15/02/2022
Facebook lead ads sponsored ad
Lead Ads work through the promotion of a lead generation offer. For example, say your business wants to increase the number of signups to your product โ your offer might be a discount coupon code.
Like any other offer, the user has to submit their personal information through a lead form to access the code, except with Facebook Lead Ads โ this form lives within the Facebook app.
When a user comes across your ad and clicks the CTA, Facebook will display a form that's auto-filled with their information, which is a great way to reduce friction when signing up, since they have fewer form fields to complete. Your Facebook ad will then deliver the code in app, or email, via a "Thank You" message depending on how you designate the lead flow. This is known as the Facebook Lead Form.
Now your new lead has your discount code, and you have a new potential customer to nurture and qualify.
Take the free Facebook Ads course taught by HubSpot experts.
Facebook Lead Form
A lead form collects a lead's information (email address, name, phone number, etc.) in exchange for something of value. Your visitors will be much more likely to fill out your form if youโre offering something that will help them.
However, getting someone to fill out a form and click Submit isn't always an easy task โ especially because of how simple it is for anyone to become distracted online. Facebook Lead Ads address this issue by collecting user information directly in the app via their native lead form. It looks something like this:
facebook lead ads form example
The lead form lives in the Facebook app so users can enter their information without ever leaving the platform, increasing the chances of a conversion.
While your prospect stays in the app, their shared information can move seamlessly into your CRM database through an integration. This gives you the opportunity to nurture them through their decision stage (of the buyer's journey) into becoming a customer.
Integrate HubSpot CRM with Facebook Lead Ads to collect and nurture your leads in one place.
Benefits of Facebook Lead Ads
Here are a few benefits to using Facebook Lead Ads:
1. Native Functionality
With Lead Ads, users can submit their information through an auto-filled form without ever leaving the platform. You avoid disrupting the UX by keeping your lead on Facebook instead of switching from the platform to your website and back again.
2. Mobile Responsiveness
Facebook Lead Ads are particularly beneficial for mobile. The app is already set up for mobile users, so you can rest assured that your ads will be, too. That means that no matter which device your leads view your ads, they'll be able to complete your form without any issues thanks to its responsive design.
3. Simple Data Collection
Lead Ads are also beneficial for the advertiser because they capture potential customersโ information without having to create a new landing page or conversion path. Everything you need to obtain a new lead is in the platform, and that data can easily integrate with your CRM.
4. Highly-Targeted Segments
Facebook Lead Ads allows for highly targeted segmentation, like interests, demographics, and more. This means that the leads you acquire from your Facebook Ads are already highly qualified for your product or service.
Now to the fun part โ setting up your Facebook Lead Ad.
How to Set Up Your Facebook Ads
Open your Ads Manager.
Select your campaign objective.
Name your ad campaign.
Create an Ad Set.
Identify your Facebook Business Page.
Take advantage of the dynamic creative feature.
Filter your audience.
Choose your ad placement.
Set your budget and schedule.
Name your ad.
Select the format.
Upload your media.
Add copy.
Select your form fields.
First things first, make sure that any form fields your company plans to use are in line with Facebookโs Lead Ads policies. Once thatโs squared away, youโre good to start building your paid campaign.
1. Open your Ads Manager.
This will be the most simple step. Login to your Facebook account, navigate to your Ads Manager. Then, click Create.
2. Select your campaign objective.
Next, youโll see a screen asking for your ad campaign objective. Since weโre creating a Lead Ad, select Lead generation, and the page will pull down with the next option.
Note: Youโll see an option for Switch to Quick Creation in the upper right-hand corner. You can click this button if you donโt need to be guided through the creation process โ this option is for the advanced advertiser who is familiar with Facebook Lead Ads. Otherwise, stick with Guided Creation.
Facebook Lead Ads select your campaign objective
3. Name your ad campaign.
We recommend being as detailed as possible here and including the campaign objective in the name so you can compare your results to the original goal.
Facebook Lead Ads name your campaign
Next, youโll move into your ad set, where you add demographic details about your target audience and select the options that correspond to your persona.
4. Create an Ad Set.
Think of the ad set as the basket that is holding all of your ads for a specific persona. Your ad set name should reflect that, e.g. Shoemaker Sally - 25-34 - College Grad. Add as many descriptors as you need. Or, if you have a persona worksheet, you can simply give the ad set the name of your persona and reference the worksheet when needed.
5. Identify Your Facebook Business Page.
Use the drop-down to determine which Facebook business page the ad set falls under. Your company may have several business pages. If not, your page should already be selected.
6. Take advantage of the dynamic creative feature.
This option allows you to upload a variety of creative assets separately for Facebook to automatically generate the right combination of a headline, image, CTA, and other components to show to subsegments of your audience. Use this option if youโre not creating a complete ad image that you want to split test yourself.
7. Filter your audience.
You can select all the characteristics and traits of your target person for this ad set, everything from age to interests. This is where Facebookโs unique segmentation proves useful โ you can select an audience based on their interests, behavior, or demographic information. You can also select to exclude people based on certain criteria so you donโt waste precious ad spend. Finally, you can select connections based on how people have interacted with your business in the past.
How to Filter Your Audience
Here's what your audience filters will look like in the Ads Manager.
Facebook Lead Ads Audience
There are many different ways you could set up your audience targeting for a given ad campaign, and there are five filters, as mentioned, that you have at your disposal. Each of these filters is within the Audience section of your Ads Manager.
Letโs dive into each of these.
Location
Use this setting to target users by a location where they live, have visited, or are traveling. You can also include locations outside of this area or exclude locations within it if they fall outside of your criteria. The point is to focus on areas where your potential customers are and exclude the rest to maximize your budget.
For example, letโs say you own a retail store located in Connecticut and youโre willing to ship merchandise to Rhode Island and Massachusetts. You shouldnโt waste your ad spend on ads targeting people in California or even New Jersey for that matter.
So, you would select, "People who live in the United Statesโ and select Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts since those are the only people who would have access to your products. With that said, if you own an ecommerce store, you can widen your parameters to wherever you ship products.
Demographics
Think about your buyer persona(s) and the target audience for your campaign. Are most of your current customers women? Are you looking to expand the market for your products among college students? Use demographic data like age, gender, and language to hone in on your target personaโs characteristics.
Here are some examples of the demographic data you can choose from to narrow your target audience:
Age
Gender
Language
Education
Income Level
Political affiliation
Work
Relationship status
This is why knowing your persona is so important โ Facebook Lead Ads help you preserve your budget by marketing to users who fit your criteria, down to their favorite drink.
Interests
Interests will help you narrow your target to people who have expressed or shown interest in the thing that you are marketing. For instance, if you own a bike store, your target might have signed a pledge to decrease their carbon footprint โฆ or they just might be in the market for a new bike.
Here are examples of specific interests you can target:
Work in a specific industry
Attended a ballet
Have children and/or a spouse
Practice yoga or weightlifting
Enjoy cooking
Play soccer
Behaviors
Behavior-driven ads are some of the most powerful to use for lead generation campaigns. Someone who has expressed interest in your industry, product, or service in some way is more qualified to become a lead (let alone a customer).
For instance, if someone recently read one of your blog posts or looked at a few products on your site, you can use behaviors to target your ads to them. You can also use this feature for more broad behaviors, like tablet users or people who have clicked any CTA in the app.
Here are some examples of behavioral targeting:
Read an article on your website
Abandoned your shopping cart
Uses a specific mobile device
Celebrated an anniversary recently
Commute to work
Engage with soccer content
Connections
The last primary category of targeting features is through Connections. This is for users who are connected to your business in some way. That might include people that follow your page, have used your app, or attended your events. Use this targeting feature to include or exclude people already interacting with your brand, depending on the goal of your campaign.
Below are a few ways you can use connections in targeting settings:
Friends of people who have used your app
People who have responded to your event
Users that like your page or their friends
Learn how to optimize your Facebook Ads to get more conversions.
Note: As you add in more targeting features, the "Audience Sizeโ ticker on the right will show you the total size of the audience youโre trying to reach. Facebook uses all of this information to choose who to send your ad to so you get the most return for your budget.
Facebook Lead Ads audience filtering
8. Choose your ad placement.
This is where you can determine where your ad will be placed, whether on desktop or mobile, in the feed or on the side column, etc. Facebook also allows you to select "Automatic placementsโ meaning, they will determine where to place your ad based on performance.
Your goal is to determine where your ad performs best, then place your ad there more consistently. You can achieve this in one of two ways: 1) set your ad to automatic placement for a set period of time and analyze the results, or 2) select the placement that best matches your target audience.
For instance, a younger audience might spend more of their time on mobile, while a certain age demographic might spend more time on desktop. This is why knowing your audience is so important โ youโre always making best guesses at first, before you test and optimize.
9. Set your budget and schedule.
This is where you can select the average you want to spend per day and how long you want your ad to run. Facebook Ads works on an auction system, so make sure to choose a budget that seems reasonable based on prior research.
Some campaign objectives let you select whether youโd like to bid for cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM), but the lead generation goal is set to CPM. No matter what you choose, make sure to check in on your ad periodically to ensure that itโs performing according to your objectives.
After this, youโll move into creating your first ad. Weโll cover how to navigate this section and some best practices.
10. Name your ad.
This is the internal name for your ad that will help you keep track as you build out different ads within your ad set. We suggest a hierarchical naming structure where you list the campaign type, audience, and a descriptor of the ad (e.g. "Lead Generation - Shoemaker Sally - Yellow Backgroundโ).
11. Identify your social accounts.
This will be pre-selected based on your ad set, but if youโre advertising on Instagram, then youโll need to include the account on which you want to advertise.
12. Select your format.
You have two options here: carousel or single image. A carousel allows for two or more scrollable images with a variation of headlines. This is a great option to display multiple product offerings or to pique interest by displaying steps or parts of an image split into a carousel. A single image is as it sounds, or you can use it to display a slideshow within a single frame.
13. Upload your media.
Upload your creative assets here. You can choose between a video (yes, gifs count) or an image. Youโre also allowed to upload up to six versions of your ad to be displayed. This is useful because you can determine which type of ad converts best โ just be sure to make small changes to each variation so you can properly split test.
Learn how to make Facebook Video Ads.
14. Add copy.
Enter your headline, ad text, link description, and relevant URL here. Facebook will generate a preview of your ad to the right so you can see how itโll look in various placements.
Facebook Lead Ads copy
15. Select your form fields.
Facebook Lead Ads is an effective platform because it allows for native conversions, meaning your users can convert in the app. In this section, youโll select the format, copy, and style of your form.
The form fields are completely customizable so you gather the information you need. This is also where youโll enter the link to your privacy policy page that you gathered in the beginning. Finally, youโll customize your Thank You screen and add your website link if your new lead wants to visit your site after converting.
After this step, youโll review your ad campaign and submit it for review. Once approved, your ad will start running and collecting leads.
Now, let's review some Facebook advertising tips to keep in mind throughout the process of Lead Ad creation and implementation.
Facebook Advertising Tips
Capitalize on Facebook Audience Insights.
Create unique ad sets for each audience.
Use high-quality imagery that blends into the feed.
Experiment with video.
Check out the competition.
Review your analytics regularly.
Remember to retarget your audience.
Optimize your Lead Ads.
1. Capitalize on Facebook Audience Insights.
Facebook collects a lot of data from its users from in-app activity and third parties. The social platform allows you to use this data, known as Facebook Audience Insights, to create highly targeted advertisements. Filter your audience by using very granular criteria to target the right prospects.
2. Create unique ad sets for each audience.
Your Facebook Ads campaign will have multiple Ad Sets (audience targets) and multiple ads within those sets. Youโll create various ads to target multiple pain points. Each ad should focus on one message. The more targeted your message, the more likely your ad will appeal to the right prospects.
3. Use high-quality imagery that blends into the feed.
Youโll want to use high-quality images and videos. However, that imagery shouldnโt look so foreign to users that they immediately identify it as an ad. Remember, youโre targeting users in the app so you want your ads to blend into their social feed.
Pro Tip: Be sure to stay within the ad specs so your ads look natural and fit into the designated space.
4. Experiment with video.
Facebook Lead Ads allows you to choose between images and video in your ads. Video gives you an opportunity to tell a captivating story to your prospects. Not only that, but video is actually preferred by users โ 64% of users will watch videos on Facebook and users give their undivided attention to videos on Facebook. With stats like these, video ads have a potentially high ROI.
5. Check out the competition.
Your competition might have creative ways to target your audience. If you notice your competitor using carousel ads to engage prospects, then it might be a tactic worth considering for your own ads. Your goal is not to imitate but to be aware of other ways your prospects are being targeted.
6. Review your analytics regularly.
The work doesnโt end when you set up your ads. You want to be sure to maximize your ad budget by checking your Facebook Analytics often. Monitor how your ads are performing and how your audience is responding to them so you can adjust your campaign before you waste spend on the wrong methods. This becomes even more important if you have a smaller budget.
7. Remember to retarget your audience.
It typically takes someone viewing an ad seven times before they take action (see: The Advertising Rule of 7). Retargeting uses tracking pixels to follow your prospects around the web, showing them relevant ads on external sites to give your ads more exposure. Retargeted audiences are primed for conversion because theyโve already interacted with your brand in some way.
8. Optimize your Lead Ads.
Creating and publishing your Facebook Lead Ad is only the beginning. Youโll gain a better understanding of what works for your audience as your ad runs โ thatโs why testing, analyzing, and optimizing your ads is critical to getting qualified leads in the door.
Below is a list of resources that will teach you what metrics to track, what those metrics mean, and how to revise your ad strategy to hit your lead goals.
Use these resources to learn how to optimize your page and your Lead Ads:
20 Facebook Ad Metrics Marketers Should Know
How to Tell if Your Facebook Campaign Was Actually Worth It
The 5-Step Process HubSpot Uses to Optimize Facebook Advertising Costs
The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing
This Facebook Ad Experiment Generated $1.1 Million
Video or Images: Which Performs Better in Facebook Ads?
What We Learned From Spending $100k On Facebook Ads
Facebook Lead Ad Examples
By now you know how to set up your own Facebook Lead Ad and why itโs beneficial for your company. But what does a good Facebook ad look like to a user and how are these ads set up?
Letโs do an exercise. Pretend youโre a Facebook user for a moment. Imagine scrolling through your newsfeed, looking through posts from friends, photos, and status updates.
Then you come across this sponsored post:
Lead Ad Example on facebook
Youโre moved by this offer and decide that you want to sign up. You click the CTA and, instead of directing you to a completely different website, this pop-up form appears:
facebook ad leads example
After pressing submit, a confirmation window appears and youโre given the option to click out of the pop-up and head back to your newsfeed to resume scrolling.
facebook lead ad example
If youโre looking for more information right away, the ad flow also gives you an option to View Website, which directs you to a landing page where you can get more information about the company.
facebook lead ad example
As you can see, the lead-flow UX from a Facebook Lead Ad is much more seamless than it would be if you were: interrupted while scrolling through the News Feed, sent to an external website where you were asked to submit a form, then had to navigate back to whatever it was that you were originally doing on the platform.
Here are four more examples of Facebook Lead Ads with great UX.
1. Merrimack College
Merrimack College has a Lead Ad in the News Feed.
facebook lead ad example
Users are able to review the graduate open house registration information upon clicking the ad.
lead ad example
They then have the ability to sign up while staying in the News Feed.
facebook lead ad example
Upon submitting the form, they are brought to a "Thank you" page that they can exit out of to continue with whatever it was they were doing in the News Feed.
facebook lead ad example
2. Optimizely
Optimizely has a timely Lead Ad that appears in the News Feed. To interact with it, users can simply click on the ad or hit the Download button.
optimizely facebook lead ad example
From here, users are asked to share a few contact details and then Optimizely provides them with the free
