Winning at Lead Generation is all about optimization – here’s a sniff of the secret sauce

By Garrett Barnes, Sr. Analyst, Mediavision2020

Generating leads can be a challenge for any client, especially those in a niche market. And, coming up with a working strategy can take time. In 2021, ad impressions on Facebook increased by 34% (Siu, 2021). With this increase of activity in the Facebook Ads space, the opportunity to reach your next business lead becomes greater. Here are some best practices for generating quality leads that you can follow up on.

Location, location, location:

• Targeting an audience at the right time and place is critical. Doing this correctly will increase the probability that the individual will convert and, if applicable, leave their contact info to opt-in to further communication with the client.
• Having a list of company addresses could be very beneficial to the success of the campaign. If your client is trying to reach decision makers within a business, targeting their building address would be a great way to do this.

Use your 1st party data:

• If you have a list of names, numbers, and emails, you have a perfect place to start targeting. Uploading a customer list with this information allows Facebook to match the criteria to Facebook profiles. This allows a direct link to advertise to your customers’ social feeds, and therefore, an opportunity to relay the right message to users who are already in your market.

Add interest layers on top of your audience:

• While targeting locations can be an effective audience by itself, it’s always useful to refine that same audience and target users who meet a specific interest category.
• Using this behavioral element on the platform will increase the likelihood that you are reaching an audience that will generate higher levels of engagement, and in turn, establish a higher rate of conversion.

Use a retargeting element in the campaign:

• Setting up Pixel Events in Facebook is a strong method in audience building as well. In fact, the audience builds itself. Users who have previously visited your site can now be targeted separately. Your brand’s message can now be customized to users who have shopped with you before, or those users most likely to engage once they see your ad.

Collect critical information on the lead form:

• Instead of just having a basic form where users can leave their name, email and phone number, utilize different categories to collect information that will work as a qualifying element in your form.
• One example that we’ve seen – A client trying to reach decision makers in a business were unable to follow up on all leads that were generated from the campaign. In a proactive manner, our team included space on the form to collect company information such as the business name and a company email. This ended up working very well with our client, as they could directly contact these users and reach further into the hierarchy of the company.
• On the other hand, users who did not include appropriate information in these columns could be ruled out (after further research) and not be a waste of time and resources.

Try out different creative messaging:

• Messaging is the most important part of any campaign. If your brand’s message doesn’t stick out to the customer, they will most likely continue scrolling past your ad and not think twice about it. Find the right message, however, and your ads become more prominent, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
• A/B testing creative (imagery, font, etc.), and the messaging associated with it, is a good opportunity to find where you are getting the most engagement. Maybe you are unsure of what your audience wants to hear, or what will have the biggest impact in the market – A/B testing will provide you with the data to indicate what is actually resonating with your audience.

Sources
Siu, Eric. “5 Facebook Ads Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2021.” Single Grain, Single Grain, 28 Sept. 2021, https://www.singlegrain.com/facebook/facebook-ads-trends-2021/.