In late October Facebook launched a new service within their power editor platform called “lead ads.” In this article, I will go through the process of creating a Facebook lead ad, then discuss the main reason anyone should care so if you’re interested in saving some time and money in your next “lead gen” attempt. Read On…
Facebook noted that “Lead ads help many types of businesses connect with the people interested in their products and services. A bookstore could use lead ads to promote a book on pre-sale, while an automaker could encourage people to get a quote on a car.”
The statement above is 100% true, anyone who owns a business and is looking for practical ways to generate more leads should take note of Facebook lead ads. Now lead ads can take the place of your traditional “landing page,” not that landing pages are dying, it’s just better more seamless way to capture the consumer’s data without inundating them with useless information. In most cases when consumers hit a landing page, they are instantly turned off (unless you are selling/giving away a specific product or service) and bounce off the page.
“In early A/B testing, Facebook’s native lead ads outperformed link ads driving to the website to fill out a lead form regarding total leads and conversion rate, while driving a 4x reduction in cost per lead compared to previous social lead generation tactics.” – Kim Kyaw, Manager, Digital Marketing & Social Media, Land Rover
So how do you set up a Facebook lead ad?
Let’s start with signing into Facebook and clicking your Ads Manager in the left-hand bar then, once you’re in your Ads Manager account, you should see a button for the Power Editor in the header navigation.
Once you get into Power Editor, you will have quite a few options for different objectives but our objective today is to create a lead ad. Make sure Campaigns is selected then click “create the campaign.”
Create a New Campaign (keep it simple and be specific) and select Lead Generation as your objective.
Create an Ad Set and Name the Ad.
Now your Campaign, Ad Set, and Ad should be created in power editor, and you can start to edit the Ad Sets.
Click the Ad set and select the page where you will link the ads the Ads.
Select your budget – Daily means how much you will spend per day and Lifetime means how much you will spend the full duration of the campaign.
Select the dates your campaign will run and if there are specific times you want your ad to run or not click more options and adjust the placement schedule.
Update your audience – This is where the rubber meets the road and understanding who your target audience is will help save you time and money. If you need additional help defining your target audience, please feel free to send us an email.
Select where you want your ads to show, Desktop or Mobile, and if you only want your ads to indicate when the user are connected to Wi-Fi, you can select that here also.
Optimize the bid process, do you want Facebook to adjust the amount you spend per lead or do you want to choose what a lead is worth to you. In most cases, it’s better to have it automatically adjust the bid for you.
Set the Frequency for your Ad’s, Do you want Facebook to show your ads to select potential customers throughout the day or do you want them to show the Ads to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
I usually suggest the standard rate of delivery because Facebook’s algorithms are pretty spot on when it comes to showing your ads to potential customers when they are most interested in buying or learning more. This is where creating an “Ideal Customer Profile” than setting up your targeting to fit that persona is very important.
Select Ads in the left navigation bar, and you will notice that there is a red box around the lead form. The reason it’s red is that you have not created an opt-in form yet.
Create a new form, name the form and add the necessary questions. Facebook will only auto-populate the First/last name and the email address; you can also add up to 3 additional questions to your opt-in and also create a custom question if needed.
Add a link to privacy policy. If you don’t have one, there are multiple samples online that you can pull from. Once you link your Privacy Policy, Facebook will ask if you want to send the user to your website or landing page. It’s a good idea to ensure that whatever page the customer goes to is relevant to the information they opted-in.
After adding your Website and Privacy Policy URLs to the lead form, Facebook will prompt you to add a marketing message to the body of the form. You should use this space to reinforce the value proposition so that the potential lead is even more compelled to sign up. Two rules to live by when adding a marketing message to your lead form; 1. Be concise, 2.Highlight the Value in signing up (free, %off) 3. Don’t feel like you have to add information; if your ad copy and visuals are relevant and your targeting is correct, then there is no need to add more details to the mix.
Review your Lead Form to ensure you are only asking for enough information to generate a lead. You can follow up on everything you need to know for a proposal posted to the initial opt-in either on a phone call or email questionnaire. Remember that follow up is the key to success.
Now that your form is complete you can start on your Ad. Let’s start by clicking the Ad tab in the left navigation. Then click “Create Ad.
Once the Ad editor pops up, you will be asked for creative in the form of Text for the headline and body copy along with a news feed description. As noted in the Form creation you want to be sure the value you offer is compelling enough for a person to give up their information.
Then you will be asked to select a feature image, keep in mind Facebook has a 20% rule so if there is writing on the Ad creative make sure it is to the point and no more then 20% of the creative space. The Display URL is what will show up at the bottom of the ad so ad, make sure the URL is relevant to the lead so that when a user searches it, they will be more inclined to sign up or purchase.
Make sure your tracking code is correct before submitting the ad.
Preview the Ad.
Once you’re complete with the Ad creative press the red review changes button in the top right-hand corner.
Once the Ad is processed, it will be moved to your Ads Manager account and should now be pending review. It might take up to 24hrs to see the approval but once it’s approved sit back and monitor the results.
Now that you know the steps, its time to set up your first Facebook lead ad!
If you are having trouble in the process or just need someone to do it for you, our team is always here to help, shoot us an email at info@digital1010.com.