Facebook new lead-generation ads to help businesses

Facebook has added new features to its lead-generation-based mobile ads to help businesses offer more information to people before they sign up. Titled a "context card", advertisers are able to activate a tile to pop up after someone clicks on a lead. In addition to this, the new carousel format enables businesses to show three to five images to people before they click through to a lead form. 

After a few months on the market, Facebook is adding several features to its lead-generation-based mobile ads.

With an optional “context card,” participating advertisers can trigger a tile to pop up after someone clicks on a lead, but before they get to an actual form.

With the new feature, Facebook is “giving businesses a place to offer more details on the information people are signing up for,” a company spokesman said on Tuesday. The new carousel format lets businesses showcase three to five images and headlines before people click through to a lead form.

The leads ads are also now available on desktop, while Facebook promises to help advertisers track the relative success of various channels.

From newsletters to price quotes, lead ads are designed to streamline the process of signing up to receive information from advertisers. When users click on the ads, for instance, a form opens with their contact information already inserted -- as long as they gave Facebook that info beforehand.

advertisement advertisement

Before their official debut in October, Facebook tested the ads with a number of brands, including Land Rover, shoemaker Stuart Weitzman, and Latin American real estate marketplace Properati.

Additional advertisers using the ad format include Mazda, fitness firm Peloton and TheSkimm, an email newsletter popular among millennials.

Facebook has been developing many ad products of late. Late in 2015, the social giant unveiled several new mobile-focused ad products to attract a greater share of TV monies.

Most notably, Facebook introduced a way for advertisers to plan, buy and measure its video ads using total rating points (TRP) -- a metric that should be very familiar to any TV buyers.

In a nod to personal privacy, the ads invite users to edit their contact information before sending it off to businesses. In fact, users have to click “submit” before their information is released.