Facebook is a key driver in the acquisition of new supporters for many digital campaigns. Since the inception of digital lead acquisition, Facebook has been used to drive people to take all sorts of actions via external websites.

So, what is a Facebook lead card?

Traditionally, supporters who see an ad would be redirected to an external website where they complete some sort of action on a landing page that includes filling in some contact information. With the introduction of Facebook lead cards, the barrier to action that comes from having the user click-through on the ad to fill out their information on the landing page is removed.

Instead, once a supporter clicks on an ad, they’re met with a pop-up box. The box is what we call a lead card and it acts as the form found traditionally on an external landing page. This allows the supporter to complete an action without having to leave Facebook.

To make the process even simpler, the lead card is already pre-filled with the supporter’s information—pulled from their Facebook account.

OK, but what does the data say?

In terms of producing leads at a lower cost and seeing a higher conversion rate, we find lead cards tend to perform better than external landing pages.

As one example, we saw a 57% drop in cost per conversion and a 200% increase in page conversion rate when switching this organization’s campaign to lead cards from landing page actions.

With each of our digital partners, we do at least one week of testing to understand how lead cards measure up in terms of quality and quantity of leads with landing page actions. Often, we see a 50% reduction in costs for lead acquisition with lead cards.

Many of our partners find value in integrated campaigns—those that identify supporters through digital ads or face-to-face connections that are cultivated through email and transitioned into donors over the phone.

If a phone number is something your organization finds useful to collect—lead cards are especially good at obtaining callable leads. All fields in a Facebook lead card are required fields—meaning all of your supporters will be callable.

Sounds good, but what’s the downside?

Lead cards are great at producing a high number of leads but—the quality of acquired leads might be slightly lower than those that convert on an external landing page in terms of the accuracy of supporter’s information.

Luckily, Facebook gives you two ways to combat this. When setting up your lead card, you have two options:

• Attract a higher volume

• Attract higher intent

If the quality of leads is preferred over volume, then choosing a lead card optimized for higher intent which requires the user to confirm their information, would be the best choice. This helps ensure errors in supporter’s information are identified and corrected before submission.

To boost the organic supporter acquisition of your campaign, make sure the lead card is sharable. It’s a simple way for your organization to benefit from a sizeable amount of organic share conversions that won’t cost you any advertising dollars.

You got me, I’m in.

Facebook lead cards have a ton of benefits—but it’s always good to do testing if you can. Landing page actions have the benefit of providing more detailed information about your campaign’s issue. We always recommend building out a campaign plan that includes both lead cards and an external action page because every campaign and its supporters respond differently.