Over the years, Facebook has become a great tool for marketers.
One of the various possibilities offered by the Ads platform of the blue social is to acquire qualified contacts: when we open the “Ads manager”, in fact, among the various options we find "Lead Generation": campaign that allows, precisely, to obtain qualified leads.
With the word lead we mean a potential customer who leaves us spontaneously (but consciously) its data in exchange for something (lead magnet) or, simply, after filling out a form to ask for more information or a quote on a product / service. The lead generation is the activity that allows you to acquire contacts "in target", that means people potentially interested in our product or service.
Facebook makes marketers’ life easier by allowing them, through its platform, to create a simple (but customizable) contact form and a campaign aimed at acquiring contacts.
The contacts obtained through Facebook, then, can be used - if authorized under the terms of GDPR - to make great mail marketing campaigns: for example, you can send periodic newsletters to gain the trust of potential customers and improve brand awareness and brand reputation, through quality content, useful or funny (or both).
Meanwhile let's see how Facebook Lead Ads work.
Facebook Lead Ads: how they work
Although Facebook often changes the “Ads manager” panel (the last change was a few days ago), to create an ad on the platform is quite intuitive (which does not mean simple): when you open the panel, in fact, you have a whole range of options to choose according to the goal of your campaign.
Among the options you get the possibility to create a Lead generation campaign. Just click on the appropriate button to structure a campaign aimed at getting contacts quickly enough: the simple fact that you are not forced to redirect people to an external landing page allows you to gain time without taking the risk that a poorly structured landing page could stop the user.
You can create the form ex novo or just duplicate an old form already used in the past (if adapted to your needs). The form can be seen only by those who view the ads (with restrictions) or also by those who are reached in "organic" (open) mode.
Facebook also gives us the possibility to choose between higher volume or higher intention: in the first case the form will be filled in by more people than the second (or at least, so it should be), but in the second case it is possible - better always to test - to have more qualified leads.
In the textual part of the form you need to do a micro copy exercise: you have to be clear and persuasive, short but memorable and - above all - lead people to fill the form.
Once that an image and the title (another key element) are added, we could then move on to the questions, which can be standard - the minimum info extrapolated from Facebook - or customized, that means questions that can be added by us (up to 15, but not exaggerated, otherwise the form will be abandoned) to have more qualified leads (in other terms: users really interested in our product or service).
The answers can be open, multiple choice, with conditional - answers that vary depending on the previous answers - or with appointment scheduling.
Facebook then invites us to insert the link to the company Privacy Policy - mandatory -; finally, we find the thank you screen, another difficult test of micro copy: our potential customer has dedicated some time to us, do we want to give him a hasty thank you?
Other tips for Facebook Lead Ads campaigns: let's choose a persuasive, well-groomed and effective image or video (according to our goal).
The contacts obtained can be found in a file accessible to the administrators of the page.
As in all FB campaigns, it is necessary to carefully choose the audience (it is very useful to have our buyer personas well defined in the file), taking advantage of the many opportunities given by the FB advertising platform (personalized audiences, similar characteristics, etc.).
Last thing, the Facebook Lead generation form can be integrated with many CRM available on the market.
Facebook Lead Ads and mail marketing: how to integrate one with the other
We have seen how Facebook Lead Ads work and some useful tips to optimize them.
Once we get the contacts, we can use the emails to build mail marketing campaigns.
Through lead emails, in fact, we can start our lead nurturing work, that is essential if we want to transform potential customers into real customers.
Very important: between Facebook Lead Ads and email marketing campaigns there must be congruence: if we have requested a personal contact like the email promising to provide useful content, for example a guide, an e-book or a series of informative videos, then you can't try to sell something starting from the first email.
In other words, if we need Facebook's Lead generation campaigns to have a first approach with customers, with subsequent email marketing campaigns we have to "feed" the lead by convincing it of the validity of our proposal. And we convince him by generating empathy and giving a sense of authority, not with one-shot sales.
The same is true if we have launched a Facebook Lead Ads campaign with the specific request to leave an email to get a quote: in this case, we must avoid wasting time on small talk and send the quote, as promised during the Lead generation phase.
In short, before proceeding with Facebook ADS and email marketing campaigns, it is good to have a clear strategy and an equally well-structured funnel, in which each action corresponds to a section of the funnel: usually, FB's Leas generation comes before a mail marketing campaign, which can be integrated by bringing the work done on the social platform to an end.
As usual, it is advisable to test, test and test again every marketing action: only with tests, in fact, you can understand if the strategy is working or not.
