The Pros and Cons of Facebook Lead Ads
I’ve been a big fan of Facebook for a very long time. Heck, I even bought stock in the company! But lately I’ve been advising my small business clients to use Facebook only when they have something to promote and some ad dollars to back it up. Facebook’s unsurpassed targeting capabilities make it an awesome place to advertise.
A few weeks ago Facebook launched a new type of ad called Lead Ads. Lead Ads are designed to do just that…get you leads. Build your email list, fill-up your webinar, get your ebook out there…you can do all of it with lead ads.
This is how they work: A user sees your ad. It looks like any other Facebook ad and it displays one of six call-to-action buttons: Sign Up, Subscribe, Learn More, Apply Now, Get Quote, or Download. The user taps on the call-to-action button and voila! A form opens and it already has the user’s name and email address filled-in. What could be simpler? Facebook calls this: Tap, Tap, Done!
(Note: Lead Ads are currently delivered on mobile devices only, although desktop versions are in the works.)
The Pros Are:
1. Easy: All a user has to do is to click Submit. Tap, Tap, Done!
2. Perfect for the Mobile Mentality: Mobile users are impatient, on the fly and they demand instant gratification.
3. Lots of Choices: You can use Lead Ads for all kinds of lead generation campaigns, from content downloads to webinar sign-ups.
But some of my colleagues have been testing Lead Ads and from what they’ve reported, there are some big cons. Let’s say you need to generate opt-ins for an upcoming webinar. A Lead Ads campaign woud seem like a slam-dunk, right? But wait…
The Cons Are:
1. Facebook has not yet integrated Lead Ads into email management tools such as Mailchimp or webinar platforms such as Webinar Jam. You have to download your leads from Facebook, upload your leads into your email platform, and set up all your autoresponders manually. That’s awfully time-consuming.
2. Lead Ads do not send users to a well-designed landing page that reinforces the benefits that attracted them to your ad in the first place. We want people to opt-in, but we also want them to be excited about our webinar and to actually attend. That’s what a great landing page will do. Reinforce the benefits and create the excitement.
3. Lead Ads can result in a lot of poor quality leads. Many people may sign-up because it’s so easy and they simply followed the directions. They may not be interested enough to attend or even remember that they signed up. Those people are likely not going to be great leads for your business.
Digital Marketer compared two Facebook campaigns each containing ads that had identical copy, graphics, calls-to-action, and budgets. One campaign contained Lead Ads and the other contained traditional Facebook ads that sent users to a landing page on their website. In both cases, the Lead Ads campaign ended up being more expensive in cost per lead and in both cases the lead ads generated fewer overall leads (that fact surprised me).
As with everything Facebook, the kinks will probably be worked out over time. Meanwhile, if you want to test Lead Ads (I’m going test them, too. I can’t resist!) I suggest that you take it slow and really measure your results. Please….let us know how they work for you!
Read: Digital Marketer’s Facebook Lead Ads Test
Read: Social Media Examiner’s How To Use Facebook Lead Ads
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