A Call to action (CTA) is a clickable message, image, or HTML script that appears anywhere in your video and lets your viewers know what you want them to do next.
Wistia offers three types of Calls to Action:
Text: Add a quick, customizable message that links to direct your viewers.
Image: Use an image instead of a text link to direct viewers.
HTML: Write your own custom Call To Action.
Note
Calls to Action cannot be added to audio files.
To add a Call to Action to your video, open the Customize menu on the media page and click the Call to Action tab. Select the type of CTA you'd like to implement, then enter a timestamp, text, and link. You can click directly into each field to make edits.
Note
Be sure to include http:// or https:// at the beginning of your Call to Action URL.
Alternatively, you can configure the timestamp by dragging the CTA icon in the timeline to any point in the video. changes will be reflected in the timestamp field.
Custom HTML Call to Action
If you're comfortable working with basic HTML, you can build a custom Call to Action using the HTML option in the Type dropdown menu. If you’d like to add custom CSS styling to your CTA, we highly recommend using on-page CSS (e.g., adding a block of <style> tags in the head of your webpage). CSS is added directly to the HTML CTA in Wistia, it may be ignored or stripped due to security precautions. Including the CSS on your website will grant you more flexibility.
It’s possible to use a limited amount of CSS directly within the CTA code, as long as you apply it inline. If you notice some of those styles are not working in your CTA, you may need to embed the video outside of your Wistia account to see them render.
Wistia will strip out JavaScript from your custom CTA in Customize as well, so make sure to stick to HTML (and some basic CSS) when editing the CTA in Wistia. Similar to CSS, you can implement JavaScript on your webpage instead of inside the CTA code. Looking for some inspiration or sample code? Have a look at our HTML CTA examples page.
Note
Since HTML Calls to Action allow for advanced customizations (which could lead viewers away from our stats servers), they won’t collect any Action stats.
Why Can’t I Remove the Skip Button on a CTA?
Because a Call to Action is intended to take the viewer away from the video, we don't provide an option to prevent users from skipping a CTA. Because CTAs may block the entirety of a video, viewers will always have the option to skip for the best viewing experience. If the CTA is placed at the end of the video, a Rewatch button will be visible for viewers to restart the video.