Facebook is an excellent platform for generating business, promoting brand awareness, sharing engaging content and linking to online stores. Traditionally, lead acquisition through Facebook was facilitated by clicking through to a landing page and filing out a capture form.

Filling out forms on a mobile can be a fiddly, so Facebook have created Facebook lead ads to make the process of communication and connection even easier for your customers when using a mobile device.

What Are Facebook Lead Ads?

Many companies are now using Facebook’s powerful lead ads technology to reach their target audiences. Visually appealing ads along with integrated forms which capture contact details are kick-starting the sales process. Lead ads use a pre-population function which uses Facebook contact information to generate the lead.

But what’s often missing is the link between the submitted forms and the company’s CRM system. Many sales teams are still entering details into the system manually, which is inefficient and prone to error.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If you use Dynamics 365 for CRM and want to integrate your Facebook leads, our development team has created the solution you need, using cutting edge Microsoft Azure technology.

Why Should I Use Facebook Lead Ads?

If you’re not already using Facebook lead ads, then you’re missing out on an untapped source of new business.

Facebook lead ads are designed for mobile devices. Simply tap the ad and a pre-populated form pops up, making them effortless to use for your business and your customers.

• • Customised layout options – from striking individual images, carousels showcasing your product range, to videos highlighting key product features, Facebook lead ads are designed to capture the attention of Facebook users as they scroll through their feed.
  • Multiple platforms – publish your lead ads to your Facebook and Instagram accounts, to access a wider audience.
  • Customise your questions – use your own questions to capture exactly the data you want; you aren’t limited to a list of pre-set questions provided by Facebook.

• Pre-populated details – forms are pre-populated with customers’ details which makes filling them in quick and simple, reducing the risk of forms being abandoned.
• Clear call to action – each lead ad is given a clear call-to-action, for example, driving users to submit a form containing their contact details.

Why Should I Integrate Facebook Lead Ads with my Dynamics 365 CRM System?

The question should really be, “why shouldn’t I integrate Facebook lead ads with my Dynamics 365 CRM system?”

The default approach when using Facebook lead ads is to periodically download a file containing a list of the captured leads. This isn’t ideal for the following two reasons:

Firstly, your sales team needs to add these leads manually to Dynamics 365 from your list. This is time consuming and prone to human error.

Secondly, and more importantly, you might not be able to respond to a lead for several days after the form has been submitted. By then, your lead may have taken their business elsewhere, or even forgotten that they submitted the form in the first place. It’s important to react quickly to new leads, and an integration allows you to do so.

Other advantages of integrating lead ads with your CRM:

• Remove manual data entry – sales teams don’t need to manually key-in details or import them from a list, which means less administration time, fewer errors such as duplication and typos, and more time spent following up and nurturing those leads.
• Get leads straightaway – leads typically land in Dynamics 365 from Facebook within a few seconds, which means you can respond quickly and secure the business.
• Custom field mapping – you define where the captured data is placed in your Dynamics 365 lead record. If you have custom fields within your lead form and in your Dynamics system, this can be handled and mapped through, giving you exactly the details you need.
• Custom workflows for responding to an enquiry – extend the integration by developing custom email workflows within your Dynamics 365 system, so leads are responded to quickly, giving a good first impression and increasing your chances of winning the business.

How does the D365 integration work?

Integrations work in a few different ways. Our approach is to use cutting edge Microsoft Azure cloud technology.

Whenever a lead form is filled out, the details are sent from Facebook to our Azure integration service which then handles the creation of the lead within your Dynamics 365 system.

From there, it’s over to you to quickly react to the lead and secure the business!

All that’s needed to get this up-and-running is some setup within the Facebook business platform, a deployment to your Dynamics 365 system, and some configuration within the Microsoft Azure environment.

The great news is that we can handle all of this for you, so get in touch to find out more!