A call-to-action (CTA) button

Ads Manager call-to-action buttons encourage people to take an action directly from your ad. The call-to-action button you choose should support your business goal and align to your campaign objective. Learn how to add a call-to-action button to your new ad.

Before you begin

• The list of call-to-action buttons you’re allowed to select differs for each campaign objective. Use the Ads Guide www.facebook.com/business/help/410873986524407  to learn which buttons are available for each ad format.
• When you add an Instant Experience to an ad, you can’t add a call-to-action button. Because Instant Experience is mobile optimised (desktop not supported) to open when people see the ad in their feeds, a call-to-action button isn’t available.
• If you want to use the Donate Now button as your call to action, you’ll need to enrol your charitable organization with Facebook Payments first.
• If your marketing objective allows you to use an existing post, you can add a call-to-action button to an existing post.
• For reference, the following campaign objectives support using an existing post for a new ad: Brand Awareness, Reach, Traffic, Post Engagement, Video Views, Messages and Conversions.

To add a call-to-action button in Ads Manager:

1. Go to Ads Manager.
2. Click Create.
3. Choose a marketing objective and click Continue.
4. Choose the audience, placements, budget and schedule for the ad and click Next.
5. Select the Facebook Page and Instagram account (optional) representing the ad.
6. Choose your ad format (collection and Instant Experience aren’t compatible with call-to-action buttons).
7. Choose your images or video and add text.
8. Choose an option from the Call to action drop-down menu. You should see a preview of the call-to-action button on the ad.
   Note: If your marketing objective is Brand Awareness, Reach or Video Views, select Add a website URL to reveal the Call to action drop-down menu.
9. Click Publish to finish the ad. When your ad starts running, people who see the ad can click or tap the call-to-action button.

Some tips for using call-to-action  in your ad

#1: Include An Action Word

Your Ad needs to convince people to take an action – click on it. One way to think of your ad is acting like a motivational speaker. Tell your audience to get off the couch and go do something that will improve their life: This CTA from one of Wishpond’s client’s The Barre Code is a great example of this:

Another way to use action words is to focus on how people can do a routine acitivity easier or better. This can be either something in their business life, like making sales calls or creating landing pages, or in their personal life, like exercising or cooking. Here are a few examples you can try:

• Convert More Sales
• Rank Higher on Google
• Lose Weight Faster

#2: Keep your Call-To-Action to the Point.

You have microseconds of people’s attention to get them to understand and click on your Ad. So don’t get all whimsical and cryptic in it. Make it something that a person can understand at just a glance.

Here are a couple CTA examples proven to convert:

• Get started
• Sign up
• Claim my offer

#3: Promote a Benefit, Not a Product (one of the key task of CTA)

The biggest mindshift online marketers need to have when moving from Google Adwords to Facebook Ads: Lack of intent. Google Adwords are so powerful because you can show them to people who are interested in buying your products RIGHT NOW. With Facebook Ads, you don’t have that same intent to capitalize on. You don’t know what people are thinking about when they’re on Facebook (Spoiler Alert: It’s not you!). So you have to give them something to pique their interest. Something that gives your audience value. Here’s an example of a great ad from Sleeknote:

Notice how they talk about the value that you can get from popups vs. talking about popups themselves?

#4: Ask a Question

Questions are a great psychological technique to get people interested in your Ad. They work for two reasons:

• They have a conversational tone that pulls people in.
• People tend to ask questions in their mind when they have a problem to overcome. They don’t just think “Need more sales next quarter” they think “How am I going to get more sales next quarter?”.

Here are a few examples of questions to use in your Facebook Ads:

• Need to Buy a V-Day Gift?
• Want her to notice you?
• Need Help w/ Uni Essays?

#5: Use Negative Word

This can be tough to get right, but it’s a very powerful way to pique people’s interest. Negative words like “Stop”, “Suck” and “Terrible” can stop people in their tracks. People are self-conscious by nature. They’re worried constantly about whether they’re making the right decisions. Capitalize on this fear by using negative words in your call-to-action.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should tell people they’re idiots. Instead, focus on things that people are always trying to improve and plant the idea in their mind that you may have a better way to do something than they currently are. Yes, it’s just like Inception.

Here are two more examples:

• Is this the end of Email?
• Email is dead. Now what?

#6: Keep it Short and Prominent (News Feed Ads)

In News Feed Ads, you have more flexibility with how much text it contains. But this doesn’t mean you should go nuts with it. In my experience, the exact opposite is the best practice. The shorter you can make your CTA, the easier it is for people to read it (and the more likely it is that they will).

Here’s a recent News Feed Ad from Infusionsoft. While it’s a great case study for their company it include 105 WORDS over 627 CHARACTERS. When you have as much text as this Ad, most users will be overwhelmed by the wall of text and simply skip over it.

#7: “Free” is your Best Friend

The easiest way to get someone to click your Facebook Ad is to offer them something of value for free. It’s like saying “Hey, check out what I have to offer, it’s totally free!”. For the majority of your Target Audience, they will have a (at best) mild interest in what you have to offer. So they’re likelihood of paying for it is probably zero.