We have already covered the different types of Facebook ads that you can create. Yet, there is one ad type that deserves special mention. I am talking about Facebook Lead Ads. Rolled out almost 2 years ago, lead ads have created quite a stir in paid advertising. But, have you ever wondered why? Or how you can use it for your own business? I’ll try to answer those questions in this post.
What is Facebook Lead Ads?
First things first, before going about learning about something, we need to be clear about what it is exactly. You all know why lead generation is important for your business, so I am not going to go on about it. Facebook ads was a major channel for generating leads for advertisers. However, the only options to generate leads before was through landing pages or through tracking pixels.
Now, there were some problems to this:
- Many landing pages were not mobile optimised.
- Landing pages take you out of Facebook.
- Most forms do not come with autofill options.
Lead Ads were Facebook’s answers to these problems. These ads were first rolled out for mobile devices only. The ads do not take you out of Facebook, the forms are mobile optimised and the forms come automatically filled! The fields are filled using information from your target’s Facebook profile.
Previously, they were rolled out only for mobile and now they have expanded to the desktop as well.
Tap, Tap, and You’re done:
To add more weight to what I already said, let me give you a real-life scenario. If I, as a consumer, were to click an ad, and it takes me to a bad landing page, then I would not be happy. Especially, if the page takes ages to load and is not even optimised for my phone. Whats more, the form has a hundred fields I have to fill, then I’d simply close the page.
That’s why lead ads are a blessing to lazy and impatient consumers like me. Not only does it come pre-filled, I also only have to click my mouse thrice and I am done!
Take a look:
You click on the ad, navigate to the tab with more details about the product or service. If you like what you see, then hit one more button and you are taken to a form that is already filled. Just hit submit, and, voila, you are now a lead for the business.
How to Set Up Facebook Lead Ads:
Let me take you through a step by step tutorial on how you can create lead generation ads through the Facebook advertising platform.
Step 1: Creating the campaign
Go to your Advertising platform. Choose whichever interface you are comfortable with, Adverts Manager or Power Editor. I like the Adverts Manager, so I am going to go from there.
Click on the ‘create campaign’ button to start a new campaign.
Step 2: Choosing your objective
Now Facebook will take you to the campaign creator. The first step would be to choose the objective for your ad. Of course, we are talking lead generation, so that is the option that you will also choose.
Once you click the ‘lead generation’ option, you can name your campaign. Remember to always use a name that can be easily referenced. For example, we always include the date in our campaign name. Once, you have chosen a name, hit ‘Continue’.
Step 3: Setting your budget and target audience
Now, you can create your ad set. The first thing you should do is to name your ad set. If you are creating multiple sets, then have a clear taxonomical hierarchy. For example, we name our ad sets in the following format “Campaign name – device type – targeting – date”. This way it is very easy to know at a glance who the ad was created for.
Now, choose the page you wish to run the ad for, the target audience, placements, the budget, and schedules.
Once you are done setting everything, click on ‘Continue’.
Step 4: Writing the ad copy
It’s time to create the ad. Choose what format you want your ad to be. You can then upload the images that go with the ad.
Once this step is done, you will now have to write your ad copy. Add the text, headline, and newsfeed description. You can also customize the display URL. It should look something like this.
You can preview your ad, to see how it would appear on both the mobile and desktop.
Step 5: Creating the form
Finally, you can create the form that goes with the ad. You just have to click on ‘+ New form’. A new screen pops asking you to provide content for four different sections. Let’s go through them one by one.
1. Welcome screen: This is completely optional and you can choose not to have it. Here you can enter some brief details about your business/product or service. This will tell the visitor what the ad is for and why they should consider signing up.
2. Questions: This section refers to the form that will capture the details of your target audience. You can include an optional heading above the form. Additionally, Facebook allows you to choose the fields that you wish to add to your form, like Address, Country, Job title etc.
You can also customise questions that you want to ask your audience.
3. Privacy policy: Since your visitors are sharing their personal data with you, the decent thing to do is to assure them that their data is being protected. That is why Facebook gives you an option to include your privacy policy.
You can also customise this disclaimer for your business. Don’t forget to add the correct link to your privacy terms.
4. Thank you screen: This is the final step of the form. Once your visitor clicks submit on the form, a thank you screen will come up. You can choose the content that goes on this page. You can also add a link to your website or a link to download some content.
There you go! Now your form is complete. You can hit ‘Save’ if you want to come back to the ad later or hit ‘Finish’. Once the ad is set up, you can review your ad once more and hit ‘Confirm’ to start the ad.
How You Can Use Lead Ads:
Okay, so we are done with knowing how to set up a lead generation ad. How all can this ad type be used and what are the different scenarios where this ad type would make sense. Here are some of the ways that we have seen businesses make use of facebook lead ads.
Build email lists:
One of the most obvious uses for lead ads is: lead generation. Duh! You can build your email lists for your marketing and sales campaigns. But, just ensure that your targeting is detailed and that your ad is specific. Otherwise, you might be flooded with leads who are not very relevant to your business.
(Side note: There is an interesting story that goes with this one. Look for it further down the post.)
Send offers and promotions:
Offers are always a good way of enticing your audience to buy from you. Lead ads will help you gauge how well offers work. You can even split test ads. For example, run 20% offer on course A and a 20% offer on course B. You will know which product is generating more interest for your business.
Advertise a new product:
If you have a new product/service and want to gauge your audience’s reaction to it, then you can try lead ads. Run an ad with a form for the new product/service or package. The number of signups will directly correspond to the interest in the product.
If your product is yet to be launched, you can even use lead ads to run highly focused polls using the custom questions option.
Download e-books or whitepapers:
Content like e-books can reach a much wider audience using Lead ads. Since they don’t have to leave Facebook, the likelihood of them actually downloading the book increases. Also, not to mention the added benefit that you can collect their contact details for further nurturing as well.
Webinar registrations:
If you, like us, conduct a lot of webinars, then lead ads are a good way to increase the number of registrations. You can define targeting options for the kind of webinar you run. For example, if your webinar is about content marketing, then you can look for people who have ‘content marketing’ as their interest or ‘content manager’ in their job title.
To register for events:
Having an event coming up that you are organizing? Run a properly targeted lead generation campaign and watch the registrations peak up. This is yet another way in which leads ads can help you advertise effectively.
Well, these are a few use cases on how you can run Facebook lead ads for your own business. Of course, you can try lead ads for even more scenarios. Now how do you get hold of the leads that you gather using these ads?
Exporting Leads from Facebook:
It’s actually quite easy to export leads from Facebook. All you have to do is to go to the ‘Publishing tools’ tab in your company’s Facebook page. On the left-hand side, under ‘Lead Adverts Forms’, you will find ‘Forms library’. Click on that and this window will appear.
You can now download the leads corresponding to the ads that you have run.
Now, remember the story I promised you with the Bharatiya city ad? Okay, here goes. While I was doing my research for this article, I came across this ad and really liked it. I was opening and taking a look, clumsy person that I am, I accidentally hit submit.
I just oopsed about it and let it be, but they didn’t. Not five minutes later, they called me to inquire if I was looking to buy (which I definitely can’t afford). But, still, their prompt customer service earned them a good name in my books!
Even if you run very interesting and eye catchy ads, your leads will amount to nothing if you don’t follow up with them immediately. Exporting the leads and then importing them to your CRM or email tool might result in you losing out on that lead.
To avoid this, get yourself a CRM that has a Facebook Lead Ads integration. This way, the leads captured on Facebook will directly get captured on your CRM as well. This saves you time and reduces lead leakage.
Before I end this post, I want to warn you that Lead Ads are not entirely fool-proof. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using Facebook Lead Ads.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Lead Ads:
As I said, lead generation ads do have their low points. If your ad copy is misleading or if your targeting is improper, they can bring in a lot of junk leads for your business. Which is not exactly desirable.
Advantages of Facebook Lead Ads:
- Your leads do not have to fill in a form, which makes signing up easier for them.
- You get more leads at a much lesser cost compared to other lead generation channels.
- Since user data is pulled from Facebook, the details filled would be more accurate.
- Not many people like it when the ads pull them away from their Facebook feed. With Lead Ads, they get to stay right on the platform
- If you do not have a website or a landing page associated with your business, then Lead Ads will work like a charm in generating leads for your business.
Disadvantages of Facebook Lead Ads:
- As there is no landing page involved, the visitor might not know the exact offer or benefit that you are providing.
- This could lead to misconceptions, which would mean that the relevance of the lead to your business might be low.
- This might reduce the quality of the leads that you receive as well. Many advertisers have seen this happen.
So there you go! Everything that you need to know about running lead generation ads on Facebook. If you have any additional inputs that you think I missed out on, you can always reach out to me.
Now, let’s move over to one more interesting topic in Facebook ads: Facebook Remarketing. It’s all about convincing people who have bought a bat from you to buy a ball as well.
Go to Chapter three
