If you run a service-based business (such as financial advisory, real estate, etc) and are dependent on lead generation to get new business, you will see promises like this from lead generation companies from time to time.

Is it really that effective?

We have run many lead generation campaigns like this before, depending on the sectors, it can really be as cheap as $10-$60 per lead (with pre-qualified questions, name, contact, email, DOB).

But the problem?

Not-so-qualified leads.

Depending on how you run your campaign, expect 10-20% leads like this

And another 30% probably don’t remember what they have submitted.

You must be wondering why?

It has to do with how easy Facebook makes it for people to submit their details using a Facebook lead form (all it takes is just a few clicks)

Because it’s so frictionless, the lead generation industry is filled with a considerable amount of bad actors.

Some lead gen companies I heard are spending 5 to 6 figures a month to acquire leads and are reselling/recycling them for a profit – it’s a numbers game with too many indistinguishable offers.

The result? A fatigued audience.

So does it still make sense to do lead generation in 2022? Here are a couple of things you can do to improve your bottom line.

What is an offer? It’s essentially 2 things:

a. What your prospects want when they see your ad

b. What do they have to do to get it

A bland offer will look something like the below: it’s unclear what the prospects can get, and what they need to do.

Yes, it can probably generate a high clickthrough rate, but the end effect is that you may get clueless leads.

We once ran an ad with a stellar 6-7% clickthrough rate over a few months (the industry benchmark is 1-2%) but the lead quality is not as good as an ad with a clearer offer (with a 2% clickthrough rate).

When we engage with new businesses, usually less than 1% have the right offer ready. Instead, they have an undesirable offer that probably says “talk to us to obtain some potential benefits”.

When we first started our lead gen journey a year ago, we tried to run campaigns without spending time to create the right offer.

However, after some painful lessons, we learned that the most advanced funnels, heat mapping software, and Facebook media-buy experts can’t save an undesirable offer.

A desirable offer can succeed despite an ugly creative and weak copy – simply because it speaks to the prospects’ pressing needs and removes objections.

In the case of real estate, most property investors want handsome returns, and it’s not easy to time a great exit. In this case, it’s not hard to see why an offer like this rakes in a million-dollar commission last year.

“Free multi-exit strategy roadmap for a 6-figure property capital gain”

On the other hand, if your agency doesn’t spend time understanding your prospects to craft your offer, perhaps you should reconsider working with them.

Offer-crafting will not be easy, and both businesses and agencies need to work hand-in-hand to create a desirable offer. I.e. agencies can’t magic out an investment plan or a free roadmap if you don’t have one.

Most businesses we work with don’t tailor their sales call script to the ad we run. As such, the onboarding experience can be incongruent.

Imagine trying to subscribe to be on the waitlist for a Burberry bag only to be told to listen to a sales pitch of a random XXX brand bag. I would definitely say “I am no longer interested.”

Besides that, having a good thank you page with a video (with you speaking to the audience) helps to set the right expectation. And most importantly, for service providers, the video would showcase your demeanor as a person.

So when you call your prospects, they would know who you are, understand what your business does and know what are the right questions to ask.

Lastly, don’t forget to have a follow-up system such as SMS or email sequence. This will increase the likelihood of prospects remembering you.

Having a proper follow-up process can make a difference from 10% vs a 50% appointment set-up rate.

Nowadays, if you are only spending a few thousand dollars a month, a broad audience or single interest targeting on Facebook works better most of the time. But that doesn’t mean you should leave it all to Facebook’s machine learning to do their job.

Facebook’s job is to get the most clicks and leads (they don’t care about the quality) so if you want to take back control of this, try to work on an exclusion list – it will help to sort out undesirable submissions that can waste your ad spending.

Here are some ideas we are constantly building:

Lastly, it’s easy to use Facebook lead generation as a quick fix, but if you can build your own landing pages and funnel, the quality will be much higher – the appointment fix rate can be as high as 60-80% (compared to FB lead form of 20-40%).

And the prospects would be able to better understand what you do. There would be fewer objections like “I never sign up, don’t call me!”

However, doing this can be 2-3 times as expensive.

And creating a highly converting landing page is not easy. Be prepared to run countless A/B tests to determine the best titles, hero images, call-to-action buttons, sign-up processes, and more.

But that’s another topic for another day.

What is your lead quality improvement plan? I am constantly looking out for new ideas to try. Keen to learn from the pros!

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