Click to Website Vs. Click to WhatsApp Message Ads: Which Ad Campaign is Better for Higher Conversions?

In the realm of digital advertising, "Clicks to WhatsApp Ads" are emerging as a powerful tool for driving conversions. This insightful guide delves into the comparison between click-to-website and click-to-WhatsApp message ads, shedding light on their respective benefits. From softer consumer nudges to capturing more consumer details, personalized follow-ups, and faster checkouts, this article explores why clicks to WhatsApp ads might be a more effective strategy for your eCommerce business.

Running ad campaigns that convert is becoming tougher by the day. Apart from the targeting they set, marketers and advertisers now have to look into the personalization of campaigns to make them relevant to a buyer’s journey and tailor their call-to-actions to ‘suit’ the consumer. From running ads that were only targeted at driving more traffic to the website to running ads that aim to start a conversation with the consumer, we’ve come a long way. 

But when deciding on a call-to-action for your ad campaign, which one should you be going for - click to website or click to WhatsApp ads? 

In this blog post, we’re going to touch upon the benefits of running click-to-WhatsApp ads as compared to click-to-website ads. 

If you’re new to click-to-WhatsApp ads and are not aware of how they are run, we recommend you read the guide here - Complete guide to understanding click-to-WhatsApp ads. 

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Why are Click to WhatsApp Ads Better Than Click To Website Ads Today?

Before you go through the points below, we want you to know that there is no one set way of doing things. A strategy that may work for one business, may not be the best suited for yours and that’s why you need to run your own tests to see what works the best for you to drive more conversions, sales and revenue. 

But continuing on the same, we want to share our perspective and observations from campaigns we have helped businesses run.  

1. Softer And Contextual Consumer Nudge

When you run click to website ads, your call to action copy typically says ‘visit website’ or ‘shop now’. If you think about the literal meaning of the button copies, you will realise how they’re nudging the consumer to take an action right away. 

On the flip side, ‘send a message’ is more like a softer touch conversion, that only nudges the same consumer to drop a message to probe about a product they’re interested in. It’s similar to them walking into a store and seeking recommendations from a salesperson around products of their preference. 

Our observation: Click to message/ click to WhatsApp ads see 27 times more clicks than click to website ad campaigns. 

2. Captures More Consumer Details

When someone clicks through an ad to reach your website, you might end up getting a visitor that gets broadly termed as traffic. Considering how this traffic may or may not convert on their first visit to the site, you may actually have to retarget them on social media and the search engines with more ad campaigns to get them to convert or share more information about themselves. It is important to note here that unless this visitor shares any contact details or goes up until checkout, you hold no information about them. 

On the other hand, when someone sends you a message on WhatsApp, you’re able to capture their name and their phone number. This helps you go beyond driving just another ‘visitor’ to your website to getting an ‘individual’ on your site that you can learn more about through strategic follow-up campaigns. 

Our observation: If you take the permission to get a WhatsApp opt-in at this point, you can create campaigns tailored to understand the consumer’s purchase behavior. 

3. Streamlined And Personalized Follow-ups

Click to website ads typically require setting up retargeting on social media and remarketing on the search engines. But either way, you’re still using the one to many approach to bring back the visitor to convert, despite the ability to dynamically display the items they viewed during their visit. 

Now with click to message ads, you open a new channel of communication between your business and the consumer, which is more 1:1 in nature. To follow up with a consumer who may have dropped out of a purchase funnel, you can set up personalized automated campaigns using a WhatsApp Business API solution provider like QuickReply.ai. 

This helps you have 1:1 conversations with multiple customers at scale, leading to higher conversions as compared to click to website ads and the retargeting they require setting up. 

Our observation: Using a WhatsApp Business API solution provider, you can follow-up with different customers with different types of campaigns, leading to higher contextualization and hence conversions. 

4. Leads To Faster Checkout

For a click to website ad, the consumer is still required to click through to your website, go to the product page of their interest, add it to the cart and then move to checkout. This requires them to take a minimum of three to five steps to purchase a product that is of their interest, giving them enough time to rethink the need for it - which often is the reason for distractions and drop-offs at this stage. 

When it comes to click to message ads, you can use a WhatsApp Business API solution provider like QuickReply.ai to simplify the checkout process. Apart from sharing the details of the product they have shown interest in, you can also quickly share a checkout link in the messaging app, letting them move to completing the purchase almost instantly. 

‍Our observation: The time it takes from conversation to conversion becomes much lesser with click to message ads owing to faster checkout options on the messaging app. We have seen up to 13% higher checkouts as compared to click to website ads. 

Also read: Shorten the sales cycle with checkout links on WhatsApp using QuickReply.ai.  

What’s a Better CTA for Your Ad Campaigns?

If you ask our ecommerce marketing experts, we’d say it’s a wise idea to run both types of ad campaigns - click to website and click to message or click to WhatsApp ads. This helps you cater to both types of online shoppers - those who prefer to make instantaneous purchases, and those who’d like to talk to a brand before they move to checkout. 

Having the right mix of ads and call to actions across your buyer cycle or funnel stages can help you personalize experiences at every crucial touchpoint, leading to higher conversions. 

Want to explore how you can use both click to website and click to message ads for more conversions, sales and revenue? 

Book a demo of QuickReply.ai today.