You’ve probably heard the term “lead generation ad” once or twice before. But what actually is a lead generation ad? It is a form of advertising in which businesses collect contact information based on their target audience and products or services they’re offering.

Are you new to lead generation? Trying to understand what a lead generation ad is and how it’s different from a traditional ad? If so, we’ve created this guide with you in mind. This guide will answer the following questions: What is lead generation? How does lead generation advertising differ from traditional paid advertising methods? How do I generate leads with my company’s website or landing page?

There have been numerous ads that have stood out as great examples of lead generation ads over the last decade. However, since there’s no one definition or set of guidelines for what a lead generation ad looks like or sounds like, it can be hard to emulate them. But there are some great examples out there that you should look to for inspiration on how you can generate leads and grow your business.

The anatomy of a good lead generation ad:

There are all kinds of ways and tactics companies use to generate leads, but they have the same structure in the end. Good lead generation starts with capturing the audience’s attention with a well-placed incentive and following up with useful information that also needs strong social proof. Here’s a quick breakdown of every step in the process.

a) Incentive

Excellent lead generation has to start with the right motive. The customers have to feel like your offer is something they could use. There are many different ways you can relate the incentive to your potential customers.

One of the most effective methods is offering a discount on products and services upon registration. Whatever you decide to do in the end, make sure that you communicate the incentive openly. That can be done with a simple text saying that the readers will get a discount after providing their email address, but images with similar ideas will do just fine.

Another crucial detail is to include some call to action. As we said, you must motivate your visitors to provide their email addresses, and you can’t do that without offering something useful in return. Once your visitors enter their email addresses, make sure that they get the discount code or coupon immediately. You must prove that you’re a serious company, so there’s no room for errors.

b) Visuals

There are all kinds of details you can experiment with when creating a lead generation ad, but none of them are as powerful as a well-placed image. Strategically placed images can help you resonate with your target audience almost more than any other detail in the ad.

But there is more to it than just that. Facebook’s algorithm favors ads with images, so you’ll get better exposure, but most importantly, images are much likelier to get shared and remembered. With that said, you should make sure that the images you use are appealing and easy to remember.

Don’t rush when choosing the perfect image for your ad. Take the time to think about every detail you see and imagine how someone else will feel when they see the image. The emotion has to correlate with your service or product. Most people purchase something driven by emotion rather than black and white information.

Don’t hold back when creating the perfect ad image. Show the world how creative you are. The goal is to create a strong bond between your company, offer, and ad. Demonstrate your services or product with an image that focuses on the content’s benefits.

c) Copy

When someone runs into your ad, they should be able to click on it and get more information about your services or product. That’s a critical stage as you’ll get a chance to explain why your offer is better from all others. The key is to make the visitors go to your website and purchase something.

This is where you get the chance to tune in your creativity with your audience. Think about what your audience feels and thinks while reading your ad. You have to put yourself in their shoes to get a better feel of the emotion they go through and change your content accordingly until you evoke the emotions you want. The practice is called customer journey mapping.

After you get a better idea of what your audience is thinking and feeling, your ad copy should complement those emotions. Set the tone by answering questions like:

• What’s grabbing the audience’s attention?
• Why do you use stats and testimonials?
• What type of language do you use?

Start from there and build your ad up piece by piece.

d) Social proofing

Social proofing is the turning point for any online ad. According to this study, 9 out of 10 customers read user reviews before they make a purchase. It would be best if you made it easier for them by including some social proof in your ads.

When someone runs into your ad on Facebook, they will start checking the facts. That includes the number of likes the ad has and what the users think about the product or service.

Any public social engagement other users can see is some social proof. That can be something as simple as a like or share, or something a little more detailed like a comment or review. Like ad copy, social proofing is the backbone of any good ad as it sparks a conversation and engages users.

If a viewer sees an ad with 50+ comments and hundreds of likes, he/she is much more likely to make a purchase. That’s why social proofing is an absolute must for any successful ad campaign, Facebook, or otherwise.

(Pro tip: You can collect reviews from your customers and use them as social proof content in your ads. Get started with the free version of our software.)

e) Targeting

Targeting has come a long way in the past few years. Today, it can provide each individual with the information he/she finds interesting, and the overall experience can be completely different, even though everything happens in the same place. The users are segmented by their affinities, allowing you to present your product or service in the best possible way.

You must align the content with the audience, or your ad campaigns won’t be very successful. Targeting allows you to pinpoint your specific audience giving you the most out of every Facebook ad.

After you know who your audience is, you can create an ad that provides the information they want to see. You must figure out the location, age, gender, language, interests, and behavior of the audience to get the most out of every ad.

What is a lead generation ad?

Lead generation ad is an ad type where you can collect data about people who clicked on your ads (potential customers). Data that businesses typically like to collect includes a name, email address and contact number.

What’s so special about Adriel’s lead generation ad? Our lead generation ad is compatible for both Google and Facebook, so you can run the ad on both platforms all together.

All you need to do is to create questions that intend people to leave their information as you want, and the ad is set up. The information collected then can be used to build up a customer database, newsletter audience, quotation requests and other business information.

Why do I need a lead generation ad?

1. You don’t need to have a website.

A landing page is created once you fill up your questions on a template ready made for you. No need for a domain or a web developer. Just make a few questions and your ad is ready to run.

2. Only “interested” people will leave their information.

The most popular reason to use a lead generation ad is to collect potential customers’ data. On a lead generation ad, only people who want to be contacted leave their contact, so they are more likely to convert into sales when you contact them. This way, you can maximise the number of leads with a small budget.

3. You can collect customers’ data quickly and easily.

Forget about CPC, CTR and other difficult terms. Lead generation ads give you the information in the plainest and simplest form and you can store it, so you can find out about your potential customers much more quickly.

Even if they don’t plan to purchase yet, their contact information remains an important asset for your business so you can contact them later.

Lead Gen Insight & Strategies

The team then goes on to discuss their insight and strategies surrounding lead gen ads.

• How lead gen ads cause less friction in the lead gathering process, and why that’s so valuable.
• What you should know about the leads that are generated.
• When you should use a lead gen form over a standard ad that sends a user to a landing page where a form is housed.
• Why you would choose to use a lead gen ad.
• How lead generation ads function on different platforms.
• The importance of communicating with your sales team.

Lead Gen Ads Tips/Tricks & Tools

The team then moves onto some of their personal tips, tricks, and tools for creating successful lead gen ads.

• Use custom questions to give your sales team more information, and to give the user more time to stop and think about the form they are filling out.
• Continue to nurture leads after generating them, whether that be a soft touch, or having the sales team contact them right away.
• Test multiple lead form variations to see what performs best.
• Pay attention to the post-fill-out experience, how will you engage with your users now?
• Make sure lead forms are properly integrated with your CRM platform.

Listen to the full episode for more tips and tricks for how to best create and execute lead generation ads!

Marketing O’Clock releases new digital marketing news podcasts every Friday morning along with “Marketing O’Talk” deep dive discussions each month.

Creating a Lead Ad

How do they work? Based on custom targeting, Facebook will show your ads to individuals most likely to click your ad. Once someone clicks on your ad, a form with contact information users give to Facebook will automatically populate. This means the user will no longer need to manually fill out the form! Advertisers can have Facebook auto-fill any of the following information, assuming users provide it in their profiles:

• Full Name
• Email
• Street Address
• Phone
• Zip
• City
• State
• Country
• Company Name
• Job Title

This autofill form is one of the major benefits of these ads because, with less hassle for people to fill out their information, there’s ultimately a better chance of conversions. It’s a win-win situation for both the user and advertiser!

Lead Ads vs. Website Click Ads

The biggest difference between lead ads and website click ads is lead ads keep users on Facebook instead of redirecting them to a website landing page. Therefore, some people might argue that lead ads come with a cost … by not giving users the opportunity to click through to a business’ website; they aren’t interacting with other content while they’re there. However, the tradeoff is worth it for many because lead ads are more user-friendly by giving people the option to take action without ever having to leave Facebook or be redirected to a slow, unresponsive website.

Testing out both website click and lead ad campaigns is the best way to see which one works best for your business.

Downloading Leads

Once their information has been submitted, the lead will be stored in the backend of Facebook under the business page’s ‘Forms Library’. Here, you will be able to conveniently download all of the leads that come through.

However, thanks to Facebook’s most recent lead generation ads update, there is now an even easier and more efficient way to retrieve incoming leads. You can connect lead ads with your email marketing or customer relationship management (CRM) system which will allow you to receive your leads automatically and remove the need to regularly download new leads. This element allows businesses to follow up more quickly.

Which Type of Businesses Benefit from this Type of Ad?

We have utilized lead generation ads for many different types of accounts, from insurance to medical clients. Different businesses may benefit from these ads in different ways. For example, one client might be interested in getting more people to sign up for their monthly newsletters, whereas another client is more interested in booking appointments. Whatever your objective may be, lead generation ads have the power to effectively capture your audience’s interest in your products and services.

Now that you know more about lead generation ads available to your business, reach out to 2060 Digital for help putting together an ad campaign that accomplishes your goals. We’re experts in building Facebook ad campaigns that maximize your budget and gets you results!

CONCLUSION

A lead generation ad is an ad that links directly to an offer designed to capture contact information from potential customers. They are also known as lead ads and other similar names. Lead generation ads are typically found on the Google Display Network and social media sites. Most of these types of ads include a form that allows you to capture name, email address, and sometimes even demographic information like company size or position in the company or job title.