{"id":20162,"date":"2013-03-21T10:07:26","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T10:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=20162"},"modified":"2013-03-21T10:07:26","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T10:07:26","slug":"where-is-the-best-place-to-put-your-cta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/conversion-optimisation\/landing-page-optimisation\/where-is-the-best-place-to-put-your-cta\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is the \u2018best\u2019 place to put your CTA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building your landing pages around the call-to-action<\/h2>\n

\u2018Best practice\u2019 learning promotes placing the primary CTA (call-to-action) for your landing page near the top of the page, above the fold. At face value, this seems logical, right? You want visitors to complete the primary goal for the page, which means following your CTA.<\/p>\n

However, there are several reasons why this basic recommendation isn\u2019t necessarily true or accurate:<\/p>\n

1. The \u2018fold\u2019 is a myth<\/strong>
\nThe mind-numbing variety of devices (it\u2019s estimated there are about 6,500 and counting!) means that the fold is not a fixed entity and depends entirely on the device type accessing your landing page.<\/p>\n

2. Your CTA should be placed where an action is most likely to be taken<\/strong>
\nNew visitors to your landing page may not know who you are and what you do. These people are less likely to be willing to commit to an action immediately as they need to know that you are reliable and trustworthy. Therefore, expecting them to take action as soon as they land might actually put them off staying on your landing page \u2013 it can seem like an over-zealous salesperson.<\/p>\n

3. Putting the CTA above the fold could detract from important content<\/strong>
\nWhen you need to persuade visitors and address their potential barriers to conversion, you need persuasive copy to take main stage. A prominent CTA could detract from visitors seeing\/reading this copy and adversely affect their likelihood to take action.<\/p>\n

In this blog post I look at different options for placing your primary CTA and provide case studies of good and bad to help illustrate the impact of positioning.<\/p>\n

A caveat I need to point out \u2013 without access to the web analytics data behind these landing pages, I can\u2019t validate my analysis. My evaluation is based on my own experience of optimising landing pages and the wealth of case study material I have read over the years. Still, it would be foolish to claim to be 100% right\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

What factors determine the ideal location of my CTA?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m going to focus on 3 key factors. There are, inevitably, more but in my experience these are the 3 that you should focus on:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Goal of the landing page<\/li>\n
  2. Audience intent<\/li>\n
  3. Complexity of the offer<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Factor 1 - Goal of landing page<\/h3>\n

    Not every landing page is designed to generate leads or convert to sale. Some landing pages are created to educate customers and promote brand awareness. Therefore, the CTA placement needs to match the goal of the webpage \u2013 if you want people to read content, don\u2019t distract them with a CTA that will take them away from the page. Instead, use the CTA to take them to the next level e.g. contact form for a follow-up call.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Example landing page where goal is form completion - Square<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Technology start-ups commonly use simple landing pages with a prominent CTA at the top of the page, so it\u2019s visible on most browser sizes.<\/p>\n

    \"Landing<\/a><\/p>\n

    Evaluation<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n