Generate Quality Leads on Facebook™ for SMEs and Professionals

 Most of the Advertisers who generate leads for new/small business FAIL. 

In the next few pages, you will learn the most effective ways to get Quality Leads– fast and affordable- with the help of the Facebook Lead Generation Campaign. 

Lead Generation is a mid-funnel goal where you get contact details of people probably interested in your service or your product.

As a small business with a low promotional budget, any marketing activity's highest priority is to GROW SALES. You need to make money fast to run the business and sustain the competition.

You need to generate leads that convert into a sale and help to generate revenue. At this stage, you, mostly, don’t care about branding and data collection. 

Facebook Lead Generation Campaign

Setting up a campaign with Lead Generation objective on Facebook is very easy.

• Open your Ad manager and CREATE a new campaign.
• SELECT lead generation as the goal.
• Click continue to GO TO ad-set set up page.
• Select your page, ACCEPT Facebook’s Lead Ads terms.
• SET target audience – Location, Age, Gender, Detailed Targeting (Demographics, Interests, Behaviours).
• SELECT placements.
• SET budget and schedule and click continue.
• CREATE some ads – choose images/videos, write primary texts, a Headline, select a CTA.
• CREATE an INSTANT FORM, write a thank you message, and give your privacy policy link.
• PUBLISH the Form. 
• PUBLISH the campaign

Generating Leads is EASY.

(Generating leads that qualify on your quality parameters is challenging but DOABLE...)

Generating lots of leads and handing over them to the salesperson is “time-consuming and time-wasting” malpractice. All leads are not sales-ready. All leads are not-yet-sales-ready. All leads are not-at-all-sales-ready.

Let’s say you ran a Lead Generation campaign  for an International Honeymoon Package. 

You have added an image of a couple in front of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and written a short text and title about your travel agency.

You get 30 Leads (Name, Email, and Mobile Number) in 3 days for Rs. 500.

What now? 

You or your sales-person call them one-by-one. On average, it takes (4min x 30) 120 minutes to call them all.

• Only 2 of them will get married soon and plan to go on an International Honeymoon Trip. 
• 5 of the 30 told that they are married and looking for international family packages.
• 4 of the 30 asked for Domestic (Goa, J&K, and Rajasthan) packages. 
• 10 of the 30 don’t have passports or get married in the recent future and think of going on International Honeymoon when they get married.
• 7 of the 30 don’t need a tour package but a car or airplane tickets or hotel bookings.
• Worst that 6 of them don’t remember that they filled the form.

Only 2 are the leads that you have been looking for.

The next 11 are travel leads but not precisely what you have been looking for.

The rest are bogus leads. They are not leads at all.

What is your status now – Disappointed? Frustrated? Hopeless?

Will you say that Facebook Lead Generation Campaign is INEFFECTIVE?

Why Generating Quality Leads is so CHALLENGING!

It is challenging because YOU are not prepared. You have not planned the campaign.

For effectiveness. For quality. For sales.

For the Facebook Lead Ads, the saying – “LESS IS ALWAYS GOOD” is correct.

We need to generate a limited number of leads that are “sales-ready”. It also means to filter out not-yet-sales-ready and not-at-all-sales-ready leads.

Let’s now learn the tactics to plan and run a Lead Generation Campaign on Facebook.

EFFECTIVE WAY TO GENERATE QUALITY LEADS FOR A VERY TIGHT BUDGET

1. Create 3-4 SAVED AUDIENCES
2. Create a super-effective INSTANT FORM 
3. Create transparent no-fuss AD COPIES with high-quality images
4. Decide the SMALLEST BUDGET which can generate at least 3-4 leads daily 

First, here is a campaign we ran on the same method. 

Then we will explain the four simplistic secrets in detail. 

The client was a working Interior Decoration professional and wanted to start a business of his own. He told us that he wanted to get 3-4 genuine leads weekly, and he had only Rs. 4,500 for this purpose.

We planned a test campaign with the same method, and the result is as below:

We generated 25 leads at the cost of Rs. 83.02 CPL. According to the client, 20 of them were what he was looking for. 

NOW LET’S DIVE IN THE DETAILS

TARGET AUDIENCE ((Accuracy in your target audience depends on how well you know your buyers)

You have a limited initial advertising budget. It is better to start with exact target audience with proper research or a customer persona.

It is better to take time and think about who can be interested in your product or services.

You can take the help of AUDIENCE INSIGHTS to find a relevant audience.

You can make a list of people with some characteristics:

1. Who are they – age, gender, location, marital status, parenting status, etc.?

2. What they do – study, job, business, etc.?

3. What do they like or are interested in – personality, events, brands, etc.?

Below we have given some TARGETING IDEAS for different businesses:

1. WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Audience 1 - (Business Owners) Own business, Owner and Founder 

Audience 2 - (Professional Institute) – ICSI, ICAI, NIFT…

Audience 3 - (Job Titles) – Doctors, Consultant, Fashion Designers, Day Traders

2. LEAD GENERATION SERVICES

Audience 1- Small Business Owners + Job title

Audience 2- Small Business Owners + Professional Studies or Universities

Audience 3- Small Business Owners + Job titles

3. GST REGISTRATION AND COMPLIANCES

Audience 1 - Home Business or Online Home Business + Small Business Owners

Audience 2 – Business Page Admins + Small Business owners

Audience 3 – e-commerce or Shopify + Small Business Owners

4. PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Audience 1 - (35+ years) + Job in Big companies (Infosys, Mahindra, and MNCs)

Audience 2 - Job Titles – Directors, MD, Senior Managers, etc. 

Audience 3 – People in India who prefer high-value goods or mid- and high-value goods

5. INTERIOR DESIGNING SERVICES

Audience 1 - Home Décor Products, IKEA Catalogue, HomeShop18, IKEA or Urban Ladder

Audience 2 - New parents (0-12 months), Parents with toddlers (aged 1-2), or Parents with pre-schoolers (3-5 years)

Audience 3 - Business Owner, Owner and Founder, Founder and Managing Director or Founder

6. MARRIAGE BUREAU

Audience 1 – Parents with adult children (18-26 years)

Audience 2 – Jeevansathi, Shaadi.com

Audience 3 – Online Dating Service 

7. SUMMER VACATION TOUR PACKAGES

Audience 1 - Parents with pre-schoolers (03-05 years), early school-age children (06-08 years), or preteens (09-12)

Audience 2 - Parents with teenagers (13-17 years), Parents with adult children (18-26 years)

8. HONEYMOON TRAVEL PACKAGES

Audience 1 - Newly-engaged (6 months), Newly-engaged (1 year), Newly-engaged (3 months)

Audience 2 - Wedding videography, Wedding photography, Wedding planner

Audience 3 – Engaged + Wedding Ring or Engagement Ring

9. KIDS DANCE SCHOOLS 

Audience 1 - Parents with early school-age children (06-08 years), preteens (09-12 years) or teenagers (13-17 years) + Dance India Dance

Audience 2 - Parents with early school-age children (06-08 years), preteens (09-12 years) or teenagers (13-17 years) + Contemporary Dance, Jazz Dance, Modern Dance, Tap Dance 

 

10. NURSERY SCHOOL ADMISSION 

Audience 1 – Parents with pre-schoolers (3-5) [in local 5 KM]

Audience 2 – Firstcry.com [in local 5 KM]

11. MODEL TRAINING OR COMPETITION

Audience 1 – Fashion show, Modelling or Beauty Pageant

Audience 2 – Bodybuilding or bodybuilding & fitness

Audience 3 – Indian Miss Universe or Miss World + Acting or Modelling

12. EVENTS SPONSORSHIP

Audience 1 - Chief marketing officer, Vice President of Marketing, Director of Sales and Market Development, Head of Marketing or Director of Marketing and Public Relations

Audience 2 - business owner, Small business owners, Business Owner or Owner and Founder

Audience 3 – business owner + Dekho Delhi or Dilli Se or Select Citywalk 

OPTIMUM BUDGET (Get Sufficient Leads For a Tight Budget)

There may be OBVIOUS 2 REASONS for the budget being very small:

1. You are a small business and don’t have a large promotional budget.

2. You are a small business and don’t have a large team to handle many leads.

The smallest daily budget you can set on Facebook for advertisement is USD 1 which equals less than Rs. 80 per day. 

But that seldom works for Lead Generation Ads. I prefer to SET THE BUDGET where I get at least 2-3 leads daily.

It will depend on many factors-

• What age or gender you have selected

• What target location you have set, and 

• What interests or Demographic or Life Events you have targeted. 

Set the target audience in the ad-set and put Rs. 80 in daily budget. It shows that the ad will reach to at least 399 people but get 0 lead.

Increase the budget to Rs. 150 and the estimate shows that the ad will reach to minimum 748 people but get 0 lead.

Now increase the budget to Rs. 200. The estimate shows that the ad will reach to 998 people and get at least 3 leads. It is the budget you must set to run the Lead Generation Campaign.

You know we always prefer to set +Rs. 100 budget so that Facebook, too, get sufficient data to optimize the performance.

Here is another ad set which performed very well on the same strategy. I just added Rs. 100 extra.

AD COPY AND CREATIVE (Select an image that is eye-catching, interesting and relevant)

Your work is to generate the cheapest (being honest) and the best quality leads as a small business advertiser.

The best way to be SUCCESSFUL is to create ABOVE AVERAGE ADS every time on Facebook Ad’s parameters:  

• Quality Ranking

• Engagement Rate Ranking 

• Conversion Rate Ranking

These 3 are Facebook’s parameters regarding the quality of your ads in relations to other advertisers which are targeting same or similar audience.

The ad with the best ranking on all the 3 scores win the auction.

These are important because these cumulatively determine both your cost per click on Facebook and how frequently Facebook shows your ad.

Quality Ranking: How your ad's perceived quality compared to ads competing for the same audience. 

We measure ad quality through various signals, including feedback from people viewing or hiding the ad and assessments of low-quality attributes in the ad, such as too much text in the ad's image, withholding information, sensationalised language and engagement bait.

Engagement Rate Ranking: How your ad's expected engagement rate compared to ads competing for the same audience. 

The expected engagement rate calculates the likelihood that a person will click, react to, comment on, share or expand an ad.

Conversion Rate Ranking: How your ad's expected conversion rate compared to ads with the same optimisation goal competing for the same audience.

The expected conversion rate calculates the likelihood that a person who viewed your ad will complete your optimisation goal. 

As a small business advertiser, we know, you don’t have access to the best copy-writers and the best images/ videos. 

PRO-TIP: Use images in small budget lead generation ads. Videos may get attention of many irrelevant people. 

You can do the work yourself. 

Go to the free image websites like pexels.com, pixabay.com, unsplash.com and search for high quality images related to your offering. 

The images in the ads catch the attention and make them stop and read; so it should be high quality, clear and colourful or contrasting. 

Crop them as per the Facebook Ads image size guidelines. The square images (1048 x 1048) are suitable for all placements.

Go to canva.com and add some 3-4 words about your service or product or USP.  According to Facebook, images with less text work better.

PRO-TIP: Go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/library and search for your competitors’ business names and check their ad images and copy for inspiration.   

The text part convince the viewer to click (read more, like, share, comment, fill the form etc.) the ad and take the action. It should be written very thoughtfully. 

There is no thumb rule for ad copy. 

Think as a salesperson and decide what you are going to say to the prospect-

 What is you selling – product or service?

 How will it make the buyers’ life easy?

 What problem are you going to solve?

 You can write a review in the name of your (fictional) customer highlighting the experience, cost effectiveness or customer care service.

 You can also write a BIG convincing story if you can think of something.

It all depends on your choice but don’t go bragging and boasting unnecessarily about your product or service. 

Just remember that the ad copy MUST give priority to the customers; so make it relevant to your TARGET AUDIENCE.

Do talk about tour product or service but relate it to the audience’s need, want, and life.

There are some very specific guidelines (ad policies) of Facebook that you MUST keep in mind. Click here to read and remember them. 

INSTANT LEAD FORM (Let’s make a super effective lead form for genuine leads)

Instant Form is used in a Facebook Advertisement Campaign with the goal as Lead Generation that you obviously know. You can set 2 types of fields- Prefilled fields and Custom Fields.

By default, 2 prefilled fields Full Name and Email are added in the form. You can add more prefilled fields. We suggest to always add the Mobile Number in prefilled fields section which is the most preferred and easy way to contact.

Pro-tip: You have to add a notice in the prefilled fields section. You should add a request “Please check MOBILE NUMBER and EMAIL ID before submitting the form” along with the data use notice here. This will decrease the possibility or wrong number or invalid email id.

To filter out irrelevant leads, the important part is to add custom questions in your instant form. It is easy to submit and forget a form which is prefilled. Remove such leads by adding 1 or 2 custom question(s) which can be one of these types –

1. Multiple choice

2. Short answer

3. Conditional

4. Appointment request

We as a best practice ask at least ONE SHORT ANSWER type relevant question which the form submitter has to type. Below we are giving some sample questions when creating a new lead gen form:

A. CAMPAIGN FOR TRAVEL AGENCY

• What budget are you comfortable with?

• Is there any senior citizen or kid below 5 years travelling with you?

• Have you already traveled to international destination? Please name one.

B. CAMPAIGN FOR GST NUMBER REGISTRATION

• Are you a company or an individual?

• What services or products do you deal in?

• Do you have all the necessary documents ready?

C. CAMPAIGN FOR A KIDS DANCE SCHOOL

• What is your kid’s name?

• What specific type of dance is the kid interested in?

D. CAMPAIGN FOR A FASHION SHOW

• Which international Fashion Designer or Brand you like most?

• What colour will you wear for a formal meeting?

E. CAMPAIGN FOR A NURSERY SCHOOL ADMISSION

• What is the name of the kid?

• Are both the parents working?

• What is the best time to call you?

F. CAMPAIGN FOR HOME INTERIOR DECORATION

• What is approx. total area?

• On which floor is the property?

• Do you have any specific design in your mind?

When you ask such questions, 

1. You look more professional.

2. The lead remembers filling the form.

3. You get more accurate details before contacting 

RUN YOUR CAMPAIGN FOR SUCCESS

Now you are ready with the arms and ammunition for the success-

1. The audience

2. The budget

3. The ad copy and

4. The instant lead form 

• Go to the Ad manager and click CREATE

• Select campaign type and hit continue

• Put the audience 1 with Age, Gender and location

• Put the budget and CONTINUE

• Create your first ad and the lead form here

• PUBLISH the campaign

• Duplicate the ad 2 times in the same ad set and change the images. 

Now you have 3 ads waiting for the approval. It may take hours, don’t be impatient.

OPTIMIZATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

• Create a Default report for your campaign with Leads, Cost Per Click, Clicks, Impressions, CPM 
• After the campaign and the ads are active, check them for impressions, clicks and leads.
• 12 hours after approval, check the ads for leads. If it has got leads, download them and start working. Call them, WhatsApp them. 
• If after 24 hours and some 500+ impressions you don’t get any lead, DUPLICATE the ad set and PAUSE the original. (If it hasn’t received the leads but has lots of engagement, let it run for another 24 hours.)
• In the duplicated ad set, change the audience to Audience 2 and run it again for 24 hours. 

MOST IMPORTANT POINTS TO UNDERSTAND

a. You don’t generate LEADS to make databank. You generate leads to convert. Start connecting with your leads in minimum possible time.

b. Do everything to make the first sale FAST. First sale is always very exciting and motivating. 

c. Note the process that helped you to make the first sale

d. Note what questions you could not reply

e. Try to collect personal information indirectly

f. Make buyer personas of your leads

g. Just after publishing your first campaign, make 3 custom audiences in the AUDIENCE-

i. People who interacted with your ads/post

ii. People who clicked and submitted the instant form

iii. People who clicked and not submitted the form

h.  Your success depends on testing and analyzing regularly.