LinkedIn ads allow businesses to generate leads by promoting content and driving traffic to their websites. One effective way to capture leads from LinkedIn ads is by using lead forms. Lead forms provide an easy way for prospects to submit their contact information and request more details about your products or services.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating an effective lead form for your LinkedIn ad campaigns:
1. Set Up Your Lead Form Goals
Before creating your lead form, think about what goals you want to accomplish. Here are some common lead form goals:
- Collect prospect contact information like name, email, phone number
- Capture leads for a specific product or service
- Offer content upgrades in exchange for contact information
- Allow prospects to schedule consultations or demos
Define the specific purpose of your lead form so you can tailor it accordingly. Know what information you want from prospects and what you plan to do with those leads.
Lead Form Goals Best Practices
- Focus on a single goal per lead form. Don’t try to accomplish too much in one form.
- Prioritize collecting email addresses so you can continue nurturing leads.
- Only ask for essential information you need from prospects.
2. Choose Your LinkedIn Ad Objective
Next, select the right LinkedIn ad objective that aligns with your lead generation goals. Here are the main options:
- Website visits – Drive traffic to landing pages with lead forms
- Lead generation – Collect lead information directly within LinkedIn
- Website conversions – Optimize for actions like email signups, content downloads, purchases etc.
“Website visits” and “Website conversions” can work if you want traffic going to lead form pages on your website. The “Lead generation” objective is best for lead forms hosted directly on LinkedIn.
Choosing Ad Objectives Tips
- Use website visits for high-value content upgrades behind lead forms.
- Select lead generation when promoting webinars, demos and other gated offers.
- Pick website conversions for simpler email newsletter signups.
3. Create Your LinkedIn Lead Form
Once your goals are defined, it’s time to set up your LinkedIn lead form. You have two options: building forms natively within LinkedIn, or hosting them on your website.
Option 1: Build Lead Forms Directly in LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn allows advertisers to create lead forms directly within their ad campaigns. This is the simplest option with the least amount of setup required. Here’s how to create a LinkedIn lead form:
- From Campaign Manager, click on the “Assets” tab
- Under “Lead Generation Forms” click on “Create Form”
- Choose a template or custom form and edit the fields
- Re-arrange and customize the form design
- Click “Save Form” when finished
You can now use this lead form with any LinkedIn ads in your account. The advantage is prospects can submit their information without leaving LinkedIn.
Option 2: Host Your Lead Forms on Your Website
Alternatively, you can host your lead generation forms on your own website pages. This allows for greater customization and integration with other marketing tools like CRMs. Here are the main steps to setting up website lead forms:
- Add HTML form code on your target landing page
- Connect the form to a form handler tool or script
- Insert scripts to track form submissions as conversions
- Link the form to your CRM or email marketing system
More coding and configuration is required, but you gain more control and flexibility. Consider the pros and cons of both options when deciding where to host your lead forms.
4. Promote Your LinkedIn Ad to Generate Leads
Now that your lead form is ready, the next step is driving traffic to it through your LinkedIn ad. Follow these best practices for optimizing your ad performance:
- Target a specific audience segment who needs your offer
- Highlight the value proposition and benefits in your ad creative
- Use compelling ad imagery representing your solution
- Craft catchy ad titles and descriptions based on keyword research
- Provide a strong call-to-action to complete your lead form
Monitor ad metrics like click-through rate and cost per lead to optimize your targeting, creatives and landing pages. Leverage LinkedIn’s detailed targeting options and A/B test different versions of your ads.
LinkedIn Ad Tips
- Run A/B tests on your ad images, headlines and text.
- Adjust your bids and budgets to balance volume and cost per lead.
- Remarket to prospects who have already engaged with your ads or content.
5. Integrate Your LinkedIn Lead Form with Other Tools
To maximize the value of leads from your LinkedIn ads, integrate your lead form with other sales and marketing systems. Here are some common integrations:
- CRM – Sync LinkedIn leads with your CRM to view lead contact information, activity history and assign follow-ups.
- Email marketing – Automatically add new leads to email drip campaigns to continue nurturing them.
- Webinar software – Pass LinkedIn leads into your webinar platform to schedule demo appointments.
- Marketing automation – Trigger workflows to score leads and send follow-up messages.
Work with your marketing stack providers or developers to build connections between systems. Zapier and PieSync are tools that can help streamline LinkedIn lead form integrations.
Integration Tips
- Avoid manual importing or exporting of lead data between systems.
- Segment leads in your email marketing system based on LinkedIn form data.
- Update lead records in your CRM in real-time when new submissions come in.
6. Analyze LinkedIn Lead Results and Optimize
The final step is monitoring your LinkedIn ad performance and lead form results to identify opportunities to optimize. Here are key metrics and factors to analyze:
| Metric | Goal | Optimization Tips |
|---|---|---|
| Lead volume | Hit lead targets | Adjust targeting and bids based on cost per lead |
| Lead quality | Get sales-ready prospects | Refine targeting and offers to attract warmer leads |
| Cost per lead | Improve lead efficiency | A/B test landing pages and creatives |
| Conversion rate | Increase submissions | Redesign and simplify forms for higher conversions |
Continuously test and optimize each aspect of your LinkedIn ads and lead form flow. Small tweaks can have a big impact on your lead generation results.
Lead Results Analysis Tips
- Track lead quality beyond just volume by scoring based on prospect info.
- Calculate your target cost per lead based on expected lifetime value.
- Monitor conversion falloff from clicks to form submissions to identify drop-off.
Conclusion
Generating high-quality leads from LinkedIn ads starts with creating optimized lead capture forms. By following this step-by-step guide, you can set up effective lead generation forms, drive traffic through LinkedIn ads, integrate with marketing tools and continually optimize performance.
Focus on providing a seamless experience from ad to landing page to form submission. Test different layouts, fields and integrations to maximize the lead value you capture from LinkedIn. Proper setup and optimization of your lead forms will fuel your LinkedIn ad results and your sales pipeline.
Here are some final takeaways:
- Align your lead form goals with a specific LinkedIn ad objective like website visits or lead generation.
- Build forms natively in LinkedIn Campaign Manager or host them yourself for more customization.
- Promote your ads using compelling targeting and ad creative tailored to your audience.
- Integrate your lead forms with CRM, email, webinar and other tools to maximize value.
- Optimize based on lead volume, quality, cost and conversion rates.
With the right strategy, creative and optimization, LinkedIn ads can become a powerful channel to drive qualified leads for your business. The investment required pays dividends in terms of building a robust sales pipeline.