Over the past couple years we have managed millions of dollars in paid social acquisition spend for startups big and small. Our traditional go-to method was to set up landing pages and point as much targeted traffic to them as we could. However, lately we have been skipping the landing page altogether in favor of lead ads on social platforms.
Lead ads are available on most major social platforms — Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat — and they work by surfacing a pre-populated form directly within the platform, using information the user has already shared (name, email, phone, company). The result is a frictionless experience that converts at a higher rate than sending users off-platform to a landing page.
When to use lead ads
Lead ads work best when your goal is volume: collecting contacts at scale for a sales team to follow up with, or filling the top of a high-velocity acquisition funnel. They're less ideal when the decision requires education — when a user needs to read a case study, see a demo, or compare pricing before they convert.
Three things to get right
1. Convey everything in the creative
Since you're not sending traffic to a landing page or website, you only get one shot to educate the user on your product or offer. Take extra care to ensure your ad creative clearly explains who you are and what you're asking them to do. Vague creative leads to unqualified leads.
2. Add custom fields
We recommend adding one or two custom questions that require the user to actually type something in. Pre-populated fields are easy to submit by accident — a custom text field forces a moment of intent. It also gives you useful data and helps filter out contacts who aren't genuinely interested.
3. Optimize your thank-you message
After a user submits, you have the option to redirect them to a new page or show an in-platform thank-you message. Don't waste this moment. Redirect them to your website, add a follow-on CTA, or invite them to schedule a call. You've just earned their attention — use it.
Lead ads aren't right for every campaign, but for high-volume acquisition they consistently outperform the landing page approach. If you haven't tested them yet, start with a small budget against your existing landing page campaign and let the data guide you.