Facebook has shared some new tips on how to maximize lead generation via Facebook posts and ads, in order to boost the performance of your Facebook marketing efforts.

Facebook's tips cover four key elements of effective lead generation, in order to help you formulate a better strategy for connecting with prospective customers at just the right time, and reaching more potential customers based on your lead gen capture.

The four points of focus for maximizing your social leads are:

Lead Capture

Facebook says that brands should ensure that their audience understands what it is they’re signing up for, and why they should, from the get-go. "What makes your business, products or services worthy of giving away a personal email address?" By being up-front, and clearly communicating your value proposition, you can help ensure the right people are providing their information for future outreach.

Lead Magnets

Facebook says that brands should adopt the “give before asking” mentality by offering their audience something in return for their information. "This can be something like a one-sheeter, eBook, discount code, free trial, newsletter or webinar". By providing value upfront, and communicating that value in your copy, you can help to establish trust and connection with your audience, which can lead to a better brand relationship. 

Landing Page

Your landing pages are key, and it's important to ensure that once you do get people to click-through on your post, that your landing page matches what you've explained - and that your landing page is also designed to collect relevant details. Facebook says that brands should test different landing pages on their website to see which have the highest click-through and conversion rates. Facebook also suggests that brands consider setting up a Website Custom Audience to then retarget those who've clicked through but aren’t yet ready to convert.

Lead Scoring

Facebook also suggests that brands create a lead scoring matrix in order to better customize their outreach efforts, and prioritize leads based on their engagement. "For example, downloading your white paper is worth more points than unsubscribing from your email list. Save time and effort by contacting the leads that are most likely to convert first." How you establish your lead scoring table will vary, dependent on your offer and goals, but the idea is that by segmenting each of your leads you can better focus your outreach strategy.

In addition to these key tips, Facebook has also provided a visual overview of what an ideal lead generation ad looks like.

Facebook's also provided this formula for lead gen ad copy, which could help to further guide your efforts:

These are some good, valuable tips, which will help refine your thinking about your lead generation approach, and how you can optimize your Facebook copy to align with your focus goals.

Effective lead generation is key to maximizing your Facebook marketing efforts, and utilizing Facebook's audience targeting tools to best effect. The more insight you can gather, the more you can hone in on just the right people with each campaign, either by focusing on these groups directly, or using them for Lookalike Audiences to expand your reach.

You can read Facebook's full list of lead generation tips here.