How to Write a Compelling Call to Action - Examples Inside

Imagine this—you’ve spent time creating the perfect website, ad, or email campaign, but your audience isn’t engaging the way you expected. They browse, they scroll, and then… they leave. What went wrong?

The answer often lies in your call to action (CTA).

A strong CTA acts as a direct and persuasive guide, leading them toward meaningful action—whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or providing contact information for lead generation.

In this guide, we’ll break down the key elements of an effective CTA, share real-world examples, and provide actionable tips to help you create CTAs that not only capture attention but also drive results.

What is a call to action (CTA)?

A call to action (or CTA for short) is a prompt that encourages users to take your desired action. You can find a CTA everywhere (and on nearly everything), as it's commonly used in marketing, websites, social media advertising, and sales materials to guide people toward a desired next step.

Types of calls to action

There are hundreds of ways you can use CTAs across your emails, website, social media, or any other marketing activity. That being said, the CTAs usually fall into one (or more) of the categories below.

Lead generation calls to action

Lead generation CTAs are designed to convert visitors into leads (or potential customers) by collecting their contact information in exchange for something valuable. Take a look at this example from HubSpot:

In exchange for your email address, HubSpot offers a B2B marketing strategy framework eBook. Some other common ideas for lead generation CTAs include newsletter subscriptions, case studies, or white papers.

Sales-focused calls to action

In contrast to lead generation CTAs, sales-focused calls to action are designed to persuade potential customers to make a purchase or take a direct step toward becoming a customer. These would include language like:

• Buy now and get 20% off
• Complete your order & get free shipping
• Upgrade to pro & unlock premium Features

Here's a great example of a sales-focused CTA from Sephora, who used some prime website real estate (a banner) at the top of their page to draw attention to their current sale:

As far as placement, you can (and should) use sales-focused CTAs on nearly every marketing activity you create that has the end goal of asking a user to purchase from you.

Customer support and assistance calls to action

CTAs don't have to be sales-focused to be impactful. In fact, 85% of customers are willing to go out of their way to purchase from brands with great customer service. Luckily for us, calling out our brand's customer service availability is as easy as adding support CTAs to our website, like:

• Chat with us now
• Schedule a call with an expert
• Need help? Contact us

While these can be used to direct your visitors to support, you can also find clever ways to use chatbots and popup notifications to direct customers to additional content, like the one I saw on HubSpot.com after looking into their free resources:

Make sure to keep your customer service CTAs easily accessible, such as floating chat buttons or quick contact forms, so they don't need to spend too much time finding the support they need.

Content engagement calls to action

Depending on where your audience is in their customer journey, it might be too abrupt to sell them outright or ask for their information. Instead, you might want to encourage them to interact with your brand through content engagement CTAs.

Given the wide array of uses, the language you can use greatly differs depending on what engagement you want them to do. Some popular ones include:

• Found this useful? Share this video/post with your friends and tag us* (for increasing brand reach)
• Want to dive deeper? Watch the next video in this series here (for increasing views of your video advertisements)
• Leave a comment below and tell us what topic we should cover next (for increasing engagement within your posts)

*Note: On some social media platforms (like Meta), asking a user to tag a friend is against the terms of service.

When and where to use a call to action

Now that we've learned what CTAs are and what types exist, let's look at some of the most frequently used CTA locations in marketing.

1. Website CTAs

Website CTAs live, quite obviously, on your website. That being said, there are dozens of CTAs you can add depending on your end goal. Here are a couple of great CTAs that should be on every website, regardless of niche:

• Homepage banner – Place a prominent CTA at the top of your homepage to highlight a key offer, such as a free trial, discount, or lead magnet.
• Product pages – use a clear, action-driven CTA near the product description to encourage purchases, learn more about a specific feature, or start a free trial.
• Blog posts – Include a CTA at the end of an article to drive further engagement or conversions, or start a free trial.
• Checkout page – Since they're already in the process of purchasing, you can use this space to reinforce urgency or offer an upsell to maximize conversions. For example, offering a free item with a minimum purchase requirement.
• Exit-intent pop-up – When a user is about to leave, trigger a CTA offering a last-minute incentive like: "Wait! Grab an extra 15% off if you complete your purchase now."

2. Email marketing CTAs

Emails can be used like mini website pages, so more often than not, you'll find a lot of similarities between CTAs on websites and inside your email. Some ideas to start using email CTAs are:

• Welcome email – Include a CTA encouraging new subscribers to take the next step, such as exploring your products or redeeming a special offer.
• Abandoned cart email – Remind customers about the items left in their cart with a CTA that drives them back to complete the purchase. Example: "Your cart is waiting – check out now before items sell out."
• Customer feedback email – Ask customers to share their experiences with a simple and direct CTA.

3. Social media CTAs

Organic social media calls to action (CTAs) are essential for driving engagement, building community, and guiding followers toward meaningful interactions with your social media campaigns.

Unlike paid social CTAs, which are typically designed to generate immediate conversions through ads, social media CTAs focus on encouraging likes, shares, comments, and other actions that expand your reach naturally.

Whether you're prompting users to read a blog, watch a video, or join a discussion, Here are some CTA ideas that can turn passive scrollers into active participants:

• Engagement-focused post – Encourage followers to interact with your content by asking a question or prompting a response.
• Content promotion post – Direct users to your latest blog, video, or podcast.
• User-generated content (UGC) post – Motivate users to share their own experiences with your brand.

In addition to the above, you can always pepper in some sales-focused CTAs through product showcases or product launch content—just make sure to add a little diversity to your social media strategy to cater to your target audience along every stage of the customer journey.

4. Paid advertising CTAs

Paid advertising CTAs, on the other hand, are designed to drive immediate, measurable results by prompting users to take a specific action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or downloading a resource. Paid advertising can be done on nearly any platform, but some of the most popular are Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Since your goal is an immediate, measurable action, your CTAs will likely be focused on direct sales, engagement, or lead-generation activities. While the language will be similar to what we shared in the above example, paid advertising typically has restrictions on word and character count, meaning that you need your message to be direct and to the point.

P.S. We have over a million real ad examples you can view right inside the Madgicx Ad Library!

Best practices for writing a CTA

Anyone can add a CTA to a page or post, but crafting one that actually inspires action is a different skill set entirely. To that end, here are the best practices for writing CTAs that drive action and conversions in 2025.

1. Be clear and direct

The main thing to do with a CTA is to be extremely clear and direct and to avoid vague or overly clever wording. The user should immediately understand what action to take and what they’ll get in return, even if they don't read the rest of the advertisement.

For example, instead of "download," use "download your free guide" or “start your free trial” for clarity.

2. Use action-oriented language

In addition to providing extreme clarity, pay attention to the action verbs you use with your CTA, as strong verbs create a sense of urgency and direction.

Here's a list of action-oriented language that you can use as a springboard depending on your call to action:

3. Create a (real) sense of urgency

A well-crafted call to action should prompt users to take immediate action, and one of the most effective ways to do this is by creating a sense of urgency. Urgency taps into FOMO (fear of missing out), encouraging people to act quickly rather than delaying their decision.

You've probably already seen some examples of this language with offers like:

• 24-hour flash sale – shop before it’s gone!
• Register by Friday to secure your spot!

Urgency-driven CTAs work best when they feel authentic and justified. It can reduce trust if overused or exaggerated (like saying you only have one seat left when that’s not true). The key is to pair urgency with real value and give your audience a compelling reason to act now rather than later.

4. Highlight the benefit

A high-converting call to action (CTA) doesn’t just tell users what to do—it shows them why they should do it by clearly communicating the benefit. People are more likely to engage when they understand how it will help them, solve a problem, or improve their situation.

Take a look at some of these CTAs and their more impressive edits:

• Sign up now → Sign up now and get exclusive early access!
• Download here → Download your free guide to double your sales!

Remember to keep the pain points of your audience in mind when creating your CTAs and marketing materials. These can also be used to craft some impressive CTA language, like:

• Stop wasting money on ads that don’t work—get our proven strategy now!
• Struggling to stay organized? Download your free planner today!

All in all, highlighting the benefit in a CTA shifts the focus from what you want the user to do to what they will gain—and in 2025, who couldn't use a helping hand?

5. Make it visually stand out

A call to action is only effective if people notice and interact with it. Therefore, a CTA's design, placement, and styling play a crucial role in grabbing attention and encouraging clicks. Here’s how to make your CTAs stand out visually:

1. Use contrasting colors - A CTA should visually pop off the page, making it easy to spot. Choose a color that contrasts the background but still aligns with your brand’s color scheme. Avoid using colors that blend into the background (like a white button on a white background). You can also use color psychology to influence behavior (red for urgency, green for positive action, orange for excitement).
2. Make the CTA button large and clickable - Your CTA should be big enough to grab attention but not overwhelming. Ensure the button is large enough for easy clicking on both desktop and mobile devices. A good rule of thumb is that a CTA should be one of the largest and most noticeable elements on the page.
3. Add visual cues and icons - Icons or directional cues draw attention and make CTAs feel more interactive and understandable. You can do things like adding arrow icons pointing toward the CTA to guide user focus, adding a shopping cart icon next to "Add to Cart" or a download icon for digital products, or enhancing CTAs with subtle animations (like a hover effect or pulsing glow) to make them more noticeable.

The 4 best call-to-action examples for 2025

Since you're now a certified CTA master (congrats!), you might want to start crafting your own as soon as possible. Before you do, make sure to check out some of the top call-to-action examples of 2025 to find some divine inspiration for your next campaigns.

Canva

Canva is an all-in-one design app where you can create videos, graphics, logos, and just about anything in between. In this Facebook ad, they make great use of CTAs in nearly every component—you can find it in the ad copy, the ad description, and in the image itself:

Their use of eye-catching colors and clean, crisp design made this a winner in our book.

BarkBox

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my furry children happy—and BarkBox takes advantage of this with some great website CTAs.

On their homepage, the first image that greets you is both adorable and highlights their primary value—bringing joy to our four-legged friends. The following CTAs are tucked around pictures of the products you'll receive, call out the additional value and quality, and finally, give us an offer that can double the number of products we receive in our first order. This likely won't be the last time a cute picture grabs hold of my wallet.

Lavender.ai

While not as adorable as our last example, Lavender.ai, a SaaS tool to help sales teams craft better prospecting copy, presents an eye-opening website CTA that you can't help but notice:

With a bright shade of purple on the site and equally bright CTAs beneath it, it stands out against the boring designs I typically see in software companies. The tool's main value is clearly stated (in a huge font) in simple, clear language that anyone can understand.

Hulu

Hulu is a company that needs no introduction—in fact, you could say tactics like their email marketing CTA below are probably one of the very reasons you might be a subscriber!

Here, Hulu tries to reconnect with their audience by sending a follow-up email after they've abandoned their cart. Their CTA offers a great deal (30 days for $0), and the brief copy in the rest of the email speaks to the unique value you'd get by being a Hulu subscriber. No fluff, no fancy terminology, just value.

Call to action - FAQ

What is a call-to-action example?

A call to action is a direct prompt encouraging users to take a specific step. Here are some common call-to-action examples:

• "Sign up for free"
• "Download your free ebook now"
• "Shop now & get 20% off"
• "Book your free consultation today"

What does a call for action mean?

A call for action is a request or appeal that urges people to take a specific action, whether in marketing, activism, or persuasive communication. The main goal of a call for action is to inspire or drive an immediate response, such as donating to a cause, signing a petition, or participating in an event.

For example, in a campaign for environmental conservation, a call for action might be:
"Join us in planting 1 million trees—sign up to volunteer today!"

Conclusion

Crafting the perfect call to action (CTA) is like convincing a cat to take a bath—you’ve got to make it irresistible, rewarding, and (preferably) not terrifying. A good CTA should grab attention, clearly communicate the benefit, and make clicking feel like the easiest decision ever.

At the end of the day, a great CTA removes friction, adds excitement, and makes clicking feel like a no-brainer. So go forth, test different CTAs, and turn your passive audience into action-taking champions. And if all else fails… just add “NOW!” in all caps and hope for the best.