How to create a Facebook Lead Ads campaign for lead generation

Goal: Launch a Facebook Lead Ads campaign with the intention of integrating it with your email provider (ESP).

Ideal Result: Your Facebook Lead Ads campaign automatically generates prospects for you, which your email marketing workflows then nurture.

Requirements or prerequisites:

A Facebook Ads Account and a Business Page are required. If you do not already have one, you can create one by using Business Manager by following blog010 – Create a Facebook Ads Account.

This blog describes in detail how to combine Facebook Lead Ads with MailChimp; it is assumed that you already have a MailChimp account in this chapter of the blog. The procedure may differ somewhat if you are using another ESP that interfaces with Zapier. Here is a list of applications that integrate with Zapier.

Why it is significant: Having a lead generation strategy that is scalable, simple to start up, and easy to maintain might make or break your company.

Where to accomplish this: With your current ESP supplier, Facebook Business Manager, and Facebook Ads Manager.

Whenever you want to start a new Facebook Lead Ad campaign is the time to do this.

Who does this: The person in charge of email marketing or paid advertising.

Organizing your Lead Ads Campaign

1. Log in to the guided creation panel for Ads Manager here.
2. Make sure you have chosen the appropriate Business Managers and Ad Accounts in the top header if you are managing numerous of both.

            Note: Your Facebook Manager Campaign main dashboard contains three tabs to help you stay organized. Tab for Campaigns, Ad Sets, and Ads:

3. Under the “Campaigns” tab, select “+ Create”:

4. Select “Lead Generation” under “Choose a Campaign Objective” “Consideration”:

5. You must rename your campaign using your naming convention after scrolling down.

            The suggested Facebook template for naming your “Ad Set” is “Country – Age Group – Gender – Interest.”

Observation: Depending on how your Ad Account is set up, your naming convention will change.

6. You will be taken to your Facebook Ad Campaign dashboard after selecting “Continue.” An error message will appear in your “Ad Set” dashboard right away. To accept the “Lead Ad Terms” for the Facebook page you wish to promote,

7. select your “Ad Set” page, the proper Facebook page from the dropdown menu, and click on “View Terms.”

8. If you have no issues, read the “Lead Ad Terms” and click “I Agree to the Terms and Conditions.”

Configuring your ad set

1. Find “Audience” by scrolling down in the “Ad Set” setup:

              a. Note1 : You should, ideally, already be aware of how you want to set up your targeting when setting up your advertising, but you can also do so at this stage. Your target audience will vary depending on your ad account structure and strategy.

              b. Note 2: If you are unsure of who your target market is, review your customer avatars and, if you have already identified them, try to target their interests.

              c. Note 3: By selecting “Use a Saved Audience” from the dropdown menu, you can use an audience that has already been created.

Custom Audiences (optional): You can choose one of your already-created custom audiences from the dropdown if you have one.

Note: You can leave this empty if you only wish to target users based on their demographics, location, language, and other user-specific characteristics.

Note 2: You can use blog031 – How to Build a Lookalike Audience on Facebook to create a lookalike audience if you do not already have one.

Locations: Pick a place that you think would appeal to your target market.

Note: You may further target your audience by entering a specific city in the search bar or placing a “pin” on the map.

Choose the age, gender, and linguistic groups you think will best represent your target audience.

Specific Targeting: Choose the traits that you think best represent your target audience’s demographics, interests, and behaviors. Click “Browse” to begin choosing:

Be careful not to choose these too broadly when making your choice. If you choose multiple Interests, Demographics, or Behaviours, Facebook will show your advertisement to everyone who fits at least one of those criteria. After choosing your first group, a new ‘Narrow Audience’ link will appear below it, allowing you to choose a new demographic, interest, or habit that you want your audience to share. This will allow you to target audiences that match numerous categories at once.

Try to be as specific as you can without being too specific.

 Example: Using a golf course, you might wish to select “Golf” as your only option rather than “Sports” or even closely similar sports. The only exception to this rule is if your audience is too tiny following your selections or if your ad budget is too large.

Note 2: You may also use the search box to look up demographics, interests, or behaviors:

Exclude People: If you do not wish to target particular groups, you can utilize exclusion groups.

Example: You already have another ad set that targets that audience, or you have tested that audience before and found that it does not respond favorably to your offer.

Note: If you are unsure, leave the field empty.

Connections :  you can connect with users who have a particular relationship to your Page, App, or Event.

Note: If you are unsure, leave the field empty.

8. If it appears excellent to you, check out the “Audience Definition,” “Reach,” and “Estimated Daily Results” in the right sidebar. If not, you can keep changing things in “Detailed Targeting.”

9. When finished, select “Save This Audience”:

10. You will be able to view the summary of your Facebook page’s first “Saved Audience.” Give it a name that follows your naming convention:

   Note: You can use this method if you do not have a naming standard. [country] -[location] Language and type of traffic -[Age group] -[gender] [Type of audience] [Specifics of the audience]

1.     Type of traffic

              Cold: If the intention of this audience is to introduce you to folks who have never heard of you.

             Warm: If the intention of this audience is to connect with individuals who have heard of you before and may have taken some action as well. (For instance: provided their email address

             Hot: Leads that have previously expressed interest in working with you. (For instance: a buy)

 11. “Automatic Placements” should be chosen.

       Note: By selecting “Show More Options,” you can also modify Automatic Placements. You might want to do this as you begin to fine-tune your campaign and evaluate your results. To stop your advertising from showing in content that does not support your brand, you can set “Brand Safety Controls.” You can configure in-stream topic exclusion, block lists, content type exclusions, and inventory filters. To manage everything in the “Brand Safety” dashboard, either click “Brand Safety Controls” or the “Edit” pen symbol that is buried on each “control.”

 12. The green check in the lower left corner of your current dashboard signifies that all modifications will be automatically stored as drafts.

Creating your budget, schedule, and delivery goals

1. The “Campaign Budget Optimization” must be turned “ON” in order to activate “Budget and Schedule.” You must go to your “Campaigns” dashboard, scroll all the way down, and turn on the button next to “Campaign Budget Optimization” until it turns “blue” in order to accomplish that (it is OFF by default).

2. Create a budget and a schedule:

•             Budget:

1. If you want to run a campaign continuously, choose “Daily Budget.”
2. If you would prefer to restrict your campaign to a particular budget, choose “Lifetime Budget.”

                  Note: This is the amount you are willing to spend on this campaign if you only have one (which is the case if you follow this blog from beginning to end).

                  Important: Once your ads have started airing, you cannot edit this; you may always replicate your campaign, but you should try to avoid doing so.

                  Example: If your daily budget for this Facebook Lead Ads campaign is $20, it will read “Daily Budget: $20.”

•          Bid Approach:

                     Note: Depending on the strategy and size of your “Campaign Budget,” bid strategy alternatives will be displayed. Find out more about it by reading this.

1. When you want to receive the most deliveries and conversions for your money, you can choose “Lowest Cost.” This is the ideal choice for this blog because we want friends to recommend our old console or game in exchange for a $20 off coupon.
2. When we wish to concentrate on expensive items, we select “Highest Value.” When we wish to prioritize the sale of our vintage consoles, we can use this option in this situation.
3. Instead of letting Facebook make the first offer, click “Bid Cap” to establish the maximum bid for all auctions. Advertisers who can accurately determine the appropriate bid and have a solid understanding of anticipated conversion rates should use bid caps.

Ad Scheduling

          Note: In order to execute “Ad Scheduling,” you must have selected “Lifetime Budget” from the “Campaign Budget” selection.

              1.  Check the box next to “Run ads on a schedule.” After that, you must navigate to the “Ad Sets” dashboard to choose the time and day your ads should run.

              2. Find “Budget & Schedule” by scrolling down in the “Ad Sets” dashboard. You will notice a “End” date if you click the box next to “Run advertisements on a schedule” in the “Campaign” dashboard. You will only see a “Start Date” if you are on a Daily Budget campaign.

             3. Choose the start and end dates.

As an illustration, it makes no sense to continue your campaign until the end date if you are gathering leads for an event that will take place in a few days.

             4, Keep an eye out for Facebook’s suggested corrections in the right sidebar. For instance, you will need to increase your budget if you wish to extend your ad schedule until November 2021.

          5. You can: Set Ad Spend Limits under “Show More Options” (optional)

                   a. Select the time zone for either your Ad account or the Ad viewer (E.g.: If you are setting ads for a New York audience, you might want to schedule based on their time zone).

                  b. Select the time and day of the week that you want your advertisements to run (E.g.: If you do not want your ads to appear at 3 AM on a Sunday).

•       Optimization & Delivery:

The section labeled “Optimization & Delivery” can be discovered by scrolling to the bottom of the “Ad Set” dashboard. Choose how you want to maximize the delivery of your advertisement by clicking the Leads dropdown.

            Select Leads to get the most leads possible.

            Select Conversion Leads for leads of the highest caliber.

You must set up Facebook Conversion Events and install a Facebook Pixel (blog 005). (blog 098).

If you selected the Lowest Cost Bid Strategy, you cannot alter “Cost Control.”

3. Ensure that every modification is “Saved” (which Facebook does automatically):

Creating ads

1.       You can see that the “Campaigns” and “Ad Sets” tabs in the main dashboard of the Facebook Manager Campaign already have the item “1 Selected” in them. By selecting the “Ad” tab, we can now build the actual advertisement that the intended audience will see.

2. Under the “Ads for 1 Ad Set” tab, select “+ Create”:

3. Click “Continue” after renaming your advertisement in accordance with your naming convention (e.g., Retroaddicts-Lead Magnet-Friend Referral-Discount Coupon).

4. You can scroll down to discover that there are two forms you can select from even though the setting for this blog is the default ad format: Single Image/Video & Carousel:

5. Additionally, you may choose via Ad Creative where you want your Facebook advertising to appear:

                   Feeds and Videos in Stream (including Instagram)

                   Reels and Stories (including Instagram)

                   Instant Articles and Search Results

6. Since we previously configured our “Lead Ad Method” to be “Instant Forms,” which was the default setting, take note of the warning prompt to develop a form. Click “Create Form” after seeing the heading “Instant Form” by scrolling down.

7. Your Lead Form can now be designed. To begin, give your form a name that follows your naming convention:

8. Activate the “Settings” tab. Make sure to select the appropriate language from the dropdown menu for the audience you are aiming for. Change “Restricted” to “Open” (unless you only want to enable this form to users that have specifically been targeted by Facebook Ads.)

9. Return to the “Content” tab. Decide on the form type:

                 Choose this option if your sales process does not require a significant time commitment for each prospect in your pipeline.

                 More volume As a result, you will receive more leads, but they will be of worse quality.

                Higher intent – Choose this option if you need to devote time into your sales process (e.g.: your sales team will call each lead individually). Users who choose this option must take an additional step to review and approve their contribution.

10. You will now modify “Intro” after “Form Type.” The “Single Image or Video” ad format is the default, but you can change it on the Ads dashboard. Therefore, you must reset the Carousel format in the Ads dashboard if you wish to use it.

11. Choose the “Background Image” you want to use for this advertisement.

                 Note: As suggested by Facebook, select “Use the image from your ad” if you wish to use images that you have already used in your page (often your banner image). Select “Use uploaded image” if you want to upload a new image.

                 Note 2: Keep in mind that each Ad format has unique requirements, which you may see here. (For instance, among other requirements, Image Ads must have a size of 1200x628px.)

12. Create the wording for your ad copy.

       Note: You will have different fields available depending on the type of ad and targeting you choose, but you can always see a preview of your ad on the right side of the screen.

13. The next section under “Intro” is “Greeting,” where you can change your “Headline” and “Description” (optional but recommended)

It should be noted that you may always preview it in the right sidebar.

14. The dropdown menu after “Intro” is “Questions.” Choose the information that you want your leads to provide to you.

Remember: Users will be less likely to submit your form if you ask for extra information from them.

Once you have their contact information, you can always further segment your leads. You can do this by direct communication or by designing automated workflows that will build up the user profile as people take advantage of your offers and go down the funnel.

Ask yourself the following questions as you choose fields and include questions on your form:

1. Are we certain that this information will be used in our 30-day sales process?

Do not ask for it if you are unsure. Most likely, adding this data will only increase your cost per lead because it will never be used.

2. Could we obtain this information later in the sales process without having an impact on our sales outcomes?

If so, do not make the request right now.

3. Could this information be in violation of any Facebook Advertising policies (see here) or any data processing laws that I could be subject to (check the data processing laws in your jurisdiction)?

If the response is “yes” or you are unsure, leave off that field.

For instance, you could be tempted to ask consumers how long they have been playing golf if you are advertising a golf facility. You “may” utilize that in the future, so be aware of that. However, you do not absolutely need to know that when you are just beginning to know your lead. You can question your lead about that at a later time, either directly or through your marketing funnel.

Custom Questions: In this section, which is separate from the “User information” section, you can add any fields that are unique to your company or product.

   Note:You have a variety of choices when creating your “Custom Questions,” take note. You should try to standardize your responses as much as you can, as a general rule of thumb. Instead of selecting “Short Answer,” you can achieve it by selecting “Multiple Choice,” “Conditional,” and “Appointment Scheduling.”

For instance: If you want to ask your users how they would rate their golfing abilities, you might want to utilize a “Multiple Choice” field with the options “Never tried it,” “Amateur,” “Hobbyist,” and “Pro” rather than leaving the field blank. Not only will this make it simpler for your leads to fill out the form, but it will also make it simpler for you to evaluate the data and incorporate it into your automation workflows.

Prefill Issues: This is where user information is configured.

Description: your motivation for requesting their contact information.

User Information: Any field you choose in this part will already have the user’s personal profile information, increasing the likelihood that they will submit your form because they will not have to fill it out themselves.

 Important: Make sure the information (or something extremely similar) is not already accessible in the “User Information” section before clicking the “Add a Category” button. Do not create a special question for it if it already exists. This would be against the Advertising Policies, and could result in your account being permanently suspended.

For instance, the User Information section currently includes a box for “Marital Status.” You should not make a bespoke “Are you married?” inquiry.

15. Questions is followed by “Privacy Policy” Choose the information that you want your leads to provide to you.

Note: Ensure that your privacy policy is current, transparent, and defines all terms associated with data processing and usage.

Note 2: You should select “Add a custom disclaimer” if adding a link to your privacy policy is insufficient in your country. Keep in mind that your form will now include an additional step.

16. Set the message you want your user to view after submitting your form, as well as the URL you want the CTA (Call-to-action) to go to, in the last dropdown menu under “Create a Form” called “Completion.”

Note: You could wish to connect to your offer at this point if you are employing a lead magnet, which is an offer in return for the user’s contact information. You might want to let people know what to expect if your form is a contact form (when will you reach out to them, what are the next steps, how can they learn more about you meanwhile, etc.).

Note 2: It is advised that you utilize UTM tags on your URLs if you are referring to a page on your website and utilizing Google Analytics.

1. You can use blog009 – Adding Google Analytics to a Site (Utilizing GTM) if you are not yet using Google Analytics.
2. You can adhere to blog006 – Creating UTM URLs to Track Your Campaigns if you have not yet started utilizing UTM parameters;

17. Make sure everything appears good by utilizing the sidebar on the right to preview your advertisement:

18. To submit your form, click “Publish” (under the Ad preview) if everything appears to be in order.

Important: Once you click “Publish,” you will not be able to make changes to your form. But if you wish, you can always make a copy of it and make a new one.

Get your Facebook lead generating campaign going

1. You can see that ALL of the tabs for “Campaigns,” “Ad Sets,” and “Ads” have “1 Selected” items in them when you return to the main dashboard for the Facebook Manager Campaign. Select “Review & Publish” from the menu.

2. All of the modifications you have made will be available for review (Draft items). When everything is in order, click “Publish.”

3. I am done now! The evaluation of your campaign has begun.

           Notification: It can take up to 48 hours for your ads to begin distributing; once they do, you will notice a “Active” statement in their place:

Transferring your Facebook leads

 Note: Before beginning this chapter, make sure you have admin access to the business’ Facebook page; otherwise, you will not be able to retrieve your leads. You can also ask your administrator to enable the “Lead Access Manager” and grant you access through that panel. (Outside the purview of this blog, although further instructions can be found here.)

1. Open your Facebook Page on Facebook.

             For instance, visit https://www.facebook.com/your facebook page

2. Find “Publishing Tools” in the sidebar and click it.

3. On the sidebar, under “Lead Ad Forms,” click “Forms Library.”
4. Click “Download” after finding your form.

5. To obtain a list of your most recent leads, choose “Download New Leads,” or if you want to download all leads for a specific time period, choose “Download by Date Range.”

          Note: Users may only download leads for a maximum of 90 days after they have submitted them.

6. Choose the format that you want:

         Note: CSV is often the most versatile option if you intend to upload this information to another SAAS application. XLS may be more practical if you intend to utilize it just in “Excel” or similar software.

7. You have downloaded your leads successfully, and that is it. You can now add those leads to your list and use them in your email marketing processes if you use an email marketing service. You may also follow the next chapter of this blog below if you use MailChimp or your tool integrates with Zapier.

           Important: If you do not remember to do this at least every 90 days, some of your leads may disappear.

Sending your leads to Mailchimp using Zapier

Note: You must already have a Zapier account and be a premium plan subscriber in order to proceed with this chapter.

Note 2: You might not need to utilize Zapier since a direct integration might be available depending on which CRM / email marketing program you are using. The integrations that are offered can be seen here. Try getting in touch with your tool’s support directly if you can not find it here.

1. Log in to Zapier using this link.
2. On the top left sidebar, select “Make a Zap”:

3. Rename your Zap using your preferred naming style.

4. Click on the result that says “Facebook Lead Ads” (it should have a “Premium” tag on it).

5. Click “Save + Continue” after selecting “New Lead” as the trigger.

6. To sign in to Facebook Lead Ads, click the link.

7. Press the “Continue as” button.

8. Select “OK”

9. Select “Continue”:
10. The phrase “Set up Trigger” Choose the Facebook Page that your form is a part of. From the dropdown, choose your form. Select “Continue.”

11. When you select “Test Trigger,” Zapier will check the functionality of your Facebook lead ad form.

                 a. You might need to generate test data using Facebook if you can not see any. Click here to open the “Facebook Lead Ads Testing” tool in a new tab.

                 B. Reopen Zapier, then select “Load in Samples”:

                c. In the following screen, a Lead ought should show up. Select “Continue”

12. Search for “Mailchimp” in your Zap’s “Action” field.

      Note: You may also choose your tool here if you use another email marketing or CRM program. Other platforms can have slightly different following steps.

13. Continue after selecting “Add/Update Subscriber.”

14. By selecting “Sign in to Mailchimp” and entering your Mailchimp login information, you can connect your MailChimp account:

      Note: If you have numerous accounts, be sure to choose the one from which you want to send emails.

15. You may map each of the properties to a specific FB Lead Ads property by looking at the list of available properties on the MailChimp list you have chosen.

           For instance: “Subscriber Email” “Email”

16. When you have finished mapping all the fields, select “Test & Continue.”

17. A notification stating “Test was successful” will appear. Next, select “Turn on Zap.”

18. Open your MailChimp list in a new tab; you can access your lists by clicking here. You should be able to see a new lead there with the information you just set up in Zapier:

19. If everything appears to be in order, return to your Zapier tab and select “Turn on Zap.”

20. I am done now! You have effectively combined MailChimp with Facebook Lead Ads. Your MailChimp list will be notified each time a new lead submits your Lead Ads form.