Facebook’s new lead ads allow marketers to target audiences of their choosing and increase subscribers through a more optimized experience on mobile within the social media platform. Land Rover adopted the platform early on as a method to create a more streamlined experience in targeting customers with less lag time on mobile devices, as many consumers are searching for its products while using smartphones, according to Facebook’s blog post regarding the new Lead Ads.

“Simply put, Facebook’s new lead ads are designed to increase leads for a business, meaning collect consumer contact information,” said Jason Warnock, vice president of intelligence products at Yesmail. “This will be greatly beneficial to email marketers as a way to increase the number of contacts on their subscriber lists.

“That is something we as email marketers are constantly trying to do, increase the number of people receiving our content,” he said. “Subscriber base growth is an important metric for measuring email marketing effectiveness.

“These new lead ads could be a great way to reach more people brands may not already have in their subscriber base. There has always been a connection between email and social media from a customer engagement perspective, and it is surprising how many marketers have struggled to leverage this connection.”

Lead ads innovation
The new mobile ad platform is a response to clunky signup platforms based on desktop Web, which can often deter customers in signing up for services, inquiries and subscriptions. Facebook’s lead ads solve these issues by offering a signup platform integrated within its mobile application for consumers to register for product queries, email newsletters and other various targeting methods.

The majority of Facebook users access the platform through mobile, and developed the ad platform to keep up its effectiveness of advertising. Land Rover’s campaign was an attempt to drive sales by offering a more capable platform to engage with vehicle quotes on mobile devices.

The automotive retailer was able to target users of its choice through Facebook’s back end operating system. Facebook mobile users who saw Land Rover advertisements were able to conveniently sign up for quotes, through the “Get Quote” button without having to leave the platform.

The lead ads are built for speed so users do not have to deal with lag time.

Shoe designer Stuart Weitzman also used the innovation to increase subscribers on email to drive sales. Users who subscribe to its email will receive product updates and offers.

Future in Facebook
Facebook also recently updated its Pages feature to aid businesses in bolstering their mobile presence and sales via more prominent call-to-action buttons, improved layout and new sections for showcasing relevant information to users (see more).

Footwear and accessories retailer Aldo also paired Facebook’s popular carousel ad format with shop now buttons to inspire fall shoppers while driving impulse purchases (see more).

“It is great to see Facebook making it easy for marketers to see that link, and hopefully we’ll see even more cross-channel work in the future,” Mr. Warnock said. “Email marketers should certainly use Facebook lead ads to increase the number of people on their subscriber lists.

“I will add one caveat to this, these ads will be useful as long as your customers are on both Facebook and email,” he said. “Brands know better than anyone which channels their customers are using and what kind of content they want to see.

“For example, Facebook lead ads would make a lot of sense for retailers with an active Facebook following and an established email marketing program.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily