Lead generation campaigns on Facebook can be a great way to grow your email list and get more potential customers into your sales funnel. With Facebook’s massive user base, you have access to an enormous audience to promote to.
When setup correctly, Facebook lead generation campaigns can deliver highly targeted, high-quality leads to your business for a fraction of the cost of other lead gen methods.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to create a lead generation campaign using Facebook’s Ads Manager platform. We’ll cover:
- Choosing the right campaign objective
- Setting up your lead generation form
- Targeting your audience
- Creating effective ad creative
- Setting a budget
- Monitoring and optimizing your campaign
Follow along with the steps below and you’ll be ready to launch your own successful Facebook lead gen campaign in no time.
Step 1: Choose a Campaign Objective
The first step in creating any Facebook ad campaign is choosing your campaign objective in Ads Manager. This tells Facebook the action you want users to take after seeing or engaging with your ads.
For lead generation campaigns specifically, you’ll want to select the “Lead Generation” campaign objective.
With this objective selected, Facebook will optimize your ad delivery and auction bids to get the lowest cost per lead.
Why choose a lead generation campaign?
Some key advantages of lead gen campaigns vs. other objectives like traffic or conversions include:
- Lower cost per result – Lead gen campaigns generally have lower costs per lead compared to sending traffic to your site.
- Built-in lead capture – Collect leads directly within the Facebook app or ad without sending users away from Facebook.
- High-intent leads – Users who fill out lead forms have demonstrated clear interest and intent in your offer.
- Customizable lead forms – Tailor lead forms to collect the most useful information from your leads.
For businesses focused on generating and capturing new leads, lead gen is one of the most effective campaign objectives available.
Step 2: Set Up Your Lead Gen Form
Once you select the lead generation objective, the next step is setting up the lead gen form you want users to fill out.
This form appears as part of your Facebook ad and allows capturing lead information like name, email, phone number, etc directly within the Facebook app.
In Ads Manager, you can choose from a set of pre-made form templates or create a custom form specific to your campaign needs.
Choosing a Pre-Made Form
Facebook provides a variety of pre-made form templates for common lead generation needs including:
- Contact Information
- Email Subscription
- Event Registration
- Request Quote
- Vacation Rental Inquiry
- Vehicle Information
These templates allow collecting standard lead info like name, email, phone number, and any additional details relevant to that form type.
For instance, the Request Quote template allows adding fields for project details, timeframe, and budget expectations.
The pre-made templates make it quick and easy to setup your first lead form without building from scratch. You can always go back later and customize further based on the initial results.
Creating a Custom Lead Form
For full control over the lead capture experience, you can build a custom lead gen form specific to your campaign goals.
Some best practices for custom lead form design include:
- Only ask for essential info – Keep forms short and only collect lead details you really need. Long forms see huge drop-off.
- Include a clear call-to-action – Labels like “Get My Free Quote” encourage form submission.
- Add relevant fields – Include fields like phone, address, budget, etc if they will help segment and qualify leads.
- Make fields optional – Marking fields optional will increase form completion rates.
- Use dropdowns – Dropdown menusstreamline data entry for options like states, categories, etc.
With your form setup, the next step is creating ad creative that complements your form and compelling users to fill it out.
Step 3: Target Your Audience
Now it’s time to target your Facebook lead generation ads to reach your ideal audience.
The targeting options available to you depend on whether you choose automatic or manual placement for your campaign.
Automatic Placement
Choosing automatic placement will distribute your ads across Facebook’s entire network including:
- Messenger
- Audience Network
Your ads can appear in the Facebook and Instagram feeds, Messenger inbox, Stories, Marketplace and more.
With automatic placement, you can target users based on:
- Demographics
- Interests & behaviors
- Connections
- Exclusions
So for example, you could target men ages 30-45 interested in entrepreneurship in the United States.
The advantage of automatic placement is having Facebook automatically optimize which placements, networks, and platforms drive leads at the lowest cost. The tradeoff is somewhat less control over exactly where your ads appear.
Manual Placement
Choosing manual placement lets you hand select exactly where your ads will be shown across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audiences Network.
For example, you could choose to show ads in the Facebook feed, Instagram stories, Messenger inbox, and in-stream video ads.
With manual placement, you can target users based on:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Detailed demographics
- Interests
- Behaviors
The advantage here is granular control over ad placement and audience targeting. The tradeoff is more work optimizing your campaign and a higher chance of lower performance if you target poorly.
Take time to understand your audience and test different targeting approaches to see what provides the greatest return. Layering in Facebook’s detailed targeting options like interests, behaviors, and demographics can help narrow your reach and increase lead quality.
Step 4: Create Effective Ad Creative
Your ad creative will make or break the success of your Facebook lead generation campaign.
Because lead gen ads drive users directly into a form, the creative plays a crucial role in compelling that click and conversion.
Follow these best practices when designing creatives:
Highlight the Lead Magnet
What incentive are you offering for users to complete your lead form? Clearly showcase the lead magnet like a discount, giveaway, free trial, etc.
For example “Get 10% off your first order when you join our email list”.
Use Social Proof
Include elements like reviews, testimonials, or customer counts to build trust and credibility. This increases the likelihood users will engage with your ad and convert.
Add Urgency
Injecting urgency and scarcity into your ad can prompt quicker action. Try adding text like “24 hours only!” or “Only 5 slots left!”.
Keep Text Short
On Facebook’s mobile feed, you only have a few seconds to capture attention. Get to the point fast with short, scannable ad copy.
Use High-Quality Images
Eye-catching visuals will make your ads stand out in the crowded news feed. Use high-quality lifestyle photos or product images.
Focus on a Single Message
Don’t try to say too much in one ad. Narrow in on a single motivation focused on the user value and benefit.
Test out multiple ad variations with different images, copy, and calls-to-action to see what resonates best with your target audience. Higher performing creatives will typically have higher lead rates.
Step 5: Set Your Budget
The next step is choosing a campaign budget and schedule. Here are some tips for setting an effective budget:
- Start small – Test with smaller budgets before scaling up spend. Try $10-$25 per day to start.
- Schedule ongoing – Lead gen campaigns work best as always-on efforts with daily budgets.
- Base on CPL target – Consider your target cost-per-lead (CPL) and required daily leads when budgeting.
- Monitor ROI – Assess return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) regularly and adjust budgets if needed.
- Use lifetime budgets – Set a lifetime budget cap to prevent overspending.
To begin, a daily budget between $10-$50 is reasonable for most small businesses. Assess performance over the first week, then increase or decrease your budget based on results.
Facebook’s algorithm will automatically shift spend towards better performing placements, creatives, and audiences to maximize your lead rate.
Step 6: Monitor and Optimize Your Campaign
Setting up the campaign is only step one – ongoing optimization and improvement is crucial for driving results.
Here are some key metrics and strategies for monitoring and optimizing your lead generation campaign:
Track Cost Per Lead (CPL)
This metric shows the average cost to acquire each lead. Lower CPLs indicate greater return from your budgets.
If CPLs are too high, try narrowing your targeting, adjusting budgets, or improving ad creative.
Review Lead Quality
Assess the quality and completeness of leads coming in. Are they your target customer profile? Do they convert to sales?
Refine your targeting or improve ad messaging to attract higher quality leads if needed.
Check Placement Performance
Analyze your ad placements to see which platforms, formats, and positions capture leads at the lowest cost.
Shift more budget towards better performing placements.
A/B Test Ad Variations
Regularly test new iterations of your ads with different imagery, copy, offers, or formats.
Facebook will automatically favor better performing variations to improve your campaign.
Retarget Engaged Users
Create lookalike audiences and customer lists to re-engage users who previously clicked your ads or site.
Retargeting past engagers can improve CPLs.
Expand Your Targeting
Try broadening your targeting to reach larger audiences if you have excess budget and want more leads. Test new interests, behaviors, or flexible budgets.
Monitor lead quality to ensure it doesn’t decline with expanded targeting.
Conclusion
Launching successful Facebook lead generation campaigns takes the right mix of audience targeting, compelling creative, optimized budgets, and continual improvements based on data and testing.
But the investment is well worth it. Facebook provides unparalleled access to vast, targeted audiences who you would never reach otherwise. Even modest lead gen campaigns can deliver new, qualified customers your business would never gain otherwise.
Hopefully this guide provided a good starting point for getting your first Facebook lead ad campaign up and running. The key is tracking results closely, iterating based on data, and optimizing over time as you learn more about your audience and cost-per-lead thresholds.
With a strategic, analytical approach to Facebook ads, you can build an inbound lead generation machine running 24/7 to turn social media followers into lifetime customers.
| Ad Platform | Targeting Options | Placement Options |
|---|---|---|
| Interests, behaviors, demographics, locations, connections | Feeds, stories, marketplace, messenger, audience network | |
| Age, gender, interests, behaviors | Feed, stories, IGTV, Reels |
