Using Facebook lead ads for your business

As a business owner, chances are you’re interested in effective ways to get quality leads at a low cost. You’ve probably also heard of Facebook lead ads, a growing way of generating leads that could be a worthwhile investment of your advertising dollars. So what are Facebook lead ads, and are they the way to go for you?

What are Facebook lead ads?
Put simply, lead ads are an effective way of collecting emails and other user information to enable you to build a database for future advertising campaigns.

They’re an advertisement that appears on a user’s feed in between posts, inviting them to fill in details and answer questions on a form that you’ve created. Lead ads are targeted to your ideal audience and they’re easy to launch.

It's important for us to point out that these lead ads seem to be in their early stages compared to what they could grow to become. We’re excited to see Facebook lead ads evolve and think they’ll become an even more powerful tool as they go on.

Here are some of the pros and cons of Facebook lead ads for marketers right now:

Pros

Facebook users don’t need to exit Facebook

Users trust the Facebook platform and are more likely to hand over their details and opinions because of this. They can quickly fill in your form and continue with their social scrolling.

Forms are automatically filled out for the user

Facebook can populate many areas of your lead ad forms with data contained in their system for the user. This saves time and increases the possibility of users completing your form instead of clicking out. 

Ease of use

Setting up lead ads are easy, even for beginners. The forms are customisable and you can include drop down options to get answers to specific questions from your leads. 

You also have the option of creating “context cards” which are like a mini-landing page for your business. These give the user more information about your products before they move on to the form field.

Cheaper alternative to standard advertising

As with all online ads, cost per lead depends on your targeting, your industry, and other selected metrics. 

Facebook’s targeting algorithms let you pinpoint quality leads to get your products in front of the right people. You can also target “lookalike” audiences to increase your reach. This targeting can create very cost-effective leads in comparison to other forms of online advertising.

Retargeting

The reality is that many users probably won’t fill in your form. Facebook allows you retarget people who clicked on your ad but didn’t take the next step and send you their details.

This gives you the opportunity to optimise your ad to make it more appealing to people who are now aware of your product but need a little more of a push to interact with your business.

Integration with CRM systems

If you’re wondering where to put the data collected by your lead ads, Facebook allows you to integrate with customer relationship management platforms such as HubSpot. Your collected leads can be migrated seamlessly into the AD tool in the HubSpot system. This saves you valuable time trying to manually add all the information into your database.

Cons


Quality of leads

While Facebook’s targeting software is excellent, there’s no guarantee that your lead ads will result in sales. Start small with a test budget and some trial ads. This will ensure you can adjust your copy, questions, and target metrics before you part with too much of your marketing budget.

Follow-up speed

Fresh leads should ideally be followed up within 5 minutes for the best chance at conversion into sales. This isn’t easy to do with the lead ads system, as at the moment it’s a manual task.

Ad design within Facebook lead ads

You might find that the rigid size constraints Facebook puts on lead ads get in the way of creating a beautiful custom design for your business ad.

What we think

Facebook lead ads are a valuable lead generating tool for marketers and they look like they’re only going to get better. Once some of the ‘cons’ are sorted and the ‘pros’ list gets a little longer, there’ll be no stopping them.

It's well worth dipping your toes in the Facebook lead ads water - we’re looking forward to seeing the future of this potentially powerful and influential marketing method in the digital marketing world, and diving right in.
 
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