Driftrock Launches LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms Sync
Lead generation has undergone huge change in the past few years, as it develops in a world of mobile and social. We're lucky enough to have been a part of that story at Driftrock, working with some of the world's leading brands like BMW, Coke and eCornell on their social lead generation campaigns.
That story continues, with the launch of LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms. I'm incredibly excited to announce Driftrock as a launch partner for the new Lead Gen Forms solution. From today, Driftrock clients will be able to acquire, nurture and convert leads from LinkedIn, adding to our existing multi-channel solutions.
Let's take a look at the new LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms solution, and what is a game-changing solution for anyone looking to generate leads from a professional audience!
An introduction to LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are designed to help you generate more leads from Sponsored Content ads. When a customer clicks on a Lead Gen Forms ad, a native form loads with pre-filled information from their LinkedIn profile. It makes it incredibly quick and easy to submit forms on mobile.
In early experiments with Driftrock clients, we’ve seen a drastic reduction in cost per lead (CPL) of over 50%, whilst maintaining lead quality. It’s an incredibly scalable lead generation channel, tapping into LinkedIn’s nearly 500 million-strong network of professionals.
How it works
It’s important to note that customers are required to accept the privacy policy you add to the ad, before submitting the form. This makes Lead Gen Forms a scalable, privacy-friendly way to scale lead generation online.
What information can you generate? In the lead forms, we can ask a range of questions. These could include:
- First name, last name
- Email, phone number & address
- Job title, role and function
- Company name, size and industry
- Education history
- You can also ask other questions like gender, which won’t be pre-filled.
What is really interesting about professional profile data is that it constantly updates. As the company you work adds more employees, you move to a new role, your corporate profile evolves. This means that the forms you submit are highly likely to contain the latest information.
Remember, that you can use all of LinkedIn’s rich targeting criteria too. This effectively pre-qualifies the leads you generate. For example, we targeted digital marketers in the UK and US for our latest PDF guide to lead generation.
What’s next?
In LinkedIn’s announcement this week, they have announced that we can expect to see the Lead Gen Forms solution extend from mobile-only, to desktop, as well as other placements like Sponsored InMail campaigns.
Best practice tips and tricks
We’re lucky enough to have worked on other social lead generation formats over the past 3 years. We’ve learned a lot about social lead generation, much of which came as a surprise!
You can download our full guide here, but are a few bits to get you started:
- Ensure you have a clear value exchange,
The exchange is their data for something you have. It’s obvious, but make sure you drive real value for the customer to bring your cost per lead down. - Ask more questions
Contrary to conventional wisdom, at Driftrock, we’ve seen better results by asking more questions, not less! Lead Gen Forms are so easy to fill out, that asking for more information helps pre-qualify people, and add context for the customer. With higher quality leads, this helps optimisation algorithms hone in on people more likely to convert. Surprisingly, you’ll find your CPL won’t increase vastly in the same way you do on long web forms, because the optimisation algorithms simply optimise to find audiences more likely to fill out the form. - Respond to leads fast
It’s well understood that the faster you respond to a lead, the higher the conversion. Make sure you setup a sync directly to your CRM or ESP, either using Driftrock or another solution. - Add context
Ensure that you add context to your ad. It’s important to let the customer know what they are signing up for. If it’s confusing, you’ll either increase your CPL or decrease your conversion downstream. - Measure and optimise everything
Think of social lead generation in exactly the same way as a web journey. You have to optimise every step. This includes how you treat incoming leads. We advise that you create new forms for every campaign, or even ads, if you have time. With solutions like Driftrock, you can add tracking information with the leads you send to measure the effect of targeting or creative on downstream success.
Getting started
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are available starting today, so it’s quick and easy to get started through your LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
