Why it is worth paying for Call-To-Action clicks

25 Sep 2025
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When marketers look at campaign budgets, every cent spent on attracting a customer is scrutinised. It’s natural to focus on the headline costs of a campaign: how much was spent on creative, how much on placement, and how much on each click. But what often gets overlooked is the value of optimising performance at the very last step — the click on the call-to-action (CTA).

In practice, advertisers are already paying per click in most of their channels. Whether on Google, LinkedIn, or Twitter, the average cost per click (CPC) is well known. By comparison, the surcharge for using a CTA shortlink service is tiny — a rounding error compared to the benefits it can unlock.

Advertisers already pay for every click

Here are the average CPCs across some of the most common digital advertising channels:

  • Google Ads: $2.42
  • Facebook: $0.58
  • Microsoft (Bing): $1.55
  • LinkedIn: $5.26
  • Twitter (X): $0.50

Even in email marketing, where the model is cost per thousand (CPM), the maths works out to something very similar. A typical campaign might pay $10–$20 CPM. With open rates and click-through rates factored in, the effective CPC is around $0.50. So, whether it’s search, social, or email, advertisers are already buying clicks.

The surcharge is tiny

Now consider the surcharge for a CTA shortlink:

  • B2C campaigns: $0.11 per click
  • B2B campaigns: $0.51 per click

Put another way, this is about 5–10% of what advertisers are already paying for clicks in the first place. On LinkedIn, where CPCs often top $5, the additional cost is barely noticeable. Even on lower-CPC channels like Facebook or email, it’s still only a modest uplift.

Why performance matters more than raw cost

Marketing ROI isn’t about minimising CPC at all costs. It’s about maximising the outcome: leads, sign-ups, or sales. A slightly higher CPC is not a problem if the conversion rate improves enough to offset it.

Example:

  • Campaign A pays $1.00 per click and converts at 2% → $50 per lead.
  • Campaign B pays $1.10 per click (with CTA enhancement) and converts at 2.5% → $44 per lead.

Despite the higher CPC, Campaign B is more efficient and delivers a better ROI.

Ad auctions reward performance

Platforms like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter operate on auction systems. The amount an advertiser pays per click depends on two things:

  1. How much they bid.
  2. The quality score of their ad, which is influenced heavily by CTR.

Higher CTRs mean higher quality scores, and higher quality scores mean lower CPCs. If a CTA shortlink increases engagement even slightly, the advertiser’s CPC may fall enough to offset the surcharge completely.

Insurance for your investment

By the time an advertiser runs an ad, they’ve already invested heavily in creative, copywriting, media planning, and landing pages. Spending a little extra on the click itself acts like an insurance premium, helping ensure the highest possible engagement rate and protecting the ROI of the entire campaign.

B2B vs. B2C: same principle, different scale

For B2C campaigns, the surcharge is $0.11 per click — negligible in the context of $1–$2 CPCs. For B2B campaigns, the surcharge is higher ($0.51), but since LinkedIn CPCs are already $5+, it’s still only 10%. If that 10% produces a performance lift that reduces acquisition cost by 15–20%, the math speaks for itself.

Conclusion: penny wise, pound foolish?

Paying a small surcharge for CTA clicks is not an unnecessary extra cost — it’s a performance booster. It can improve conversion rates, reduce effective CPCs through auction dynamics, and ultimately deliver a better return on investment. When you’ve already invested thousands into building and running a campaign, spending a little extra at the click stage is not wasteful. It’s smart.

In other words: paying for CTA clicks is not about spending more. It’s about making sure the money you’ve already spent works harder.