Lead generation campaigns can be a cost effective means of acquiring new contacts for marketing efforts, and have several advantages over legacy lead acquisition strategies such as purchasing lists. Conversion rates for lead gen campaigns vary, but can often end up in the lower double-digits, sometimes much higher than purchase-based direct response campaigns.
A general trend in digital media is seeing a high drop-off rate between a user clicking on an ad, and the destination page fully loading (as much as 50% in some cases). This abandonment means that the rate of conversion from people patient enough to allow the destination page to load is actually much higher—and, if you could somehow overcome this, your lead gen campaign would be that much more efficient.
Enter Meta Lead Ads. With lead forms built into the platform itself, Meta Lead Ads keep the user on the social network, removing the barrier of your audiences’ impatience, and collect their contact information without ever leaving the ad unit. Contact information from your leads can then later be exported into csv or you can even integrate your CRM directly into Meta.
How Meta Lead Ads Work
Lead ads on Meta start off like any other static, carousel, or video ad unit, and look virtually the same to the end user. The difference begins when a user clicks on your ad: instead of being directed to a destination on your website, users will see an introduction to a lead forms, explaining why and for what purpose the advertiser is collecting the information.
This takes the user to a lead form containing fields you determine at setup. Since Meta has already collected some information from each user, any fields that Meta can pre-populate, it will, giving the user less to manually fill-in on their end.
Typically, advertisers will offer some form of a “takeaway” to entice users to voluntarily provide contact information. In the past, we have seen advertisers use whitepapers, infographics, trial subscriptions, and discount codes as incentives in their Meta Lead Ad campaigns.
What Do Lead Ads on Meta Look Like?
To the end user, Meta Lead Ads look like any other ad on the platform. For the advertiser, there is an extra step in your ad trafficking in which you’ll need to build out the lead form.
When your audience clicks on your Facebook or Instagram lead gen ad, they will see something that looks like this:
Things to Keep in Mind
While lead volume and cost efficiency, in our experience, has been better on these lead ads vs. sending folks off-Meta to convert, we have seen reports of these leads being of generally lower quality. Screechy Cat Media does not have data of our own to share as a case study, but it isn’t a stretch to think this might be the case, as less effort is involved in getting through the lead submission. However, this is likely to differ by advertiser, so your mileage may vary.
Aside from lead quality, a few technical notes on Meta Lead Ads to keep in mind:
- One lead form can be used for multiple campaigns, but lead forms cannot be edited once they’ve been activated.
- A privacy policy on your website is required and must be linked in the appropriate spot in the ad. Privacy policies are a general requirement of all major ad platforms anyway, so it’s a good idea to have one if you don’t already.
- Though the number and type of fields required in the lead form are up to the advertiser, more fields typically means less response, so we recommend limiting field selection to required information to create a contact only.
- There is a special level of access for paid media managers to be able to download submitted leads, which can be granted by the page owner or an admin in Business Manager.
Getting Started with Lead Ads
Meta’s lead ads can be an effective means of bolstering your email marketing and retargeting efforts, particularly with the diminishing value of advertising cookies. If you are new to digital media or just need a hand getting set up with lead gen ads on Meta, drop us a line today!
