a double-edged sword: The CTAs they create must be specific, but they also only have a moment to get the point across. Too many words can mess with your design, leaving you with text that is too small or a button that is too large. It can also dull the impact you want your CTA to have.
To stay on the safe side, write CTAs that are between two and five words long. Try rearranging and eliminating words until you have distilled your message down to its essence.
If you are worried about losing important details, consider making additional landing pages that focus on different aspects of a campaign. For instance, one could focus on the fact that what you have is a limited-time offer, and another could focus on the free-trial aspect.
Up to 1 in 4 adults in the US has some sort of disability, some of which cause difficulties in reading or understanding CTAs. As such, it’s key to prioritize accessibility in marketing to ensure that your content can reach as many people as possible. Here are a few accessibility best practices for CTAs:
One of the strongest impulses marketers must work with is their prospect's fear of missing out. By adding a time-oriented message or scarcity to your CTA, you can create a sense of urgency that will keep them from delaying their action and create conversions.
Time-oriented words like "now" and "today" are obvious choices. However, you can also create urgency by intimating future events. For instance, "register before your competition" plants the idea that this is a chance for them to get an advantage that their competitors haven't found...yet.
You want as little friction between your prospect and the desired action as possible. Just removing the need to scroll can significantly increase your conversions. A CTA that is high on the page can grab a prospect's attention right away. Additional information that is not vital to their action but is an important part of your argument can go down below.
Putting your CTA above the fold also makes you think more critically about the other information that is posted. You have no time for throat-clearing and introductions when it comes to converting a new web visitor. Focusing on the text above the fold makes you think extra hard about what information your prospect needs to see to make up their mind. A headline, a good CTA, a graphic, and a few short sentences may be more effective than 1000 words on what makes your product better than the competition.
Your value proposition is just that: the value you propose to offer your prospect. Ideally, it is something they can get from you that is not being offered by your competitors.
What value does your current offer have for your prospect? Is it a free book? A no-credit-card-needed trial? A one-month, non-renewing subscription?
Whether you are offering an exclusive collection or something that is priced far better than your prospects will find anywhere else, let them know this in your CTA. "Save 50% today," for example, lets them know what value is being offered and communicates that the offer is urgent.
Write down your value proposition and figure out how it can be distilled down to a couple of words for a winning CTA. Try to convey it at the beginning or the end of the CTA for maximum impact.
We put a lot of pressure on the two to five little words that make up a CTA, but they don't have to do all the heavy lifting. Adding some supporting bonus text nearby can help increase your CTA’s impact and help you convince your prospect to take the plunge.
Bonus details like "30 days free" or "no credit card needed" can give people the push they need. You can also use space right above or below your CTA button to add elements like testimonials, data points on others' experiences, and other information that can help convince your prospect.
Some examples of bonus text that can help drive audiences to a decision include:
Not every CTA button needs the extra help; many can stand on their own. However, the additional push can often help improve your conversions. As with many of these best practices, it’s important to test different wording and supporting text to see what works best.
We're often told that an abundance of choice is a good thing. However, according to the paradox of choice, the more choices someone has, the less likely they are to make a decision. Additionally, when they do make a decision, they are less likely to be happy with the one that they've made.
If, for example, you have a service where people can sign up using a third-party option, too many choices can make them hesitate. Do they want to sign up with email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or another service? You can simplify things for your prospect by limiting or eliminating options among their choices.
You may also be tempted to offer three or more sign-up levels to people who land on your service page. While this can sometimes be a positive—offering different levels gives you built-in upsell opportunities—it can also negatively impact conversions. Those who can’t decide which level they want may decide to buy nothing at all. This is another instance when A/B testing is crucial: Test multi-option pages where there's a bronze, silver, and gold option against a page in which you offer just one package to see which gets better conversions.
On a landing page, less is definitely more. Instead of thinking of white space (the space that's not occupied by any other element) as "negative space," think of it as an active element for an effective page.
White space around a CTA button can help draw users' attention to it and make them more likely to click. Play with different amounts of padding above and below the button. See if it's more effective when there are sidebars or other elements compared to when your CTA button is the only element in that area of text. By finding which ways are most effective, you can create cleaner, more cohesive pages with better results.
Your landing pages should be easy for your users to navigate. People naturally move from left to right and top to bottom when they are reading a page. Design your page and its CTA in such a way that the page follows people's natural progressions.
Your landing page should always allow readers to follow a natural flow. This is important even when you are experimenting with CTA placement. For instance, consider a layout in which you test putting your CTA above the fold. If you still have additional sales text below, put a second CTA button at the end. That way, people don't need to scroll back up to get to your offer.
No matter what you feel you've learned about effective CTAs, it is still important to continue to test and try new things. New technologies mean new behaviors from prospects. As different generations age into their buying years, they'll adopt habits that are different from prior generations. And sometimes, you'll stumble across a CTA idea that goes against established rules, yet is still highly effective.
It can be easy to fall into bad habits or stick with the status quo when it comes to your CTAs. But by embracing the best practices discussed in this post, you can optimize your CTAs to generate the best results possible. Over time, you'll find that you are able to create CTAs that get you higher conversions and a better return on your marketing investments.
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Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 5/26/23 – 6/1/23 to stay ahead of the curve:
Recently, several companies have received backlash for high-profile LGBTQ+ partnerships. While some brands have doubled down on their support of the community, others have responded by distancing themselves, resulting in understandable outrage from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. This piece explores why it’s important for companies “to get clear about what they actually stand for, and what they stand against.”
April 2023 saw the downward trend of ad spend continue, including lower ad revenues for some social media platforms and losses in legacy media. That said, April’s drop is the smallest since September 2022, and certain media formats (see: digital and out-of-home) are experiencing growth. It has experts wondering: Could these be signs of a possible rebound for the ad market?
It’s a wild world out there for travel marketers. Learn all about the key challenges travel marketing teams should be aware of—from increased demand for personalization, to heightened awareness of prices, to the need for an omnichannel approach—and get strategies marketers can use to address them.
Just weeks after introducing former NBCUniversal media exec Linda Yaccarino as its new CEO, Twitter has begun testing the sale of mobile ad inventory through adtech marketplace Inmobi, signaling a potential move away from its former walled-garden status.
In his most recent newsletter, advertising luminary Rishad Tobaccowala explains how successful individuals and companies can decide how best to use technology—with the most successful marrying the magic of tech with the mystery of humanity to differentiate, innovate and turbo-charge talent. (Psst: Be sure to check out more from Rishad on the AdTech Unfiltered podcast!)
Show off your marketing chops with our question of the week. This week’s hot topic: the 2023 upfronts.
What fraction of ad spend did digital video account for in this year’s upfronts?
A. Two-thirds
B. One-half
C. One-fourth
Get the answer here, as well as a breakdown of how advertisers should approach TV in this moment given the writer’s strike, industry personnel churn, streaming convergence, and more.
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