How to Add a Lead Form to FB Canvas Ads

If you’re looking to add a lead form or an area to collect users’ information directly on a Canvas within Facebook, you’ve come to the right place.

The Facebook Canvas rolled out in 2016 as a way for advertisers to provide a better experience for users on Facebook. It loads 100% instantly and provides advertisers with an additional tool for their arsenal. The Canvas ad has had its fair share of limitations, most notably the inability to collect users information…until now…

Why Adding a Form to Your Canvas Ads is a GameChanger

As we’ve talked about, one of the biggest limitations around canvas ads are the inability to  collect information. As we all know an optimal landing page has an optimally placed form(s). Because of this, Facebook advertisers have not been able to use the canvas as a true alternative for landing pages.

With that said, Facebook is showing signs of intersecting Lead Form ads and Canvas Ads by allowing us to place a Lead Form Ad within the Canvas directly.

Right now, the intersection between the two is pretty limited in the way we can tweak the lead form on the canvas, but this is showing all the signs that this will eventually be very customizable.

For now, this post will walk you through the technical set up and some tips and tricks on how to use this feature albeit while its in its limited stages.

Technical Set Up in the Engine

Step 1: Choose Objective

Choose Optimization

Step 2: Add a Full Screen Experience & Use “Get New Customers Template”

Step 3: Turn On Contact Form

Step 4: Build Out Your Form

If you’re not seeing the ability to add a contact form it’s because you clicked the wrong preset or have wrong optimization. Try tweaking that and if you’re still having issues, please comment in the blog and I’ll take a peak for you.

Current Technical/Creative Limitations

Right now there are a decent amount of limitations on the form that you know Facebook will work through

From a creative limitation perspective,  it’s not like building a normal custom canvas (for now…)

See below and you can see how limited the functions are. You can pretty much only swap out imagery and text…. Not color or changing flow or anything.

With that in mind, remember your canvas will only be as good as images. While there’s less ability to customize this type of canvas, you really want to ensure your imagery pops and tells the story.

From a technical limitations, it feels like you need a cheat code to unlock this feature. You can currently only get this feature to trigger under the Traffic Conversion Objective at the Campaign level, while bidding on link clicks at the ad set level.

This Is Just the Beginning

I mean we’ve been saying forever at PDM it was only a matter of time until Facebook allows us to blend the lead form and the canvas ad. This “Get More Customers” template is a great first step in the right direction.

In a world where users want everything… FAST, Facebook will want to reward us for having lightning fast user experiences…

What’s your thoughts on this new feature?