Just when you thought advertising on Facebook couldn’t get any better…Facebook now lets you capture leads directly from your ads!
After months of trialling their newest media unit, Facebook has finally rolled-out lead ads for all users:
“Whether businesses want to encourage people to sign up for their newsletter, an offer, an event or more information about their product, lead ads simplify the mobile sign-up process, helping businesses hear from people interested in their business.
What are Facebook lead ads?
Lead ads are very similar to Twitter’s Lead Generation card. They allow Facebook users to submit their personal details via their mobile device within two taps of the screen.
Prospects aren’t required to fill in any fields manually, Facebook automatically populates their information from their Facebook profile.
Leads ads allows you to collect the following data:
- Full name
- Email address
- Home address
- Telephone number
- Zip code
- City
- State
- Country
- Company name
- Job title
Leads ads can only be shown to mobile traffic and cannot be served to prospects on desktops (at this moment in time). Unlike a typical Facebook ad, once prospects submit their details they will not be redirected to your website. Prospects are able to opt-in and carry on scrolling their newsfeed.
If your lead based media units sometimes generate instant conversions as a result of prospects landing on your website, you may want to test lead ads against your current strategy to see which comes out on top.
Note: Each Facebook lead ad requires you to create a privacy policy that states what you will do with the data collected, this will be linked within the lead ad to provide prospects full disclosure.
Facebook changing the way businesses obtain leads
Ever since mobile traffic overtook their desktop counterparts, ad clicks by mobile users were always notoriously high, but conversions were often a lot lower.
One reason for this was because businesses didn’t run mobile optimized campaigns or had websites which were mobile-friendly. Another issue was the fact that it’s much harder to fill in a form using a virtual keypad on a 5 inch screen than a desktop computer.
Lead ads aims to solves both of these problems by making landing pages and data entry a thing of the past. You no longer need to hire an expensive copywriter, optimize your website and test every point of your landing page.
Before Facebook lead ads, to capture a lead you had to:
- Create a campaign that redirects prospects off Facebook and onto your landing page
- Create an optimized landing page for mobile and desktop traffic
- Hope the prospect made it to your call-to-action and entered their details
With lead ads you only have to:
- Create a lead ad with a compelling headline and image
There were too many exit points prospects could take in the first method. Now prospects can opt-in and carry on scrolling their newsfeed and not worry if your landing page is mobile-friendly, or if it will take several seconds to load.
How to get the most out of lead ads
When the objective is to generate leads for your business, you should always aim to provide your prospects value in exchange for data.
Would you give an online business your contact number and email address if they just asked for it? Probably not.
But what if they sweetened the deal and gave you something of value relevant to your needs in exchange for your email address? Now you’re listening.
If you’re planning to capture more customers using lead ads, combine them with any of the following methods:
Coupons and vouchers – Who would say no to a free voucher code? Instead of creating a Facebook update giving prospects free voucher or shipping codes for nothing, run a lead ads campaign where users submit their email address and are sent the voucher via email.
This is a much better way of dispensing vouchers than simply listing the code on your website or tweeting it to fans.
Giveaway a product- Giving away a product or an online voucher in a sweepstakes contest is arguably the best way to capture new leads. Make sure the prize you giveaway is relevant to your business else you’ll be out of pocket with emails you can’t do anything with.
For example, a gym would be better off giving away a free gym membership or a protein shake tub than an iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 would attract too many people who aren’t interested in using your service and just want the expensive gadget. Whereas giving away a free gym membership or health product would only interest people who are serious about using your service.
Relevant prizes generate targeted leads, generic prizes attract everyone.
Lead magnets – Do you currently offer a lead magnet to prospects on your site? Lead ads combined with a custom audience will dramatically lower your marketing spend while increasing your lead captures.
When you do create your first lead ad, just don’t expect to get prospects to opt-in without offering them value.
The limitations of lead ads
Arguably the biggest pitfall of lead ads is the inability to connect it Mailchimp and other small email platforms. This means you cannot segment leads into different groups and have your email responder nurture them automatically.
However, if you have a CRM, Facebook Lead Ads can be combined with:
- Driftrock
- Maropost
- Marketo
- Oracle Marketing Cloud
- Sailthru
- Salesforce
You can setup custom integrations between other CRM using a Facebook API, but if all else fails, you can export your leads off Facebook by using a CSV file and upload them to your email solutions.
Finally, since prospects are not redirected to your website they cannot be collected into a custom audience to be re-targeted for further upsells, although there is a way around that. You can upload all emails gathered from your leads ads into a unique custom audience serving them bespoke media.
Summary
If Facebook lead ads are successful in increasing conversions (I’m sure they will be), there will be a lot of competition which means it won’t be cheap. Businesses who can provide the right level of value (by qualifying prospects’ needs) will find considerable success using lead ads.
Looking to generate more leads through Facebook? Feel free to contact us today if you need any help regarding Facebook lead ads.