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Why You Should Be Using Lead Generation Ads

Published on April 30, 2021

Lead generation ads are used to generate leads. They advertise a product or service, and the goal is that these potential customers will contact you with their information in order for you to continue selling your goods/services. Facebook and Instagram lead generation ads can help you to get more leads.

Here’s how Facebook and Instagram lead generation ads work:

You show the potential client an ad that promotes your lead magnet.
The possible customer clicks the button on the advertisement (e.g.”Sign Up”, “Download”,”Subscribe”, etc.)
The potential client is then presented with an opt-in form that’s automatically pre-filled with details in their Facebook or Instagram account.

For instance:

Here’s a Facebook lead generation ad from Sleeknote:

What’s the Difference Between Facebook and Instagram Lead Generation Advertising?

You likely know that Facebook purchased Instagram back in 2012 for $1 billion in stock and cash and owns it to this day.

That is why you’ll have to use Ad Manager to prepare lead generation campaigns on each platform.

Instagram lead advertisements are only available on the Instagram mobile app. Your lead ads won’t appear on the desktop edition of Instagram
Instagram doesn’t support some prefill questions (e.g. if you include the Date of Birth area in your Immediate Form, your advertisement will not be delivered).
Instagram does not support the Store Locator or Appointment Request questions. If your lead ad includes one of those questions, it will still be run but that question won’t be shown.
Instagram doesn’t support dynamic ads for lead generation.

Make certain to pay attention to these limitations when you’re setting up a lead generation campaign on Instagram.

Okay, so now you understand what lead generation ads are, the question is: if you be using them?

This is quite a controversial topic as there’s an ongoing debate between marketers who prefer lead generation ads and marketers who prefer regular advertisements.

There isn’t a clear-cut answer to the question of which sort of ads is better. It all depends upon what you are trying to attain.

Top 3 Reasons for Using Lead Generation Ads

#1 Validate Your Lead Magnet

Lead generation ads offer a simple way to validate your guide magnet.

It’s possible to create a minimal viable product (MVP) version of your guide magnet, then promote it with lead ads to see if folks are interested in it.

As soon as you are aware there’s a requirement for anything it’s that you are offering as your lead magnet, you can then invest in creating a landing page to get it.

Then you can experiment with both routine ads and lead generation ads to determine which ad type is more effective at generating leads for your business.

#2 Get More Leads

Here is the problem with generating prospects with regular ads that send prospective customers to the lead magnet landing page:

Individuals who browse social media apps on their phones might click on an ad, go to the landing page, then decide that they can not be bothered to complete the opt-in form and leave without providing their contact information.

This isn’t surprising when you think about it. Anyone who ever had to fill out a form on their cellular phone knows how dull that could be. In actuality, according to Facebook, it takes almost 40% longer to manually complete a form on cellular vs. desktop.

And that’s the issue that Facebook and Instagram lead generation ads attempt to solve.

They make it as easy as possible for your potential customer to supply their contact details. No need to leave the stage, no need to read landing page copy, you don’t have to type… The possible customer can download the lead magnet with only a couple of clicks!

They looked at over 3,000 campaigns and about $9.5 million in advertising spend.

Take a look at the information:

Lead generation campaigns vs. conversion campaigns 60-day picture

They found that while cost per action was higher, lead generation ads converted to leads at a 2.07% higher speed.

This isn’t surprising given that lead generation ads remove the major obstacle that stands in the potential client’s way: the need to sort on a smartphone.

#3 Streamline Your Sales Process

That permits you to reach out to the most promising leads instantly, keep track of them, and nurture those relationships over time.

This is especially important for high-touch services and products which need a sales call to close the deal.

How To Create Lead Ads on Facebook and Instagram

So how do you create lead generation ads on Facebook and Instagram?

Here is Facebook’s step-by-step tutorial on how to create lead advertisements from Advertising Manager:

Go to Advertising Manager.
Click + Create in the top left.
Insert your campaign details, A/B test and effort budget optimization information if needed, then click Next.
In the Page section, select the Facebook Page you want to use to create lead ads. If this is the first time you’re developing a lead ad on this Facebook Page, click View Terms. Review the Lead Ad Terms and choose I Agree to Terms and Conditions.
Choose your finances, audience, placements and optimization. Notice that, unlike other campaign types, you can’t show lead advertisements to individuals under the age of 18. Click Next.
From the Identity section, select your Facebook Page and attach your Instagram accounts, if applicable.
From the Ad Installation section, select Single Image or Video or Carousel.
From the Ad Creative section, select the picture (s) or video(s) which you want to use for your ad.
Add the headline, description, and other text to put in your ad. Include the Call to Action button that’s most relevant to your form.
In the Question Format section, select Immediate Form.
Note: You can also use the Lead Generation objective to encourage individuals to begin a chat with your business in Messenger. To do so, select Automated Chat rather than immediate Form and follow the instructions here.
If you selected Instant Form, you have several options for creating a form:
Click Create Form to create a new Instant Form.
Click the Duplicate button next to a form you have already created. This creates an exact copy which you can modify.
Click the Edit button next to a draft to alter the form. You can’t edit a form that has been published, but you can duplicate a published form and make adjustments.
If you clicked Create Form, the Create Form window will open. Name your form in the Form Name segment.
From the Form Type field, choose which type of immediate Form you wish to use.
Choosing More Volume will allow you to make a form that is fast to complete and submit on a mobile device.
Selecting Higher Intent will include a review step that gives individuals a chance to confirm their information before submission.
In the Intro section, add an introduction screen to your Instant Form. You can use this introduction section to add a picture, headline and description that explains more about your product or service.
In the Questions section, click + Add Question to add up to 15 questions. Custom questions allow you to get answers to the questions that are most important to your business or organization. You might also include prefilling questions to request user information. You may only use the information accumulated on your guide ad for the purposes stated in this notice.
Choose which information you’d like to have prefilled in your form. You can add categories with the Add Category button. In the Privacy section, add link text and a URL in the Privacy Policy field. You can also click + Add Custom Disclaimer if you would like to add additional disclaimers to your Instant Form. Custom disclaimers don’t have any character limit.
In the Completion section, add a headline, description, call-to-action button and link to help keep your leads engaged after they submit the form.
Click on the arrows at the top of your Form Preview to make sure your complete form looks the way you want it. Click Save Draft if you think you will want to make changes afterward. After an Instant Form has been completed, you cannot edit it. Complete the rest of your ad by adding information in the Tracking section, if applicable.
When you’re done, click Publish to publish your direct advertisement.
Note that you will also have to include the URL for your company’s privacy policy in your form, so make sure that you have that page ready.

By the way, Facebook advises getting your legal team to review the questions which you intend to ask on your form, as well as the Lead Ads Terms of Service and Advertising Policies. You might want to consult a lawyer just to be safe.

How to Raise the Conversion Rate of Your Lead Ads

Here are three tips that will help you increase the conversion rate of your lead ads:

#1 Make Your Lead Magnet Super Valuable

Your lead magnet is at the heart of your lead generation campaign.

As we shared in one of our Instagram posts:

People aren’t going to give you their contact information unless you give them something super valuable in return.

That’s why the key to designing an effective lead magnet is to produce something your dream customers desperately want… And then give it to them at no cost.

#2 The Main Benefit of the Lead Magnet

Then you need to understand the difference between features and benefits:

A feature is a quality or a feature of a product (e.g.”These shoes are waterproof!”) .
There’s an old copywriter saying:

“Features tell, benefits sell.”

People make buying decisions based on benefits, then justify those choices with features.

And as you might not be charging for your guide magnet, you still need to sell the potential client on it if you need them to download it.

To determine what the major advantage of your guide magnet is and emphasize it in your ad copy.

#3 Do Not Request Too Much Information

AdEspresso did a study where they examined 30,000 Facebook campaigns to determine how the number of queries on a lead ad form affected the cost per lead (CPL) of that ad.

Here are the results:

As you can see, the more questions you ask, the higher the cost per lead.

But what is especially interesting is that CPL more than doubles when you go from five queries to six questions.

AdEspresso team concluded that it is best to ask 1-3 questions and that you should never ask over five questions.

To determine what information is absolutely necessary and do not ask for anything else in your lead ad form.

Conclusion

Lead generation advertisements can help you get more leads. That is what they were designed for!

However, merely running lead generation ads Isn’t enough, you also need to make sure that they convert:

Offer a super valuable lead magnet.
Emphasize the major advantage of your guide magnet in the advertisement copy.
Only ask for information that’s necessary. 1-3 questions is ideal. Never ask more than five questions!
Keep tweaking your guide ads until you figure out what works best. Then double down on it!

Moreover, if you want to maximize your return on investment, you should build a sales funnel.

We created our 5 Day Challenge to show you how you can do that.

You will learn how to: