Over the years, LinkedIn has skyrocketed in popularity. Companies and business professionals use the platform to build connections, post jobs, share insights and showcase expertise, making it a valuable tool for driving professional and business growth. LinkedIn has become so widespread that the platform has garnered a reputation as the go-to platform for generating B2B leads.
While there is more than one way to generate leads on the platform, this post will focus on LinkedIn lead gen forms. We will take a look at what they are, how they work, some useful best practices for effective lead generation and everything you need to know to get them set up. Let’s get started.
What Are LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms And How Do They Work?
As the name suggests, it is a lead generation form you can attach to other LinkedIn ad types to help you collect leads. They allow the marketer to directly capture the prospect’s information without them needing to leave the platform. This is one of the main factors that make LinkedIn lead gen forms so effective.
The thing is that when following the usual route of capturing leads through a landing page, many possible components can cause friction. For instance, due to poor landing page optimisation, a prospect will often leave if the website takes too long to load or if the form is too tedious to complete. Each extra click and second of delay can increase the chance of drop-offs which can directly impact conversions.
LinkedIn lead gen forms completely remove this from the equation as the prospect directly fills in the form on the platform itself. In addition, LinkedIn also allows for auto-filling some of the fields based on user profile data, which further reduces potential friction. Thanks to this added simplicity, submission rates are often much higher.
One thing to note is that while LinkedIn lead gen forms are considered their own ad type, they work more like an add-on of sorts. The way it works is that you can attach them to certain ad types such as message and sponsored content ads. Overall, a LinkedIn lead gen ad serves as a way to attract high-quality leads in a frictionless manner, without it affecting the user’s experience.
Advantages of LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
LinkedIn lead gen forms are an effective way of generating B2B leads. Here’s a quick look at the benefits they provide:
Simplified Lead Capture: LinkedIn lead gen forms allow users to fill in the form directly on the platform without needing to go to an external website. In addition, LinkedIn also auto-populates some of the form fields based on the user’s profile information. Due to this frictionless way of capturing potential clients’ information, it significantly increases submission rates.
High Conversion Rates: Compared to landing pages, these lead gen forms have a much higher conversion rate. According to LinkedIn, the average conversion rate for landing pages is 4.02%, whereas the average conversion rate for lead gen forms is more than triple this — 13%.
Quality Targeting: LinkedIn is well known for its advanced targeting, including criteria such as industry, job title, company size and more. Due to this, the leads collected usually tend to be of a higher quality.
Seamless User Experience: Thanks to the users being able to fill in the form on the platform itself, it creates a more seamless experience.
Flexibility Across Ad Types: Various ad types support LinkedIn lead gen forms such as sponsored content and conversation ads. This allows marketers to essentially upgrade the capabilities of what these ad types could initially accomplish.
How To Set Up LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
Here’s a quick step-by-step walkthrough on how to set up LinkedIn lead gen forms. Quick note, if you prefer to rather watch a video where I discuss the entire lead generation process, you can watch it here.
Step 1: Create The Lead Gen Form
Setting up these LinkedIn lead gen ads is pretty straightforward. First up, from the Linkedin campaign manager, you will need to go to “Assets” and then navigate over to the lead gen form section. Next, you can click “Create Form” to get the process started.
Step 2: Select Your Form Details
Here you can go through each field and fill in all the information. This will include the form name, headline offer, offer details and the privacy policy URL, as well as the privacy policy text. Both the offer details and privacy policy text fields are optional.
It’s also worth mentioning that you will need to have a website and a privacy policy page to use a LinkedIn lead gen form ad.
Step 3: Fill Out The Lead Details And Custom Questions Section
At this step, you get to choose the fields that will be in the lead gen form. There are a few fields that you can choose from such as name, last name, email address, phone number, etc.
One field that I recommend using is the LinkedIn profile URL. This allows you to easily see the prospect’s profile and learn more about them, providing you with helpful context for personalised follow-ups.
Lastly, you can also add custom questions that are specific to your business. While this does create some friction that can cause the potential prospect to leave, it does increase the overall quality of the leads you will collect.
Step 4: Create The Confirmation Message
After you have filled out all the other sections, all that is left is to add the confirmation message, the URL of your landing page and the CTA button. Once that is completed, you have successfully set up a lead generation campaign.
Best Practices For Maximizing Lead Capture
Now that you know how to create a lead gen form, let’s take a quick look at some best practices to enhance your lead capture:
Keep the form short and relevant: While you have the option to request a magnitude of information from your prospect, this is generally not a good idea as this will drastically affect your submission rates. Essentially, you only want to request the most important information you require. Keep in mind, that you will want to add some additional fields as this will improve the quality of the leads you capture — just don’t overdo it.
Offer a strong incentive: If you are using the lead gen form for some type of sign-up such as an email newsletter, offer them a strong incentive that they don’t want to miss out on. This could include an ebook or a how-to guide your prospects will find valuable and useful.
Utilise powerful headlines and descriptions: The headlines and descriptions you use can play a major role in your overall submission rate. Use headlines and descriptions that clearly highlight the value of your advert. Again, just don’t overdo it as too much text can actually talk the person out of filling in the form.
Test and improve: Regularly review your form’s performance and experiment with different fields, CTAs or incentives to see what works best. Small tweaks can make a big difference in boosting both submission rates and lead quality.
Capture More B2B Leads With LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
To sum up, LinkedIn lead gen forms are an effective way to generate B2B leads without prospects ever needing to leave the platform. Thanks to the simplicity involved with a LinkedIn lead gen campaign, it minimises friction and creates a seamless experience to capture client information.
Throw a few best practices into the mix and you have a powerful tool for capturing leads and growing your business. Ready to see real results with LinkedIn ads? Fill in the form below and let’s get started!