Leads. We want them and we want them now. In fact, we want them so bad we’re ready to spend days creating the best pieces of content, amazing lead magnets, and finally paying good money to buy traffic, full of hope that this classic 3-legged strategy does the magic.
Hope isn’t necessarily a bad thing but when you need quick results, there’s an easier, faster way to get them – Facebook lead generation ads.
The mechanics of actually creating a Facebook lead generation ad is very straightforward and we won’t delve into it for this post, because others have done the topic justice. For this post, we would like to focus on the often-missed strategic actions you can take to ensure that your Facebook lead generation ad reaches out to your audience, pulls them by the scruff of the shirt and dumps them into your e-mail list.
So, what is this sorcery called Facebook lead generation ads?
Lead generation ads are just one type of ad campaign which Facebook allows you to create. These type of ads are essentially lead magnets or promoted forms which appear between posts in your target customer’s Facebook feed. When your target customer clicks on the button in the ad, they are presented with a form requesting information pre-defined by you such as name, email address, phone number etc. Facebook lead ad forms are very user-centric, taking around 2 minutes or less to fill. Most marketers use these Facebook lead generation adverts to generate leads in exchange for digital products with high perceived value.
To make data collection even easier from a customer’s viewpoint, prospective customers are presented with pre-populated forms pre-filled with information taken from their Facebook profiles when they click on your ad. This eliminates the steps otherwise involved in generating leads the old way, and explains why these ads work wonders for improving conversion rates.
Old way:
Sees ad > Click > More text on Landing Page > Fill Form > Thank you page > Email Confirmation > Juicy Resource
Facebook Lead collection ad:
Sees ad > Learn More > Pre-filled form > Juicy Resource
As you can tell, the many steps involved translate to many opportunities to abandon the process and just give up. Facebook lead generation ads are an effective way to optimize the lead collection process, featuring only a few steps.
It’s easy to see how precise targeting + a simplified data collection process can turbo boost your conversion rates. This isn’t even the best part. The best part is Facebook’s secret sauce – lookalike audiences. With lookalike audiences, you can use the data you collect from your lead gen forms to target matching audiences in other locations, translating to more leads in various geographic locations. Plus you replicate your campaigns and show your ads on Instagram. Both Facebook and Instagram ads are optimized for mobile which means access to an even wider audience of mobile users.
As effective as running Facebook lead generation ads are, it is very easy to mess things up so much that you end up getting little or no satisfactory results. So, it is very important that before you run an ad, you understand the features of a high performing Facebook lead generation ads and how to go about them to maximize efficiency for the best results.
How to consistently create high-performing Facebook lead generation ads
1. Set clear goals for your ad
As with every successful business strategy, the old carpenter’s rule holds true: “measure twice, cut once”. Before you put your finger to the keyboard, you need to clarify what exactly you aim to achieve by running this ad. This will not just help in optimizing your ad for the target audience, but having clear goals beforehand will help you determine the success of your campaign and measure return on investment (ROI).
2. Target the right audience
For your lead generation ad to be successful, you have to be sure that you are targeting the exact audience with the greatest need for your product. With Facebook, you can achieve this by using a lookalike audience modelled after your best customers to reach similar customers in different areas. You can create custom audiences and target people selectively, based on their job titles, location, age, hobbies, relationships etc.
3. Offer an incentive
Everyone loves a freebie. In the book ‘Predictably Irrational’, Dan Ariely explains why we find freebies so attractive, and how they offer marketers such a big competitive edge over the competition. One of the best ways to get people to take immediate action on your ad is to offer a carefully crafted incentive that solves a problem affecting your target audience. By offering a solution to their problem, you capture their attention and by offering a free incentive, you remove the barriers to taking action. Incentives you can offer include discount codes, free delivery, free resources, free product samples and so on. Attaching rewards to your ads will make your potential clients that you truly value the information they are giving to you.
4. Simplicity is key
The simpler your form is, the easier it is for users seeing your ad to take action. We know it may be very tempting to collect as much data as possible at first contact, but industry gurus advice to keep the number of form fields required to the barest minimum. Only ask questions that are relevant to the campaign as simplicity is key.
5. Use engaging content
What was the last ad you remember seeing on Facebook? I can guarantee it wasn’t a boring, generic one so why would you want to create a bog-standard ad that you wouldn’t click on if you were your own customer? Compelling content that relates to your buyer persona is key to standing out in the crowded place that is the Facebook ad space. You can run ads using video, pictures, carousels, slideshows and even canvas. Experts suggest that well put together HD videos and images tend to generate better engagement, so it is important to do the research beforehand to figure out what sort of content your target audience is most likely to engage with to get the best results out of your campaign.
In addition to a focus on your ad creative, it is important to pay attention to your ad text, ensuring that the use of every word is intentional. Highlight the benefits of your product to the user, and ensure that your call to action is very clear and actionable.
Follow up
Why spend all that money on ads if you don’t intend to follow up with prospective clients to seal the deal? Creating dedicated channels to keep your prospects informed will boost your conversion rates as customers won’t perceive you as a one-trick pony. You can create dedicated channels to engage with your customers on third-party messaging apps, emails, to share with your prospects every detail they need to make that final buying decision.
Once you have incorporated these strategies into your Facebook lead generation campaign, it’s time to test and optimize your ads for success. You can run one ad with different audiences to its effectiveness. Facebook ad campaigns are a game of strategy and persistence with high rewards but these tips should help you reduce the learning curve involved in getting the amazing results that savvy marketers (yes, you!) are known for.
