To make it easier for Facebook users, primarily marketers, to capture email addresses without requiring them to leave Facebook and fill out a long form, Facebook has released a new internal lead capture feature called “Lead Ads.”
According to their blog, Lead ads make the mobile signup process easier by automatically populating contact information that people have given Facebook. Some of the information that Facebook can auto-populate are the following:
- Full Name
- Street Address
- Phone
- Zip
- City
- State
- Country
- Company Name
- Job Title
“We’re testing different versions of lead ads that would let people sign up for things like newsletters, price estimates, follow-up calls and business information,” Facebook By Business said.
The new feature uses a sign-up form within Facebook, so users no longer need to leave the app and like having to leave one app and start a form in another app, and having to enter all of their information from scratch.
Since this has triggered privacy issues from other members, Facebook assured that “advertisers may only use this information in accordance with their privacy policies, which we make available in the lead ad before people click submit. Advertisers are also restricted from re-selling lead information to third parties.”
Note: The current test of lead ads is limited to a small group of businesses around the world. We will update this page when it becomes available to Australian business pages.