Every business needs a way to generate leads (and sales) consistently, and there’s no better platform to do that than Facebook. Whether you love or hate it, there’s no getting away from the fact that Facebook offers an incredible opportunity for business owners.
With over 2.89 billion active monthly users, you can guarantee your potential customers are using the platform. But there’s a lot of noise to cut through.
So, how do you get them interested in your lead generation campaigns?
In this article, I’ll share five proven ways to generate leads using Facebook (both paid and organic).
1. Using Facebook Conversion Ads
Most businesses already have an approach to generating leads on their website. They might offer:
- a complimentary consultation
- a demo request
- a time-sensitive discount
But, I’m certain almost every business owner will agree that they want more people to take them up on these offers. That’s where Facebook Conversion campaigns come in.
When you create an ad campaign on Facebook, you’re presented with several campaign objectives. If your goal is to have people take an action on your site (such as sign up for a consultation, demo, or discount), you need to select the conversion campaign to have the best chance at success.
Facebook conversion ads can help:
- Grow sales by getting visitors to complete specific transactions on your website.
- Prompt an action – it’s up to you to define which action you want your visitor to take. You might want them to visit your site or add an item to their shopping basket.
- Optimize your campaign – Facebook delivers your conversion ads to people who are most likely to convert. Vs the likes of a Traffic campaign where Facebook optimizes for clicks
One of the biggest mistakes we see business owners making is blindly boosting posts, rather than using conversion ads. Boosting posts are great for garnering engagement (likes, comments, and shares) but rarely are they ever optimal for getting people to take action
However, you can’t effectively track conversions unless you’ve installed the Facebook pixel. There are also straightforward instructions here on installing the pixel if you don’t have it.
Once you’ve installed the pixel, you can define which user action defines your conversion. You can get very specific here.
For example, you might want your visitor to join your mailing list. In that case, your “Thank You” page would be the trigger that tells Facebook that the conversion is complete.
Facebook conversion ads can be a compelling way to generate leads. But – as ever – you need strong creative content with a clear CTA to inspire the initial click.
2. Using Facebook Lead Ads
Another way to generate leads on Facebook is using Facebook Lead ads.
These are different from conversion ads – you keep the user on Facebook with a Lead ad (as opposed to sending them to your website or a separate landing page).
When someone clicks on your Lead ad, a Facebook form appears, and it’s here that you collect their details. You might want to collect email sign-ups, offer deals or promotions, or collect inquiries from new customers.
The Lead ad form is usually auto-populated with the lead’s details – name, number, email, address, etc., making it quick and easy for users to sign up for your offer. Because let’s face it, Facebook knows everything about us!
When you create your ad, define the information you’re looking for. Be specific, but be cautious of over-harvesting! People lose faith in your credibility if you ask for their inside leg measurement (unless you sell trousers, of course!).
However, we’ve found that Lead ads generate more leads at a lower cost than conversion ads. But, the quality of those leads tends to drop dramatically.
Therefore, it’s vitally important you keep track of your sales figures. Leads generated from Facebook Lead ads won’t automatically get pushed through to your small business CRM or email marketing provider. You’ll need to create your own automation for that. Thankfully with BenchmarkONE, it’s super easy to connect using Zapier.
3. Retargeting Ads
One of the biggest challenges for all Facebook marketers is finding the right target audience. Facebook gives you a vast array of demographic options when setting up an ad, and this makes it super-challenging to dial it down to the right people.
One way to solve this problem is to create retargeting ads.
Retargeting ads are served to people who have already interacted with your brand in some way. That might be:
- People who have visited your website
- People who engage (or have engaged) with your social channels
- People who are on your mailing list
- Prior customers
We highly recommend that all businesses set up retargeting ads to boost their lead generation efforts.
Whether you’re B2C or B2B, retargeting ads are almost guaranteed to perform well (because you’re running ads to people who already know who you are).
To create a retargeting ad, you first need to define your Facebook Custom Audience. And use that Custom Audience in your ad campaign.
Additionally, use one of your existing Custom Audiences to develop a Lookalike Audience (strangers with similar profiles to your custom audience) to broaden your reach with people likely to convert.
4. Running a Competition
Competitions often get a bit of stick online because they often create low-quality leads. But, running the right type of competition campaign on Facebook can be a great way to generate leads for your business.
Remember, low-quality leads only happen when your campaign lacks a proper marketing strategy.
The Free iPad Conundrum
For example, let’s say you run a campaign and offer a free iPad as the prize.
Think about the prize here – everyone wants an iPad (win), but not everyone wants your product or service (lose).
Offering a prize that has mass appeal, but no relevance to your business/audience means that you attract the masses. But most of those are only ever going to be low-quality leads because they’re interested in the prize – not your product/service.
How to Run a Competition
Consider offering a competition prize that’s super-specific and relevant to your business. Sure, you’re likely to get fewer entries, but those entrants are higher-quality leads.
Offer something of genuine value that relates to your business. It could be a free trial or your entry-level product. Everyone who enters your competition wants that prize – each of those entrants is a higher-quality lead because, by entering, they’ve also expressed their interest in your product/service.
A great example of a competition with a relevant prize is with a gym client of ours.
They wanted to build their subscription base, so we created a competition offering a year of free personal training. As an additional incentive, we offered a free five-day pass to everyone who entered the competition – that way, everyone’s a winner.
We knew that their sales team was strong – we could leave them to convert leads once people came to cash in their five-day pass. The campaign reached 70,000 people and brought in $60,000 in fresh revenue.
And the great thing about this approach is that you can get excellent results by promoting your competition organically. But you can add fuel to the fire by using Facebook ads to promote it too.
5. Posting in Facebook Groups
When you post to your own Facebook page, your reach is limited to those who like your page (and their friends if they share). On the other hand, Facebook groups offer an incredible way to tap into an audience of your perfect customers.
Because let’s face it, Facebook’s organic reach through most pages is generally disappointing.
However, joining associated Facebook groups populated by your perfect customer is a great way to get your brand noticed.
Let’s say you own a vitamin supplement company. You could join lots of fitness and weightlifting groups. If you sell campervans, you could join lots of Facebook groups related to outdoor activities. But joining isn’t enough. You need to get posting. Whatever you do, don’t spam those groups with your product and services. That’s a one-way ticket to getting blocked.
To get real results, you need to add value.
Share thoughtful, insightful, and valuable content that will resonate with the people inside the group. For example, a supplement company could share white papers and details about interesting new research. Or share relevant (non-salesy) blog posts.
A campervan company could share guides on how to improve or renovate a campervan. Share stuff from your blog and appropriate websites. Don’t be salesy, spammy, or pushy. It’s all about sharing educational content.
Doing this gets people interested and engaged with your brand, naturally inspiring the right prospects to learn more about your products or services.
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap!
Facebook is an incredible opportunity to generate leads.
The most crucial takeaway is to provide value to the consumer. If you’re over promotional, it won’t work for you.
People are there to speak to friends and family, and, therefore, you need to find ways to add value to the people you’re trying to reach.
Author Bio
Gavin Bell is the director of multi-award-winning lead generation agency, Yatter. Yatter helps scale service businesses through a hybrid of PPC and Conversion rate optimization. They are a preferred Facebook Marketing Partner managing over $3m+ in client advertising spend per year.