7 Step Strategy to Getting Low Cost Leads with Facebook Ads

For any business big or small lead generation is one of the most critical components and is key to survival and growth. You need leads. So where can we get these leads from?

I’m going to show you a really quick and easy method to generating lots of leads on the cheap. This method works and the advert inventory is under-priced, so now is the time to capitalise on this.

If you don’t believe the bold claim I have just made then simply follow the strategy below and the results will do the talking for you.

Here is a little evidence from a Facebook Ad account to get you started:

Facebook Lead Generation ads? Yep. Facebook have created their own advert type that is specifically for lead generation. You want leads. They have an advert that will go onto their platform and get you leads.

Lead ads have been around for a couple of years and admittedly in their earlier development they were a little… ropey let’s say. They were a bit too easy for people to sign up, so the quality wasn’t what it first appeared. After much-needed testing FB have now ironed out a lot of the issues and Lead Ads are on track to completely eradicated your need for a landing page.

Just in case you’re unsure what a Lead Advert is, it’s basically an advert in your newsfeed that when you click the button will turn into a lead generation form. No leaving Facebook, no messy landing page the advert is the form!

The best bit is you don’t even have to fill in your details, Facebook fills them in for you. Here’s a quick pic that shows you what I mean:

Here are 6 reasons you need to set up a Facebook Lead Advert today:

1. It’s very straight forward to do. I mean seriously. I’m going to show you how to do it below.
2. They are very cost effective. You can get leads for £1/$1 if you want (name and email mainly for that sort of cost).
3. People don’t leave Facebook – so the ‘lead form’ that people actually sign up for is inside of Facebook. Which means it loads fast, it easy to use and very responsive (making your business look super professional).
4. Integrates with a wide range of CRM systems – the lead ad you set up can send leads directly to your CRM system.
5. You can customise the lead details you receive to match your existing criteria needed for the sales team.
6. Fully trackable – You will know very quickly what’s working and what’s not and more importantly you will get a very good idea of how much each lead is costing you so you can figure out if this is going to suit your existing sales funnel.

When setting up your Facebook Leads Ad you should follow this strategy:

1. Know what a lead is for you

I need to cover this one off as it will help us further down the line. You need to know what your overall lead generation requirements are as a business.

What is a pre-qualified lead to you? What details do you need from them? What hoops do they need to jump through to become a lead?

This is important, so please get clear on this first.

2. Targeting

This is where you and I realise we have given Facebook far too much information about our lives and that they have the power now to place the most relevant ads straight in-front of our newsfeeds.

On the flipside as business owners… we love this.

There are lots of targeting options available so I’m not going to bore with a big long list. Instead I’m going to talk from my past experience and tell you what audiences work best for this type of Advert.

Firstly – Audiences that are interest based and broad will work will get you a super low cost per lead and lots of them. This is great until you try to call up the leads. They won’t pick up the phone. Don’t waste your money. I have. You don’t need to. Board targeting doesn’t work well for lead ads.

Website Re-marketing audiences – If you have traffic coming to your website and you want to generate more leads serve them up a Facebook Lead Ad. That’s a really great audience for this advert type.

Lookalike of purchase audience – If you have a database of customers. You can upload these details to Facebook and they will find other people that look similar to your existing customers (this is a blog post on its own!). Let Facebook build that audience, then serve them a lead ad. Boom – power leads!

3. Ad Creative

Facebook have got heaps of Ad Creative options – You can create single image ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, video ads, canvas ads, Instagram ads, the list goes on and on.

Which one to choose for lead ads?

Based on the extensive experience I have I can tell you Video Formats and Carousel Formats are the ones to use for Lead Ads.

For those not in the know, this is what each of those looks like –

Carousel Ad Format:

Video Ad Format:

Feel free to test others, but in terms of ad creative, video and carousel will get you the best engagement and the best conversions.

Ok, let’s move on to building the actual form.

4. Always use an Intro Card

Remember earlier I said that back in the day lead ads weren’t that great? This was a big improvement. It’s basically a little card they put before the actual form to help pre-qualify the audience.

Here’s an example:

As you can see people can become more aware of what they are signing up for, you can write some custom text, tell them a bit more about the offer etc.

This will help us get better quality leads.

As point 4 says – Always use an Intro Card.

5. Tailor your questions

Another great step for pre-qualifying our audience. Ask them some questions, get them to fill in some details.

Here is an example of questions being added to a lead form:

Facebook will also let you select different pieces of information you can get from them in the form.

Here is an example of me selecting a few different options:

6. Redirect back to your website

This is a little insider secret that I find to be quite handy. There is a field in the last page of the form builder that asks you for your website URL.

Rather than just entering your homepage web address create a custom landing page as a thank you page and enter the URL here.

This means when someone clicks the button they will be taken to a page on your website that says “Hey, thanks for filling in our form on Facebook!. Welcome to our website… take this next action blah blah blah..” i.e. you make their landing experience more tailored and it will make you look more professional.

7. Follow up!

Sales training 101. Follow up. Pick up the phone and call them. Or email them. Or whatever your method was.

Initially all you’re looking for here is feedback. Are the leads any good? Are they relevant? Do they convert? Once you find this out you can tweak your targeting, creative or lead form accordingly in order to make a better overall campaign.

Follow what I have written above and you will get great results. We’ve applied this method to many accounts and always have a lot of success.