Here’s the fastest way to view your Facebook ad leads: open Meta Ads Manager, click the Ads tab, find your lead ad, then look at the Results column. You’ll see a number labelled On-Facebook Leads. Click it, and your leads open right there.
One thing worth knowing before anything else: Meta only stores leads for 90 days, then deletes them permanently. So don’t let them sit.
This guide covers all four ways to view leads from Facebook and Instagram lead ads (Meta calls the forms behind them Instant Forms), plus the permissions issues that stop people seeing leads they know exist. If you’re still building your first campaign, start with our guide to creating a Facebook lead ad campaign instead.
Sick of logging in to check for leads? LeadSync forwards every new Meta lead to your email, phone, Slack, or CRM in under 60 seconds. Start a free 7-day trial, no credit card needed.
Method 1: View Leads in Meta Ads Manager
Ads Manager is the quickest option when you want to check how a specific ad is performing and eyeball the leads it produced.
- Open Meta Ads Manager at adsmanager.facebook.com. Check the account dropdown first. If you manage more than one ad account, this is where most wrong-turn confusion starts.
- Click the Ads tab. Ads Manager opens on Campaigns by default, but the lead links live at the ad level.
- Find the Results column. Your lead ad’s row shows a number with the label On-Facebook Leads.
- Click On-Facebook Leads. The number is a hyperlink. It opens the leads collected by that ad, and if you have download permission, you’ll see a download option in the same dialog to export a CSV. For the full export walkthrough, including page-level exports and date filtering, see how to download leads from Facebook.
If the Results column shows a count but nothing happens when you click, or the download link is missing, skip ahead to the permissions section below. That’s a symptom, not a bug.
Method 2: The Leads Center in Meta Business Suite
The Leads Center is Meta’s built-in lightweight CRM. Open Meta Business Suite, click All Tools in the left menu, then find Leads Center under the Advertise section.
Where Ads Manager shows leads per ad, Leads Center pools every lead from all your Instant Forms in one place. You can filter by form and date, add labels and notes, assign owners, and move leads through basic stages. It’s the better view when you care about the people rather than the ad metrics.
We’ve covered the full workflow, filters, stages, labels, and follow-up, in our guide to managing leads in the Facebook Leads Center, so I’ll keep this section short.
Method 3: Your Facebook Page’s Instant Forms Library
You can also get to leads through the Facebook Page itself, no Ads Manager required. This is handy when someone manages the Page but not the ad account.
- Go to your Facebook Page while logged in with an admin-level profile.
- In the Page’s menu, open Lead generation tools (on some Pages this sits under publishing or professional tools).
- Open the Forms library tab. Every Instant Form your Page has published is listed here.
- Click the number in the Leads column next to a form to view or save that form’s leads.
The forms library is also where you check whether an old form was archived, which matters for troubleshooting later. Developers who want to pull leads programmatically instead should read our Meta Lead Gen API guide.
Method 4: How to See Facebook Leads on Your Phone
On mobile, the Meta Business Suite app is your best bet. Open the app, tap the menu, and go to Leads Center. You can view lead details and reply from there. Meta’s Ads Manager app also supports managing leads, per Meta’s Business Help Center.
The catch: downloading leads as a CSV generally isn’t supported on mobile. If you need the actual file, use a desktop browser. For checking and responding on the go, though, the Business Suite app does the job.
Which Method Should You Use?
None of these views notify you. They’re all pull, not push. But they suit different jobs:
| Method | Where to click | Best for | Desktop or mobile | Export leads? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ads Manager | Ads tab > Results column > On-Facebook Leads | Checking leads per ad | Desktop | Yes (CSV) |
| Leads Center | Business Suite > All Tools > Leads Center | Managing and contacting leads | Both | Yes |
| Page forms library | Page > Lead generation tools > Forms library | Page admins without ad account access | Desktop | Yes |
| Business Suite app | App menu > Leads Center | Viewing and replying on the go | Mobile | No |
Why Can’t You See Your Leads?
This is the most common support question we get about viewing leads, and in almost every case it comes down to one of five things.
You don’t have lead access. Viewing ad metrics and viewing lead data are different permissions. You need admin-level access to the Facebook Page, and if Leads Access Manager has been customised for that Page (you’ll find it in the Page’s lead generation tools), lead access is restricted to the specific people who’ve been granted it, even other admins. If you can see the lead count but the download link is missing, this is why. Ask the Page owner to grant you access.
You’re in the wrong ad account or Business Portfolio. If you manage several accounts, check the dropdown at the top of Ads Manager and the portfolio selector in Business Suite before assuming leads are gone.
The form was archived or deleted. Archived forms disappear from the default forms library view. Switch the library filter to show archived forms to find their leads. If a form was deleted outright, its leads won’t be recoverable through the Page.
The leads are older than 90 days. Meta deletes lead data 90 days after submission, permanently. If a client asks for last quarter’s leads and nobody downloaded them, they’re gone. This is the single best argument for syncing leads somewhere permanent automatically.
The ad never produced the lead you’re looking for. Before digging through permissions, submit a test lead yourself using Meta’s lead ads testing tool to confirm the form and connection actually work. And if you’re syncing with LeadSync, make sure your Facebook ad is using the same lead form as the one you’ve set up in LeadSync; a mismatched form is the most common reason synced leads don’t arrive.
Stop Logging In to Check for Leads
Everything above is manual. Meta won’t email you when a new lead comes in, so every method in this guide depends on you remembering to look.
That’s a real cost. Speed to lead research is brutal on this point: respond inside five minutes and you’re far more likely to reach and qualify the lead than if you wait even half an hour. A lead sitting unread in Ads Manager overnight is usually a lead your competitor called first.
The fix is to make delivery automatic. LeadSync watches your Meta lead forms and forwards each new lead, in under 60 seconds, to email, SMS, Slack, or one of 30+ CRMs. You can send Facebook leads straight to your email inbox in a few minutes of setup, and if you’re ready to connect a CRM, here’s how Facebook lead ads work with CRMs.
Check your leads once by hand today. Then set it up so you never have to again. Start your free 7-day LeadSync trial, no credit card required.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can’t I see my leads in Facebook Ads Manager?
It’s almost always permissions. You need admin-level access to the Facebook Page that ran the lead ad, and if Leads Access Manager has been customised for that Page, you need to be granted lead access specifically. Also check you’re in the right ad account and Business Portfolio, and that the lead form hasn’t been archived or deleted.
How long does Facebook keep my leads?
90 days. Meta automatically deletes lead data 90 days after a person submits the form, and there’s no way to recover it afterwards. If you rely on manual checking, build a habit of saving leads at least monthly, or use a sync tool so every lead is stored in your email or CRM the moment it arrives.
How do I see leads on my phone?
Install the Meta Business Suite app, open the menu, and go to Leads Center to view and reply to leads. Meta’s Ads Manager app can also manage leads. Downloading leads as a CSV generally isn’t supported on mobile, so for exports you’ll still need a desktop browser.
Does Facebook notify me when I get a new lead?
Not reliably. Meta can show in-app alerts inside Business Suite, but it doesn’t email you the lead’s details, and the alerts are easy to miss. That’s why most advertisers use a third-party tool such as LeadSync to forward each new lead to email, SMS, Slack, or a CRM within about a minute of submission.
Where is the Leads Center?
In Meta Business Suite on desktop, click All Tools in the left menu, then look under the Advertise section for Leads Center (sometimes shown alongside Instant Forms). In the Meta Business Suite mobile app it lives in the menu. Leads Center shows leads from all your forms in one place, with basic contact and filtering tools.
