How to Generate Leads on Facebook: Explained with Examples

If you struggle with how to generate leads on Facebook, you’re not alone. A solid Facebook presence is essential for any B2C business, but with so much competition, it doesn’t guarantee success. We’ll show you four proven tactics for how to generate leads on Facebook so you can capture quality prospects and start chatting with them.

How to Generate Leads on Facebook and Start Chatting: 4 Examples

As the most popular social media platform globally with 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is an ideal place to reach a wide audience. With Facebook ads, it’s easy to target potential customers. Organic posts can also be effective once you’ve grown your following. However, views and follows don’t guarantee leads.

So how do you generate leads on Facebook? You must encourage prospects to start a conversation with you so you’ll have their details and can continue marketing to them.

There are several methods, both paid and organic, that you can use to capture leads on Facebook. We’ll show you the best ways our customers have used to get leads in via Facebook and start chatting with them. Experiment with these methods to discover which works best for your business.

1. Leverage Chat Links and Buttons

One of the simplest ways for how to generate leads on Facebook is via chat links and buttons. Chat links are easily shared and can be used anywhere, including in your posts and on your website.

You can also add a chat button to any post to encourage viewers to contact you. Choose whether the chat button goes to Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Many of our customers have found that leads prefer to contact them over WhatsApp.

Directing the chat button to WhatsApp gives you the added benefit of collecting the contact’s phone number. The option you choose will depend on which channel is most popular in your region.

Our customers have found that adding CTAs that take prospects to either Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp have greatly increased their leads. For example, a coding school with over 500,000 Facebook followers has prominent chat buttons on its Facebook page.

They’ve seen significant gains in leads by making it easy for followers to start a conversation. This has ultimately led to more sign-ups for courses.

2. Target and Capture Leads with Click to Chat Ads

Many businesses run Facebook ads with promoted feed posts, but these may not be precisely targeted and are easy to scroll past. If you want to know how to generate leads on Facebook and get the full value of Facebook marketing, consider click to chat ads.

Click to chat ads bring prospects into a conversation with your business, either on Facebook Messenger or on WhatsApp. We recommend creating ads with the Engagement objective to attract people who are most likely to send a message.

phone screenshots showing how to generate leads on Facebook with click to Messenger ads — Use click to chat ads to attract prospects who are likely to engage

One of our customers in the retail electronics field saw the value of these ads early on and uses them in high volumes, getting equally high volumes of leads.

To attract leads to visit one of their many branches, they offer amazing deals. When leads inquire, they’re directed to visit the nearest store. Additionally, the business runs contests in the ads to get prospects to send in their details.

3. Start a Conversation with Comment Replies

Reading through comments on Facebook posts and choosing which to reply to can be a lengthy, manual process. However, comments present an opportunity to generate new leads on Facebook. While replying to comments publicly boosts engagement with the post, replying via direct message gets you into a conversation.

A Facebook user who comments on your Facebook post is not something you want to waste. If they show interest in your product or service, replying to them directly means you’ll have them in your contact list for further targeting.

example of how to generate leads on Facebook with comment replies — Get leads from Facebook comments into your inbox with comment replies

And if you’re using a conversation management platform like respond.io, you don’t have to do it manually. You can set auto-replies to comments to be sent as direct messages. That way, any person who comments will receive a message in their inbox inviting them to chat further.

Learn more about Facebook comment auto-replies in this blog.

4. Engage Followers with Facebook Live Shopping

Facebook Live Shopping offers a unique opportunity to engage with viewers in real-time while showcasing your products. This feature allows you to conduct live product demonstrations and answer questions live, creating a dynamic shopping experience.

By providing exclusive deals during these sessions, you can convert live viewers into leads. Leads interact with the event by commenting or sending a private message. Respond.io Customer Success Manager Joshua Loo recommends frequently reminding viewers to send you a direct message during the event.

image of a woman displaying a jewelry product showing how to generate leads on Facebook for a Facebook Live event — Showcase products during a Facebook Live event to encourage viewers to chat

One of our customers, a jewelry business, has seen success with this method for how to generate leads on Facebook. They regularly host live shopping sessions and capture contacts through comments and Facebook Messenger. This generates some sales on the spot and gets prospects into their list for retargeting.

The business builds excitement for the event as viewers know they can only see it for a limited time. Their Live Shopping events get over two thousand views and considerable engagement from comments and messages.

Start Quality Conversations with Facebook Lead Generation

We’ve shown you four key tactics for how to generate leads on Facebook. Prompting followers and ad viewers to start a conversation is the first step to getting more sales. Every conversation is an opportunity for you to qualify a lead, learn more about them and continue targeting or send to sales.

When you start getting high volumes of leads in, you may want to consider a conversation management platform like respond.io so you can keep all your leads in one place and set up advanced automation.