The official Facebook for Business page posted last week about the new Facebook Lead Ads. The post didn’t get a ton of fanfare, but this is a really cool ad format that I’m predicting will work really well for some savvy advertisers. But first, what’s it all about?
What Are Facebook Lead Ads?
From Facebook, they’re a “…simpler way for people to fill out forms on their mobile devices.” Okay, sounds good, but what does that exactly mean? Basically, your ad will have a CTA button that says something like “Subscribe”. When a user clicks the button they’ll get a screen with their Facebook contact info automatically populated. They can edit the information as they deem necessary and then click “Submit” (kinda sounds BDSM, but whatever). The entire process occurs in the native Facebook flow/interface so that users don’t have to leave and come back or launch another app or anything. Easy, peasy.
Here is a visual on that:
Who Is This For?
Unfortunately, this is currently limited to a small set of selected advertisers. Basically, people with big brands and big budgets that Facebook wants to impress. So while it’s not a guarantee, I can’t see this not making it into a system-wide release.
The images above suggest that name and email are included. The post from Facebook suggests their trying other avenues like follow-up calls. I can see email coming much sooner than other formats, so here is what an ideal advertiser possesses for that scenario:
- Solid demographic profile
- Robust email marketing setup
- Predetermined CPA target
In simple terms, anyone looking to build their email list. This feels a lot like Twitter Lead Gen Cards to me, so if you’ve been having success there (and I’ve got one client who is doing very well there) then I recommend you get on this bandwagon as soon as Facebook pulls into town.
