Are you struggling to generate positive ROI with your Facebook Lead Ads? You’re not alone.
On the odd occasion when a LeadSync customer cancels an account (I know, hard to believe right?), we ask them why. Of the folks who respond, 50% say that they’re no longer using Lead Ads on Facebook because they’re not seeing ROI positive results.
Creating Facebook Lead ads that deliver results takes time and testing. I know this because I’ve spent over $500k in the last 2 years running Facebook ads for my own business and others. It takes time and testing to develop winning campaigns.
Here are 11 ways to improve your results from Facebook Lead ads:
1. Ad dimensions
Firstly, if you’re advertising across Facebook and Instagram and you can’t be bothered making multiple formatted images, go with a 1:1 (square) image. This is what Facebook now recommends as the format that will suit most placements. It means your ads will look good across most placements.
2. Image Content
Test at least 3 different images/videos per AdGroup. If you’re adding text to your images, make sure you stick to the 20% rule and try using images without any text at all – these appear more natural. If you’re using people in your images, be mindful of where the subject is looking, this can affect your audiences’ attention. Here’s why “where models look” can make a huge difference to your results.
3. Video
In some cases, video can perform better than images. Movement tends to attract the eye, so it’s worth testing. Before you freak out about trying to create video content, there are plenty of affordable resources. A 10-second video is all you need. Here are a couple of resources to try:
Canva.com With the paid version of Canva you can make short animated videos from images. Canva’s also a great source of stock photography for your ads.
Videohive.net: Offering a huge selection of stock videos, you can grab a short video for as little as $10. Or for unlimited downloads of Video, Image and a host of other goodies, you can subscribe to Envato Elements for around $16.50 per month. Here’s a video sample:
Promo.com: Although this is a much pricier option, Promo makes it easy to create short promotional videos for Facebook and Instagram. You can create 1 new clip per month for $49… so yeah, a bit on the pricey side, but yay, cool videos.
4. Call to Action Button
Make sure the button on your Facebook Lead Ad matches the intent of your form. By default, the button on your ads will appear as “Learn More”. In most cases, if you’re asking people to submit a Facebook Ads lead form, then choosing one of the other options might be more appropriate.
5. Dynamic Creative Ads for Multivariate Testing
So the first 4 points above might have you wiping your brow thinking, “how the heck am I going to test all these options?”. Fear ye not intrepid Facebook advertiser, there’s an ad format for that, and it’s called Facebook Dynamic Creative Ads. With this ad format, you can add multiple images, videos, headlines, buttons… almost every element of your ad. Facebook will then try multiple combinations to see what resonates best with your audience, saving you the hassle of creating numerous iterations of your ads.
6. Lead Magnets
6. Lead MagnetsA lead magnet is something you give away for free in exchange for someone submitting a Facebook Lead form. It could be a free report (PDF), ebook, or even a discount code.
One of the most successful Facebook Lead Ad campaigns we’ve run for LeadSync involved giving away a Facebook Ads targeting guide.
We used a couple of ad variations, but this one performed best:
On clicking the Download button, respondees would see a simple lead form:
After submitting the form, we’d send people an autoresponder email using LeadSync, with a link to the PDF download. You could send people to a download page after they fill in the form, but getting people to open an email helps with email deliverability.
The results? A little over 1000 leads at $0.43 per lead. As you can see, this varied greatly from country to country (IN = India, PH = Philippines, SA = South Africa etc), however, $1.64 leads in the U.S. is still reasonably cost-effective.
7. Audience Targeting
If there’s a secret sauce to Facebook Ads, in any format, it’s testing different audiences. To do this, create multiple AdGroups with different target audiences within your campaigns. If you have an email list, create a custom audience, then a Look-a-like audience. Set up a retargeting campaign for people who have visited your website but not converted. Target people who have liked your competitors. Here’s an example from one of our recent campaigns:
8. Retargeting
8. RetargetingSet up a retargeting campaign for people who have visited your website but not converted. I know I’m repeating myself from point 7 above, but it’s worth repeating. A retargeting campaign will give you the best bang for your ad spend buck. If people have already visited your website, but not converted, then they are in some way, pre-qualified. Target these people with a lead magnet lead ad and start an email or phone conversation once they sign-up.
9. Custom and Lookalike audiences
Again, I mentioned these in point 7 above, but it’s worth emphasizing the power of these audience types. If you have a decent size email list – over 1000 is good, then upload it to your audiences section in Business manager, then create a Lookalike audience. With Lookalike audiences, Facebook endeavors to find other people with similar traits to those on your list.
10. Page Insights and Web Analytics for Scheduling
If you’re running B2B ads, and trying to generate leads for business software, for example, don’t launch ads on Friday afternoon expecting to see results on Monday. Consult your web analytics and page insights (if you have enough day to day engagement), and schedule your ads according to when your audience is most active on Facebook and Instagram.
11. Ask Fewer Questions… or More
If you see that your Facebook Lead ads are getting plenty of clicks but few conversions, try minimizing the fields on the form. At the most basic, just ask for First Name and Email address.
If, however, you’re getting plenty of leads but they’re not qualified, or they’re not converting to sales, then ask more questions. Increasing the effort required to fill in a Lead Form means you should end up with more motivated buyers.
Luke is the founder of LeadSync and, as a Digital Marketer, has been helping businesses run lead generation campaigns since 2016.