Increase Potential Customers with Facebook Lead Ads

Isn’t it great when social media websites simplify your digital marketing efforts? Facebook has done that with Lead Ads.

Lead Ads don’t just simplify your life, though. They make it extremely easy for people in your target market to an express an interest in your product and volunteer their contact information.

In short: with Facebook Lead Ads, potential customers just have to click a button and they’ll be added to your list of leads. What’s not to love about that?

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of Facebook Lead Ads and go over some best practices.

What Are Facebook Lead Ads?

Facebook Lead Ads are a simple way to collect contact information from people in your target market.

How do they simplify the data collection process? For starters, you run a Facebook Lead Ad just like you’d run any other ad on Facebook. So, you’ll already have some experience with targeting the types of Facebook users who are most likely to be interested in what it is you’re offering.

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Lead Ads also make it easy on Facebook users. People who see your lead ad will be presented with a form that they can fill out. Then, they’ll just need to click the call-to-action (CTA) button that’s embedded in the form and their contact information will be shared with you. It’s important to note that they fill out the form and submit it without ever leaving Facebook.

It gets better. Since Facebook already knows a lot of the key information about its users, some form fields will be pre-filled. In other words, the user doesn’t have to do anything except click the CTA button if all you’re asking for is basic information (such as the user’s first name and email address).

Facebook Lead Ads make it astonishingly easy to build your email list, find people interested in promotions, locate prospective buyers, and broaden your reach in general.

It Starts With a Privacy Policy

If you’re interested in using Facebook Lead Ads, you’re going to need a privacy policy on your website.

Truth be told, you should probably already have a privacy policy on your website. If you don’t, you’ll need one if you want to use Lead Ads.

A privacy policy is a legal disclosure that informs website visitors about how you collect data from them and what you do with that data. It lets visitors know what they’re getting into when they browse around your site.

Facebook Lead Ads requires you to have a privacy policy because it places restrictions on what you can do with the data. You’re not allowed to share or sell the data you collect to anyone else. Also, there are certain questions that you’re not allowed to ask people.

Pick Your Targets

Once you’ve established a privacy policy page that you can link to, you’re free to create a Lead Ad. You begin that process just like you would create any other Facebook Ad, except that you’ll select “Collect leads for your business” as the type of ad you’ll create. As of this writing, that’s the last option on the list and it has the word “NEW” next to it.

Next, you’ll go through the familiar process of selecting your target audience. If you’ve ever run a Facebook ad before, this part is second nature. You’ll select the people who will see your Lead Ad based on demographics and interests. Of course, you can also select a custom audience.

You’ll also have the opportunity to schedule your ad and set the daily spend limit, just as you would with any other Facebook ad. You can set your optimization for ad delivery as well.

Finally, you get to name your ad set. Choose a name that makes the most sense so that you’ll understand what you’re looking at when you check your analytics later on.

Click on “Choose Ad Creative” to move on to the next step.

Designing Your Form

Now, it’s time to get down to business designing your form. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you normally select your media and text and you should see a section entitled “Lead Form.”

Within that section, you’ll see a “Create Form” button. That’s all you can do at this point if you haven’t created a form. Go ahead and click that button.

A window will pop up giving you the opportunity to create a new form or duplicate an existing form. That’s not much of a choice here because you have no form to duplicate if you’re doing this for the first time, so leave the default option (“New Form”) checked and click “Next.”

On the next window, you’ll get to name your form and select a language. Enter a name that describes your form, select the correct language, and click “Next.”

The next window will allow you to select which fields you would like to appear on your form. Facebook gives you plenty of options, but remember to apply the KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) principle of marketing here. You want to collect the information you’ll need for marketing purposes, but you don’t want a form that’s so long that people abandon it before they’re finished.

If you’re looking to just build your email list, it’s probably best to just collect the person’s first name and email address. That way, people who view your form can be added to your list with just the click of a button (remember, Facebook pre-populates the fields).

If you’re looking to do some type of email list segmentation, you might think that the best way to do that is by asking several questions on the Lead Ad form and then separating the email addresses manually. Instead, you’re probably better off keeping the form to just a couple of questions and targeting it to people within a subset of your target market. That way, users won’t be required to fill out a bunch of fields just to be added to your list. Of course, you’ll need to run several different Lead Ads, each targeted to a very specific demographic or interest set, but you’ll end up with a series of email lists that you can use for highly targeted promotional purposes.

Once you’re done with your form, click the “Next” button again and you’ll be presented with yet another window. That’s where you’ll add a link to your privacy policy. As an option, you can also add a legal disclaimer. It’s a great idea to contact an attorney when it comes to adding verbiage to your privacy policy or including a legal disclaimer.

Click “Next” on that page and you’ll be asked for your website’s URL. Enter that and once again click “Next.”

The next window gives you the option to add a context card to your Lead Ad. Use a context card to describe what it is you’re offering people who willingly provide you with their contact information. Essentially, the context card is what you’ll use to “sell” people on the idea of clicking that CTA button. You have the opportunity to choose between bullet-point or paragraph formats.

Finally, you’ll get a preview of your form so you can see what it will look like. If you’re not happy with what you see, you can click the “Edit” button and make some changes. If you are happy, just click the “Create Form” button and you’ll have a form.

Now you have a form but you still don’t have an ad. To get your ad running, just click on the “Place Order” button at the bottom of the ad page.

Congratulations, you now have a Lead Ad running to people in your target market!

Uses for Facebook Lead Ads

There are several ways that you can use Facebook Lead Ads. The best approach depends on your business model and the people in your target market who also happen to be Facebook users. You might find that a combination of options works well for you.

The most obvious use for Lead Ads is to increase the size of your email distribution list. If you’d like to reach people directly in their inbox instead of relying on the uncertain algorithms of social media sites to show your latest update to people, then run a Lead Ad that will simply collect email addresses.

You can also use a Lead Ad as an interest form. That strategy works especially well if you’re offering a product or service that doesn’t often have repeat customers and you’re looking for leads who will “one day” be interested in purchasing what you’re offering.

Another great use for Lead Ads is to advertise a promotion. If you’ve got a discount, a deal, or a coupon that you think some Facebook users would be interested in hearing about, why not collect some email addresses in exchange for a coupon code or access to a restricted URL that offers a special discount?

Finally, if you’d like to keep people in your target market informed of additions to your product line, create a Lead Ad that asks them to sign up for updates.

Mobile-Friendly

The engineers who work at Facebook are not all ignorant of the times we live in. They know that digital marketing without support for mobile devices isn’t marketing at all.

That’s why you won’t have to worry about whether or not your Lead Ad is responsive. It will work on all devices.

And remember, the form is pre-filled. So mobile users won’t even have to go through the hassle of typing responses on their touchpad unless you’re asking for unusual information.

No Automation, Though

As of this writing, there’s no automated way to transfer email addresses that you’ve collected to your autoresponder of choice. You’re going to have to export the email addresses (and whatever other information you’ve collected) and import it to your email distribution software. Fortunately, almost all autoresponders accept imports, but they might need to be verified before you can use them.

To download your leads, just go to the Facebook page that’s connected to your ads and click the Publishing Tools tab at the top. You should see a section on the left-hand side that includes a link to “Lead Ads Forms.” Click on that.

You’ll see a list of your forms and a “Download” link on the right-hand side of each row. Just click on that link to download the information you’ve collected that corresponds to that form.

Wrapping It Up

Facebook Lead Ads represents the best of both worlds. It makes it easier for you to collect contact information from prospects and it makes it easier for prospects to provide you with their information. If you haven’t started using Facebook Lead Ads yet, why not start today?