Calls to action that are spoken, not shown

In most video ads the call to action is something you see: a button, an end card, a line of text that slides in at the end. In a short vertical ad where a presenter does the talking, the call to action is something you hear, and read in the captions at the same moment it is said. That is a different medium for the same job, and it changes how you write it.

Clipelle is strict about this. The only text on screen is the captions of what the presenter says, plus an optional small logo in the top right corner. There are no text cards, no end cards and no buttons in the video. So if you want the viewer to do something, the presenter has to ask. This article is about asking well.

Why a spoken ask works

A card at the end of a video arrives after the interesting part is over, which is also when most people have already scrolled on. A spoken call to action arrives while the person is still listening to a voice, and the captions highlight the words as they are spoken, so the ask is read and heard at once.

A spoken ask also sounds like a recommendation rather than an instruction. "Grab one before Friday" from a presenter lands differently than "SHOP NOW" in capital letters. The platform where the ad runs supplies the actual button; your sentence supplies the reason to press it.

One sentence, in last place

In Clipelle's script structure the call to action is always the final sentence: hook, problem, product, benefits, and then the ask. That order is not arbitrary. By the last sentence the viewer knows what the product is and why it might matter. Asking earlier is asking a stranger.

One sentence is the right size. In a 30-second ad of about 75 words, the call to action gets 8 to 12 of them. In a 10-second ad it gets about five. Two asks ("follow us and order today") halve the chance that either one happens.

Four shapes that work out loud

Spoken calls to action come in a handful of shapes. Pick one per ad.

The plain instruction

Tap the link below and order yours today.

Clear, short, no cleverness. It suits direct-tone ads and products that need no further explanation.

Instruction with a reason

Order this week and the second one is half price.

The reason is a deal, and in Clipelle a deal only reaches the script through the Offer line on the form (80 characters at most). If you leave the Offer empty, the script will not make up a discount, a deadline or free shipping. That protects you from a presenter promising something your store does not honor.

The low-commitment ask

Have a look at the colors in the link below.

For higher-priced products or a cold audience, asking for a look rather than an order is often the more honest match for where the viewer is.

The echo

Stop packing lukewarm lunches. The link is right below.

The call to action repeats the hook's problem in a resolved form. It ties the ad together and reminds the viewer why they stopped in the first place. This shape works best when the hook was a question or a situation, as described in A spoken ad script in 75 words.

Writing it to be said

Because a person speaks it, the call to action has to pass the simplest test there is: would you say this sentence to a friend?

• Use verbs people actually use. Tap, order, grab, check out, have a look. "Click here" is a web phrase, not a spoken one, and on a phone nobody clicks.
• Say where. "The link below" is right for almost every vertical placement. Do not send people to "our website" when there is a link under the video.
• One ask. Not three.
• Keep urgency real. "Only while stock lasts" is fine if it is true. If you cannot back a deadline up, do not put it in the Offer, and the presenter will not say it.
• Drop the punctuation theatrics. Three exclamation marks do not make a sentence louder. A short sentence does.
• Make it the natural end. If the ad could keep going after the call to action, the call to action is in the wrong place.

The captions carry it too

The ask is also the last thing on screen as text, because captions cover the whole video. Clipelle highlights the word being spoken in your brand's accent color, so the final sentence is literally emphasized word by word as it is said. Two consequences follow.

First, keep the sentence short enough to sit in one or two caption lines. A 20-word ask breaks into several caption blocks and loses its punch. Second, choose words that read well. "Grab yours" reads fine; a long product code does not. The captions article goes into caption style, position and length; the short version is that your call to action should be the easiest sentence in the whole ad to read.

Examples by length

The right call to action depends on how much ad came before it.

10 seconds (about 25 words in total). There was only room for a hook and a product line, so the ask is bare:

Order today, fork set included.

30 seconds (about 75 words). The viewer has heard a problem and three benefits. You can afford a reason:

Order yours today and the fork set comes free.

60 seconds (about 150 words). With a longer build-up, the ask can breathe a little, but it is still one sentence:

If your lunch box leaks too, tap the link below and get yours with the fork set included.

Notice that none of these mentions a price, a URL or a coupon code. Those belong on the landing page, where they can be read at leisure. The spoken sentence's job is to move someone from the video to that page.

A short checklist before you generate

Go through this before you click Generate, or during the script review if you ticked "Review script first":

1. Is the call to action the last sentence, and only one sentence?
2. Does it ask for exactly one thing?
3. Does it say where (the link below)?
4. Is every promise in it backed by the Offer line, and is the Offer true?
5. Would you say it out loud to someone you know?
6. Is it short enough to read in a caption while it is spoken?

How it fits in Clipelle

On the ad form you do not write the call to action separately. Clipelle writes the full spoken script, with the ask as the last sentence, from your product description, the tone you picked and the Offer line if you filled one in. With "Review script first" on, the project pauses after the script is written. You see three hooks to choose from and the complete script with its final sentence, and you can rewrite the ask before the presenter records a word. That review is the cheapest moment in the whole process to get the ending right, because nothing has been generated yet and the estimate on the form is still just an estimate.

A good spoken call to action is unremarkable in the best sense. It sounds like the obvious next thing to say.