Facebook lead ads are one of the most powerful lead generation techniques out there.
Not only do they help you learn more about your audience, but they also help you to connect with them, and even make sales.
But despite this potential, Facebook advertising can easily drain your budget and fail to deliver a return on investment if it isn’t done with purpose. This is why it’s important to forget about ‘pay and spray’ strategies and optimize your Facebook lead ads for success.
In this best practice guide, we’ll show you how to improve your Facebook lead ads to make sure they’re achieving your goals, and we’ll share some of our most successful lead ads examples.
When it comes to Facebook ads optimization 2021, look no further than these tips to set you on the right path.
Table Of Contents
Facebook lead ads basics
If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know—or think you know—how to make Facebook lead ads.
But if your Facebook lead ads aren’t working as well as they should, then you’ll need to take a step back to the basics.
Optimizing Facebook advertising is not as simple as improving on what’s there. It involves taking a step right back to examine the goals that made you create the campaign in the first place.
Lead ads are good for the following marketing objectives:
- Lead generation techniques: Capture customer details like email address and phone number to use for promotional purposes.
- Market research: Simply ask your audience anything you want to know about them – directly. Offer them a valuable incentive in exchange for the info.
- Customer feedback: One of the best ways to collect feedback is directly from your audience. Lead ads are an excellent method.
As you can see, while Facebook lead ads could potentially be used to increase sales and promotions, the main purpose is to get more personal with your audience in-platform.
If you’re not getting the results you want, it’s time to re-examine your goals and purpose.
How to optimize Facebook lead ads in 6 steps
1. Remember, mobile-first
As of the beginning of 2021, there were 5.27 billion unique mobile users, making up 66.6% of the global population.
Not only is mobile use high worldwide, on Facebook, it’s almost ubiquitous! 79.9% of Facebook users only access Facebook on their mobile devices.
While an emphasis on mobile has been around for a while now, we can’t seem to drum it is enough. And if you’re creating ads from a desktop, it’s easy to forget to think mobile-first.
Consider all of your copy, imagery, and form content for mobile.
2. Know thy audience
Since lead ads are all about getting to know your audience and connecting with them on a meaningful level, it’s important to think carefully about who your target is right from the outset.
The first part of this is getting to know your audience by creating personas. These are profiles of your key audience segments that you can picture as a real person, giving them a name, face, complete demographic information along with needs and pain points. That’s the macro level.
On the micro-level, when crafting your Facebook lead ads, ensure that your audience targeting aligns with your lead ad objective.
You have 3 options for audience targeting:
1. Lookalike audiences
Create a Lookalike Audience to expand your current audience. This option includes people very similar to your existing customers.
For best results, you may want to use a specific customer segment (e.g. high spenders) instead of your whole audience to create your lookalike audience.
2. People near you
This is good if you have one or more store locations and want to target people who are physically close to you. Great for encouraging visits, or even scheduling appointments and product demos.
3. Custom audiences
Create a custom audience based on a unique attribute, like people who subscribe to your newsletter, have visited your site recently, or have abandoned a cart.
If you’re ready to get even greater insights into your audience and how to convert them to qualified leads, be sure to connect your Facebook advertising to your CRM. Read more about it in our blog Connecting Salesforce CRM & Paid Media.
3. Offer real value
With so many mailing lists out there, many users are more hesitant to give away their personal information, especially contact details, than they used to be.
So to create an effective lead ad, you must offer your audience something in exchange for their valuable information. Hint: It can’t be good karma!
When brainstorming incentives, set aside your goals as a marketer and imagine what your audience would consider truly valuable.
Here are some ideas for incentives (sometimes called lead magnets):
- Discount, coupon code, or deal
- Contest entry
- Free product samples
- Free event, like a webinar
- Pre-order or advanced purchase (feels exclusive)
- Informative downloads (e.g. ebooks, whitepapers, brochures)
Editor’s note: Learn how InfoShare Academy, a company offering intensive programming courses for beginners, generated 1200 new leads in one month using Facebook Lead Ads and GetResponse.
4. Hone your messaging
A great way to make sure your messages really resonate with your audience is by putting your incentive front and center.
No use beating around the bush in your delivery, just be clear and concise while you say what you can do for them.
Level up your ads by ensuring consistent branding from the front page through to the form and thank you page. Your ads will look professional and familiar, building a sense of credibility around your brand and establishing trust with your audience.
Don’t forget to keep your forms as concise as the ad itself. The more questions you ask, the lower your completion rate will become. If you use multiple-choice questions, provide no more than 3 or 4 field options.
5. Always follow up
This tip to optimize your ads actually goes beyond the ad itself. By simply following up in a timely manner, you could find that your lead ads are working just fine after all.
According to the Harvard Business Review,brands that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly 7 times more likely to qualify the lead compared to brands that tried to contact the customer an hour later, and more than 60 times more likely than brands who waited more than 24 hours.
Editor’s note: If you’re using Facebook lead ads along with GetResponse, make sure to transfer the new leads automatically, e.g. through Zapier. You can learn more on how to do this in this article on using Facebook Lead Ads with GetResponse.
6. A/B test
Also known as split testing, this will be the magic bullet to troubleshoot any issues you have with your ads and to continue optimizing with each campaign.
AB testing involves duplicating your ad and then changing just one variable (e.g. headline, image, incentive, copy, number of form questions) while keeping all other features identical.
So by running ads A and B at the same time, and determining that, say, the headline in ad A works better, you can then change all your ads to include the optimized headline or continue optimizing by split testing an iteration again.
Facebook lead ad examples and why they worked
Now that you’re armed with the knowledge of how to optimize Facebook lead ads, it’s time to check out some lead ads examples that put these principles into practice.
Our performance marketing agency specializes in the education and property sectors, but you can take these principles and apply them to any B2C lead ads.
Facebook lead ad example 1: concise copy for ANU
What it is
We ran this lead generation campaign specifically to capture qualified leads interested in studying the Graduate Certificate of Policy and Design Analysis.
Why it works
As you can see, the headline is clear and to the point, perfect for a career-driven audience who know exactly what they want.
The body copy taps into the target audience’s intentions—upskilling or retraining—and even tells them how quickly they could make this desired change to their career.
Facebook lead ad example 2: great images for Kangan Institute
What it is
During COVID-19, many of our clients adapted their course offerings to remote learning. We developed this campaign for a reputable provider of vocational training to capture leads interested in studying hair, beauty, and barbering, while also promoting that remote courses were now available.
Why it works
Facebook ads live or die by their images, and this ad is the perfect example of one that thrives.
The image accurately represents the course content to stop the thumb-scrolling of someone who aspires to hair, beauty, or barbering careers.
The photograph is very high quality—no blurriness, bad lighting, etc—but without looking too staged. It feels authentic.
Clear branding of TAFE VICTORIA immediately infuses this ad with credibility by signaling it’s an accredited qualification.
Facebook lead ad example 3: an irresistible offer by BAA
What it is
Builders Academy Australia is one of the best training providers in the country specializing in construction courses. We ran this campaign to capture leads for the Certificate IV and Diploma, which helps students get their builder’s license.
Why it works
Because it’s notoriously hard to pass the builders’ license assessment, an aspiring builder’s best bet is to do plenty of research and training.
By offering this “guide to licencing,” the lead ad provides some gated content that the user can’t get elsewhere on the internet, offering the tantalizing secrets of how to succeed in the assessment… Who could resist?
Once the user has downloaded their guide and become better informed about the licensing process, the lead will be captured and nurtured towards taking the next step in registering for their course.
Optimizing your lead generation techniques
As you can see, setting up Facebook advertising campaigns is one thing, but optimizing them for success takes careful research and testing.
Use the above tips, along with creative problem solving to come up with enticing lead magnets, and always ensure that the offer, imagery, and tone of voice are in line with your brand.
Follow our lead ads examples above for guidance on how to create excellent copy, images, and offers.
And if you’re interested in other topics related to Facebook advertising, be sure to check out these resources: