The new Google Ads extension for lead forms is a useful addition for companies. What are the options for lead generation? And how should we use them?
In this article, I try to describe how lead forms work on Facebook, Linked In, and Google.
There are advantages and disadvantages per channel, and we will discuss a few tips. Let’s start with the basics of lead forms.
Is it important for your company to generate as many leads as possible?
With lead forms, you involve potential customers in the company, for example by offering them a free whitepaper or demo after filling in contact details.
This is particularly interesting for companies that do not sell tangible products and try to get in personal contact with the person. For example through the phone.
Lead forms are applicable in three phases of the marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, and action.
Before we get started, make sure you learn about how to create a Google Ads strategy.
Lead forms on social media
Facebook and LinkedIn offer to collect leads through paid advertisements. You do this via – you guessed it – lead forms.
Users click on a button in the ad, for example ‘sign up now’ or ‘download for free. Data must be entered that is requested by the advertiser (this is you).
As soon as the user clicks on send, you will receive their contact details and you will have a lead.
Both social media channels have advantages and disadvantages. The difference is mainly in the target groups.
Facebook allows the advertiser to choose from a wide variety of targeting options, based on interests and behavior, for example.
LinkedIn also has those options, but mainly focuses on the business information that the user has entered on his personal page.
Think of data such as job title, industry, company name, and company size. LinkedIn is therefore often a more suitable platform for bringing in B2B leads and promoting events.
Facebook is more suitable for target groups that fall outside of this. That doesn’t mean LinkedIn is always more suitable for B2B companies. After all, your target group can easily be found on Facebook well.
“Costs per click are usually cheaper on Facebook than on LinkedIn”
Both Facebook and LinkedIn automatically complete user data, so you only have to click twice to send a lead form. This allows you to potentially generate many leads.
Lead form extensions in Google Ads
Recently, Google Ads also offers the possibility to add lead forms as extensions to a campaign or ad group.
This feature is in beta at the time of writing and is not yet available on all accounts.
The lead form extension in Google Ads consists of three parts: a call-to-action, a page with contact details to fill in, and a thank-you page.
You can decide for yourself which information the user must enter.
You can also design the form to your liking by adding a background image and descriptions.
Three tips for lead forms
You now know where to use lead forms, but what should they look like?
Three best practices:
1. Keep it simple. Only ask for information that is really relevant. Lead forms with two or three fields are most often filled.
“Only ask for information that is really relevant”
2. Clarify what happens after each click. What added value does it offer for a user when he clicks the ‘sign up’ button? What does the person get in exchange for their contact details?
And what happens once this data has actually been sent? Make this clear. Use the thank you page to tell when leads hear from your company.
3. Always emphasize what value the form offers. Free registration without any obligation is very inviting.
If you offer free content downloads, use the call-to-action ‘download now’ on the thank you page with a direct link to the content.
Linking new leads with a CRM
You can manually download lists of leads from social media and Google as separate CSV files.
However, this is not very productive and takes a lot of time. It is more convenient to make a link between the lead campaigns and your CRM platform.
This way you receive and view all new leads in one place. First, check whether the platform where you advertise supports the CRM.
Google and Facebook support the best-known CRM systems. LinkedIn supports the following integrations: Linkedin.com/help
You can experiment with yourself using the tips in this article. Do you already use lead forms, or do you plan to do so? And how are you going to apply them? Let us know.
