By Chantal India, on 11 November 2020
Since its launch in 2004 Facebook has achieved growth every single year, and with 2.45 billion users is still the world’s most popular social media platform. In the business realm, over 92% of marketers utilize Facebook advertising. And ‘Lead Ads’ are a particularly powerful tool for acquiring new customers and getting to know your audience.
In this post we’ll specifically cover what Facebook lead ads are, their benefits and also give a few examples.
What are Facebook Lead Ads?
Lead ads are ads that appear on users’ feeds and stories on both Facebook and Instagram. They allow businesses to identify potential customers and collect their contact information without leaving the platform. Tools like ‘Instant Forms’, for example, make the process especially easy. Lead ads can be used to:
- Find prospective customers
- Gather and understand the interests and behaviors of your demographic
- Increase sign ups and enrollments for events or programs
- Schedule demos or quotes
- Grow your mailing list
- Increase downloads of ebooks, brochures or whitepapers
Data generated from lead ads is collected in Facebook Ads Manager and can be downloaded or synced up with your CRM solution. Instant Forms help marketers to reduce drop offs when filling forms by making them simple, direct and automated. This makes them ideal for lead generation: the process of identifying or developing interest from potential customers in your products or services.
Lead generators can be blog posts, live events or social media content, for example. This is the second stage in an inbound marketing strategy. Through a call to action, landing page, or in this case a form, they provide their information. Now they are pre-qualified and can be considered leads, or people who have indicated interest in what you’re offering.
Facebook also offers different types of lead ads depending on the type of business you’re in. Car dealerships are having success using Lead Ads to help potential customers locate dealerships, schedule test drives and promote new model launches. We’ll share these industry specific success stories and their impressive results with lead ad examples below.
How Can I Use Forms to Drive Leads?
Now that we’ve covered what Facebook lead ads are, let’s discuss why forms are such an important stage in lead generation. On a potential client’s journey from stranger to customer, asking them for their personal information can be a deal breaker if done incorrectly. We could liken it to asking someone out on a date—move too fast and they might hit the eject button. If they are at the top of your conversion funnel you probably need to give them a bit more time. Smart forms are an excellent tool for gradual data collection. Once a visitor leaves their basic information and cookie, if and when they return, a smart form will pose relevant questions which dig a bit deeper.
The instant form’s autofill feature used in Facebook lead generation ads makes the inquiring process less cumbersome. Users also don’t have to leave Facebook and be led to a landing page—everything happens in the app. Instant form questions can be customized to be multiple choice, conditional (change based on previous answer), or short answer.
Facebook Instant Forms in action. Source: Hootsuite
Benefits of Facebook Lead Ads
How many times have you abandoned carts or contact forms because the process was too laborious and poorly designed? The key to lead ad success is the art of simplicity. Essentially with just a few taps your potential lead can sign up, schedule, request information and more. Again, the goal here is to streamline the process for both parties and reduce friction. Benefits of using facebook lead ads include:
Highly Focused Audience Segmentation- Leads acquired through Facebook are already highly targeted by demographics and interests, meaning they’re probably pre-qualified as a lead.
Ease of Integration and Data Collection - Everything happens in the Facebook app without any new conversion paths, landing pages or re-directs. Facebook also makes it super easy to sync up with your CRM, like Salesforce, keeping all that valuable data within your loop.
Mobile and Device Responsiveness- Users are likely interacting with your ad through their phone or tablet. Lead Ads are designed to ensure your forms are sleek, and user experience isn’t sacrificed no matter the device. This is especially crucial when it comes to filling in forms and other active processes.
Decrease in Conversion Drop Offs- With Instant Forms and great UX, Facebook lead ads make it less likely for users to get frustrated and give up on completing the lead generation process. The ‘Auto Fill’ function automatically fills in fields with users' Facebook information making the experience quick and painless.
Getting to Know Thy Audience- Facebook lead ads are the perfect tool to discover what makes your target demographic tick. By customizing form questions you can find out what consumer sentiment is around your industry, brand and behavior in general.
Facebook Lead Ads Examples
Schedule Demos & Test Drives - Covered above, the auto industry is using lead ads to schedule test drives. With an attractive ad, an invitation right in a users’ feed and a pre populated form, it’s extremely tempting to schedule right then and there. Ford Norway used lead ads to decrease their cost per lead by 80% and scheduled more test drives in 90 days than in the whole previous year. Impressive numbers for sure.
Source: Facebook
Increase Downloads- Not all businesses sell directly to consumers. Many companies work with resellers and dealers and need a more in depth sales approach for the investment required and life cycle of a given product. Think motorcycles, cars, retreats, travel packages, etc. This is where sleek, well designed brochures can tell more of the story. Potential customers can download an e- brochure in exchange for their contact information and even share how and when they’d like to be contacted.
Increase Sign Ups for Events- Whether you’re a small business hosting a demo day, or the Milwaukee Bucks selling basketball tickets, lead ads can help your business attract new attendees and automate the process, too. The Bucks used FOMO tactics to get tickets sold, even going so far as to using the visiting team as the selling point!
Increase Enrollment in Classes and Courses- It’s not just traditional businesses who are taking advantage of Facebook lead ads. Educational enterprises are also using lead ads to generate leads and boost their enrollment numbers. The University of California Irvine used a three phase campaign including lead ads to increase customer purchases by 58% and generate 3.5X more leads in 2019 over a single phase campaign they ran in 2018.
Grow Brand Awareness- PAP DECO, a Polish designer and manufacturer of brass fittings used lead ads to reach 950,000 people over a six month span. Using a two pronged approach of Facebook messenger conversations and lead ads, they doubled sales and generated 5X more leads than the previous month. Those who had started a messenger conversation were then shown a Facebook lead gen ad to collect contact details.
A whopping 1.82 billion people logged into Facebook daily in 2019. From a marketing perspective Facebook offers businesses a highly focused and customizable opportunity to reach their target demographics. For this reason (and many others), companies around the globe have utilized Facebook advertising for years to increase followers, boost sales and grow brand awareness.
From cars and classes to brass fittings and basketball games, organizations are making use of Facebook lead ads to reach their business goals. Lead ads, as a standalone tool or in combination with any number of Facebook ad types, is a proven solution for generating leads and securing new business. We hope this guide has been of value and that you’re feeling inspired to give lead ads a try as another tool in your marketing arsenal.
Have more questions about Facebook lead ads or marketing in general? Get in touch with us today and we’d be happy to chat.
