1 - Create a Frictionless Experience
Consistency reduces friction and prompts users to take the desired action.
Take it from Jenny Berk, CEO, and Founder of Jenny Eden Coaching who gave Leadpages a try and saw her conversion rate increase 34%. She attributed her success on Facebook to a few things: using a targeted landing page versus sending traffic to a static page on her business’ website and aligning her branding across the entire customer journey—not just within her website—in order to create a cohesive experience.
Using the Leadpages Integrated Facebook Ads tool, she easily delivered her audience a seamless experience, from the first click on the Facebook ad to the final conversion on the landing page. By delivering consistent images and written copy, Jenny effectively presented her brand as professional and reassured her visitors that they were in the right place and just a click away from accessing her lead magnet.
Creating consistency across her Facebook lead generation campaign involved several factors:
- The same message: Keeping marketing messages consistent in all marketing channels.
- The same look & feel: Maintaining consistent imagery (particularly the hero image) and the color palette is key.
- The same language: Never faltering when it comes to swapping the voice, tone, or content of your campaign.
- The same great offer: Check your links and sales copy to make sure everything is copacetic.
For more tips and tricks like those used by Jenny, check out our Un-missable Facebook Ad Landing Page Essentials Will Change Your Campaigns Forever.
2 - Hone in on Your Target Audience
As a business owner or marketer, you're probably wondering: How can I best reach the perfect audience for my products and services, without wasting my advertising budget?
When you’re marketing on Facebook, the audience is technically the Facebook users who will see your sponsored posts in the Facebook newsfeed, the sidebar, on Instagram, or on Facebook’s advertising network. And because Facebook attracts upwards of 2 billion users from around the world every day, a “spray and pray” marketing strategy will not work here.
You need to whittle your audience down. To do this you'll need to understand how Facebook targeting options work. If you're new to Facebook advertising, here's a high-level overview:
- Facebook’s “Saved” Audiences: Leveraging the data Facebook has on all its users, any advertiser can reach the exact type of person that would best match their marketing message.
- “Custom” and “Lookalike” Audiences: These powerful segments of Facebook users are even more likely to resonate with your marketing due to a closer match of behavior to your existing subscribers and customers.
The Facebook audience wizard gives you 3 choices. We recommend starting with a lookalike audience built to mimic the subscribers you already have on your email list.
Facebook launched ads with a single image format, but since then has expanded its ad formats to include a host of different options. Picking the ad format that best fits your business goal will help improve your conversions and make your leads pour in.
Here are your options for different Facebook ad formats:
- Photo: Use beautiful images to convey your message.
- Video: Tell your story with sight, sound, and motion.
- Carousel: Show multiple images or videos in a single ad.
- Slideshow: Create video ads to connect with people across connection speeds.
- Collection: Tell a story with a single ad that showcases your business.
- Messenger: Help people start conversations with your business.
4- Give Something Away (in Exchange for an Email)
When’s the last time you gave out your contact information for free? … how about, never?
Your audience isn’t going to give it away for free either. You’ll need to offer an incentive – and that’s what a lead magnet is all about. A lead magnet is anything you give away in exchange for someone’s email address/contact information, and it can be accomplished through:
- Ebooks
- Checklists/ cheat sheets/ resource guides/ tip sheets/ FAQ sheets
- Worksheets/ workbooks
- Email courses
- Swipe files/ templates
- Webinars/ webinar replays
- Calendars/ action plans
- Industry reports
- White papers/ case studies
- Live demos/ tutorials
- On-demand video trainings/ courses
- Contests
- Quizzes
- Product samples/ free trials
- Consultations/ 1:1 calls
5 - Select Images that Bait an Emotional Response
Think of Facebook as the bustling and overcrowded Times Square where businesses and individuals compete for people’s attention on the regular. What initially piques your interest and is viewed first? More often than not, it’s the image.
Pictures do speak a thousand words, so invest in the time to find the most captivating images for your lead generation Facebook ads.
“If you want to get your ads clicked on, you have to grab the users’ attention so that they read your ad,” according to the experts at Adspresso. “This will come down to your ad’s image. The right image can immediately attract the eye and earn you a click.”
Here are some tips to create a captivating picture:
- Pick a shot that stands out from the crowd
- Don’t use generic stock imagery (when you can avoid it)
- Add visual contrast with white space or contrasting colors
- Use filters on your pictures
- Be creative but remember, while the image needs to stand out, it should not be offensive or too strong
6 - Harness the Psychological Power of Colors
Different colors have different effects on our minds. Using specific colors is a vital creative asset every successful Facebook advertiser practices. In fact, 90% of all the snap judgments that we make about products can be traced back to color, according to a study “Impact of color on marketing" in Management Decision.
Your color selection draws down to appropriateness and fits your business. There is no cut-and-dry color selection that converts the best. Just think about your primary customer: who they are and what they prefer (it’s widely gender and age-dependent); and then you’ll better understand what colors would work.
7 - Remember Art Class?: Contrast Draws The Eyes In
We covered image selection and color…
But in the same vein of these design tactics is another principle that works across industries and businesses – and that is contrast.
Imagine scrolling through your Facebook News Feed right now. What do your eyes go? Your best friend or neighbors’ recent vacation shots, but beyond, that they focus on high-contrast images.
The psychological principle known as the Isolation Effect states that an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" is more likely to be remembered, notes Psychology Today. Research clearly shows that participants are able to recognize and recall an item far better (be it text or an image) when it blatantly sticks out from its surroundings.
Both the Aesthetic Response to Color Combinations and Consumer Preferences for Color Combinations studies also reveal a majority of consumers favor highly contrasting colors.
Think about ways you can create visual contrast in your Facebook lead generation campaign.
8 - Show Faces and the Application of Your Product or Service
Facebook’s lifeblood is ads. In fact, in 2017 alone it made nearly $13 million on them. Luckily they are transparent with Facebook advertisers on what works and one of the tips they suggest is to show people using your product, rather than the product itself. Here’s what they say:
- “Facebook ads often run in someone's News Feed or Instagram feed, right next to posts from their family and friends. To create attention-grabbing ads that feel like a familiar part of someone's social fabric, show images of people benefiting from your product, instead of just the product itself.”
Believe it or not, there is even a psychological effect that backs this design hack up pareidolia, causing humans to look for faces in everyday objects. Seeing common faces – especially smiling ones – is deeply meaningful to our brains, a vestige of our primal beings – so use images of faces in your Facebook landing pages and ads!
9 - Be Responsive (But Not In The Traditional Sense)
An estimated 66% of Facebook’s 1.3 billion daily users access the site from a mobile device. Facebook mobile-friendliness is now a must-have as more people access the network via a handheld device than a desktop.
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As a refresher, here is what makes a responsive design:
- It adapts to any screen size
- It loads quickly
- Flexible images and layout
To be mobile device-compliant – the answer is pretty simple. Choose a Facebook lead generation software with a built-in mobile template so there’s no option but to create an ad or landing page perfect for a smartphone or tablet.
10 - Realize Less Is More
Simplicity in design and copy is essential with lead generation on Facebook. Too much text is distracting to viewers and can lead to fewer views, says Facebook. Uncluttered images and text have a greater impact on your audience, so keep it simple!
Check out these Facebook ad examples for inspiration.
11 - Connect Your Apps
No lead generation strategy is going to work if your leads are left alone too long. That's why it's so crucial to connect your marketing apps & tools. By integrating the tools you use every day, you can update lead contact information seamlessly and ultimately save yourself from tedious manual ‘workarounds.’
With Leadpages and Zapier, you can connect to 1000+ different apps and seamlessly shuttle your leads (by registering and updating email addresses, contact information, and related data) into your favorite marketing tools – such as an email service provider or CRM. All without touching a single line of code or hiring an IT guy.
Interested in learning more? Learn more about Leadpages and Zapier’s integration.
12 - Use Trial And Error
“Play around,”say the experts at Facebook. Test different images and formats before you commit to a particular creative asset, and always preview how your ad will look before you run it. Create mockups, get feedback from your team (and Facebook), and look to competitors in your sector to see what they're doing. Even small adjustments to copy, images, or CTAs could mean huge benefits for your bottom line and the same goes for your Facebook ads.
Running multiple variations presents you with the golden opportunity to uncover what is resonating the most with different audiences. Don’t assume anything works until you’ve tested it.
In fact, Leadpages user Dan Henry says he uses his early successes to improve his campaigns. He tested various visual formats and then continued to run the winning combination:
“We actually got some footage from the first VIP event, and I edited it together and used it in a promotional video. Whether you’re shooting video, collecting social media comments, or simply receiving testimonials from your first few clients, you can often make immediate use of them by incorporating them into your landing pages or ads.”
BONUS TIP #13 - Avoid Facebook Ads Manager Altogether
If you’re anything like us, you crave simplicity. Did you know that you could avoid the cumbersome Facebook Ads Manager and build Facebook landing pages and ads all within Leadpages? That’s right. Whether you’re a green or seasoned marketer, our simplified ad builder makes it possible for anybody to reach your customers in a way only the most sophisticated advertisers have been able to—until now.
With this feature, we bring Facebook’s audience insights straight to you. Then we connect you right to your landing pages for a unified and beautified campaign.
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Want to test drive it now? Head to your Leadpages account where it’s up-and-running, or start a free 14-day trial of any plan level.
When it comes to Facebook Lead generation, these 12 steps are an excellent list to keep on hand. You can also learn more about how defining the right audience and Facebook retargeting can cut your cost per lead and encourage greater success on Facebook!
