Facebook has launched a new advertising platform which could be the next big thing in lead generation, an online marketer and mortgage broker has said.
Darren Moffatt, director of digital marketing company Webbuzz and founder of reverse mortgage brokerage Seniors First, told Australian Broker that Facebook’s new ‘Lead Ads’ is powerful lead generation tool for a number of reasons.
“Firstly, when you set up a Facebook Lead Ads campaign, when the ad appears in someone’s feed and they click on the call to action – such as ‘learn more’ or ‘sign up’ – the ad will automatically suck in the user’s account data from Facebook. Facebook will prefill the form with all your data and all the consumer has to do is click and it is done – all their details will be sent as a lead to the advertiser,” Moffatt explained.
“The other big difference with Lead Ads is the user never leaves Facebook. With a normal ad, the ad would appear and the user would click on it which would take them to a link outside of Facebook, to your brokerage’s website for instance. But with Lead Ads, that doesn’t happen. It keeps the user on Facebook the whole time which means the user is more likely to convert into a lead.”
Whilst many brokers have traditionally relied on word-of-mouth referrals as their main – or only – source of lead generation, Moffatt says brokers can’t risk not having an online strategy anymore.
“Whether it is social media channels or search engines like Google, [brokers] have got to be out there because their competitors are spending massive amounts of money on this. Banks are spending huge money on online marketing and larger broker groups and big franchise groups are also spending massive amounts of money. If you are a smaller or independent broker and you do not have an online presence and strategy, then a lot of that market share is going to bypass you,” he told Australian Broker.
“Social media is simply just where the people are. There is a massive, massive quantum of people with their eyes all sternly fixed on their smart phone or their laptop or their PC. The social channel is really growing fast and it is time for brokers to start exploring and building an online presence and online strategy and the Facebook Lead Ads is a great opportunity to use a new mechanism that people are not really using yet.”
According to Moffatt, the cost of running Lead Ad campaigns can vary depending on where you are located or who you are targeting, however, he says a broker should expect to allocate a minimum of $500 over three to four weeks to get a reasonable response.
