There are many moving parts to a successful Facebook lead ad campaign. But, when launched correctly, this ad format can bring in leads that are high in quality and won’t drain your ad budget.
Lead ads make it so that a lead capture form pops up right within someone’s news feed when they click on your ad. A form pops up that pre-populates information into fields that the business chooses. This differs from a traffic, or pay-per-click, ad which takes someone off of Facebook entirely and on to your website or a landing page.
Aside from minimal web development needed, some of the biggest benefits of running lead ads are the precise targeting capabilities to get in front of serious buyers and the power to capture information right within the news feed. Because of the decrease in clicks required to convert, this increases the likelihood of conversions.
Here are a few ways to make sure your ad campaign catches eyes and inspires people to hit that submit button.
Choose a tantalizing offer: The most important part of any lead ad is choosing a strong offer that can’t be resisted. Consider creating an offer that new customers find worthy of exchanging their information for, and that is exclusive to Facebook. To up the ante and create a sense of urgency, set a time expiration on the offer. Some examples of this are free week-long passes or a free month of services. The key word here is “free.”
Use a strong call to action: Be sure to drive home your call to action (CTA) as often as possible in your ad’s creative so people know exactly what they need to do to take advantage. Open and close your ad copy with your CTA and reinforce it in the headline. Most importantly, be sure the call to action button you choose accurately captures your CTA without being so much of a commitment that people hesitate to complete the form. For example, asking people to “sign up” for an extensive program can be a big ask, especially if someone is unfamiliar with your brand or services.
Choose the right audience: It’s always ideal to use Facebook’s custom and lookalike audience options, which targets ads to your customers and finds people similar to them. However, you will only want to use this option if you have permission to market to them. If not, keyword and location targeting can be powerful but may result in more people who are higher up in the sales funnel.
Establish a workflow: Once you capture someone’s information, the really important work begins. You will want to be sure that you don’t allow leads an opportunity to cool down after they got excited enough about you to give you their information. Currently, Facebook does not allow for immediate notifications of lead submissions, but third-party programs like Zapier can be used to easily sync various channels and notify your team of incoming leads for assigning follow up tasks. Other tools that can be used to nurture leads include SMS texting automation, CRM inputting and automatic email follow up.
Set a reasonable budget : Keep in mind that, the lower the cost per lead, the more time and effort you will likely need to invest in nurturing your leads. A recommended daily or lifetime budget will vary depending on the industry you’re in and what you’re offering, but in general rings true that hotter leads that are more eager to take action are going to cost you a little bit more. Do research on what average leads cost for your service or product.
Ask the right questions: While you want to be sure you’re capturing the information that matters to your business, you don’t want to build a lead form that has so many fields you scare people away. Oftentimes, asking for someone’s name, phone number and email is enough to establish a relationship, and more information can be collected later on. However, businesses with services and products that are of higher value may want to add additional questions such as homeownership status.
Optimize lead form settings: Facebook offers a myriad of options to set up your form in a way that is optimized to capture leads. One thing to pay close attention to is if you want to use a “high intent” or “high volume” form. The latter will bring in more leads, which cost less, but will probably require a good amount of nurturing. Know that you may also see some accidental submissions with this option. When you choose a “high intent” form, people will need to take additional steps to submit their form, which usually drives the price up but can also have a positive impact on the lead quality.
This may seem like a lot to wrap your head around, but giving careful consideration to each of these elements of your ad campaign will be worth it when the leads start rolling in. If you’re unsure of where to start, our team would love to work with you to launch a successful ad strategy. Contact us for a free consultation today.