When is the last time you were immediately compelled to take action on a digital ad? You saw something and BAM! A need you maybe were not even aware of suddenly became so apparent and obvious that you had no other choice but to act, and act now?That is the ultimate goal of a digital campaign. To speak so directly to the exact target audience and show them something they now urgently require. This is also known as a “call to action” or CTA for short and while it is a critical component of any advertising campaign it is paramount to digital campaigns. Why? Consumers are exposed 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day so if you want your message to be noticed, you have to break through the clutter and be clear to drive consumers towards a clear conversion. What are conversions? Quite simply conversions are actions. We take the action the advertiser wants us to do (buy something, or fill out a form, or call the business), those are conversions.Let me give you a real-life example of an excellent CTA that led to my last conversion. Last week, my kitchen counter looked like this:
My counter has looked like this for quite some time, and I was not even aware of how wrong it was. I did not even know I had a problem until I saw this ad:
What have I even been doing my entire life? This is what a kitchen counter should look like. This is so fun and functional; I had no choice. I wanted, no, I needed to have this in my kitchen. Right now! AND it was FREE? WHAT? Yes, I’m in! Yes, I’m clicking. I must.Here is what my kitchen counter looks like today, and how much more fun is this??!!
This is how a good digital campaign works:
While monthly subscriptions and online purchases are awesome conversions, they are not the only conversions that are important. In fact, one of the most common misconceptions about conversion tracking is that it only works for purchases made online. In reality, a conversion is any meaningful action completed by a visitor on your website. ANY meaningful action! Something as simple as subscribing to your company blog, downloading a whitepaper, or even viewing an important webpage on your site can be tracked as a conversion.Tracking conversions shows return on investment in digital campaigns and allows advertisers to see what calls to action are working best. Interesting fact, Google says that less than 50% of active campaigns have conversion tracking implemented. That is not a typo. 50%! So, by tracking conversions on your marketing campaigns and sharing that info with your clients you differentiate yourself from the competition, demonstrate ROI to your clients and set yourself apart as a true Digital Marketing Guru and partner.Conversions Tracking Shows Your Client:
So how do we get more conversions? The process starts with an effective CTA. If we don’t have a great call to action, we can’t expect actions to be taken! So how do you craft that?Here are some great simple steps:Define your audience. To really make your CTA effective, you need to know who you are targeting. Visualize your audience and imagine what their challenges are. What pain points do they have that you could help solve? What does your product do? Who are you helping? What are the biggest benefits?Craft the CTA. What do you want the audience to do? What is in it for them? Why should they do it RIGHT NOW? Is there a free gift? Is there a limited time? Get to the point!Make the CTA obvious. Draw a box around it in the ad. Make it simple and make it stand out. Where do I click? Then LAND me on the page that speaks directly to the offer. Don’t make me hunt!Now let’s get technical and talk about how conversions are tracked. It’s simple really. HTML code is placed on your client’s website inside the Container Tag (also called a Google Tag Manager) we give you. When someone has been served the ad and then comes to the advertiser’s website and performs a conversion, the conversion code is triggered and records that action on the monthly report. Easy peasy.To determine great calls to action and decide what conversions to track, ask the client “What do you want the person to do when they get to your website?”
Based on the answer provided, you can suggest and start to map out conversions to track. Make this step a vital part of your sales process and sit down with your client and look at their website together. Look at all the pages to really identify conversions they are interested in you tracking. You can do this at the end of your needs analysis meeting, or on the second visit when you present your customized proposal. This is an excellent time to start talking about the call to action as well, they go hand in hand together!Remember it is not just making a purchase! Here are multiple conversions to consider tracking:
Remember to look at these conversion points on your mobile phone too. The conversion points need to be easy to navigate to on all devices. While you are checking conversion points on mobile, stop and check to see if their phone numbers are clickable. That is another excellent conversion point to track.Once your CTA and conversion strategy are set, you need to help the client select a landing page for their digital ads, and you want to make certain the landing page talks about the offer! Remember the click through landing page URL should NOT be listed as a conversion. That’s a click on the ad, it shouldn’t be counted as a conversion. A conversion is what someone does AFTER clicking on the ad and landing on the website. We recommend tracking 5-10 conversions in a campaign. Tracking conversions leads to campaign renewals (Vici campaigns renew 70%!) and conversions show ROI.So remember to discuss with the client the conversions strategy and use these tips to ensure success:
There are loads of ideas on way to get more conversions. Here are a few of our favorites!
And finally, one of the most important tips! If the conversion is filling out a form – ask your client what happens after the person hits the button and converts? Fill it out the form yourself as a test and see if you are contacted. Research shows only 7% of businesses respond to leads in the first five minutes after a form submission. More than half do not respond within five business days.If the most important conversion to your client is getting phone calls you should warn them “You probably will NOT get a lot of phone call conversions.” Why?Most people do not stop what they are involved in on the internet (reading an article, playing a game) to make a call at that moment. Also, many people don’t like to call, they prefer to text, chat or email. (Suggest Live Chat!)Another thing we have noticed is that mobile ad impressions do not lead to a lot of on the client’s website conversions. Why?For example, our Mobile Conquesting™ product is great for clients that have a physical location and want to track on-site visits. For form fill-outs, comparison shopping, reading detailed info, etc. people typically do that on larger devices.Caution your clients PRIOR TO THE CAMPAIGN that they may not see many website conversions on their reports. For client website conversions it may be best to add in display or video ads that run across all devices.What if you are tracking conversions and feel like you have an excellent call to action and still aren’t getting any conversions?
