The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms

LinkedIn lead gen forms: “80% of engagement with sponsored content happens on mobile and the network realizes web forms are a common obstacle to conversions.” – LinkedIn.

Gone are the old boring forms you have to get users to fill to access a piece of content. Truth be told, those forms were a great hindrance to conversion.

No one gets excited having to fill a form from their phones. Yet as a marketer, you need quality lead data while at the same time easing users’ access to content.

To bridge this gap, LinkedIn lead gen forms were created.

What are LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms?

In essence, these are in-app forms that are presented to members in LinkedIn as a sign-up form that automatically pulls details from the users’ information from their account and they can choose to submit it to you before consuming your content.

LinkedIn lead gen forms come at no cost so you can definitely try using them for your sponsored content campaigns to see if they increase your lead generation.

The LinkedIn lead gen forms are an exciting new solution that helps you get very high-quality leads from content campaigns.

The unique thing about them is that they remove the main barrier to conversions through mobile phones: having a user fill out a form.

When LinkedIn members click on one of your ads, their profile information is automatically added or filled into an in-app form that they can then choose to submit to you instantly: all without having to fill in the form manually.

One the user has submitted their LinkedIn lead gen forms, you get a very comprehensive record that includes the user’s updated information. Information like name, contacts, job title, company name, location e.t.c. Can you already see the advantage here?

The information comes from the users’ up-to-date LinkedIn profile, therefore? It is more accurate. As we all know, when filling a form accurately, use can enter partial or not so up-to-date information.

After you have received the submission, you can send the member an in-app “thank-you” page them which immediately connects them to your content.

The forms are a significant milestone in helping marketers benefit from lead gen campaigns by increasing their drive for greater ROI. The forms have shown an increase in lead volume and quality.

An example is Bynder, a software company; they used lead Gen Forms to increase its leads by 400% from their sponsored content. They achieved a 20% conversion rate.

Whatever it is that you are promoting; newsletter sign-ups, webinars, lead gen forms enable you to get accurate data while easily enabling members to connect with you.

Lander has expert advice to give you for LinkedIn lead generation and better engagement.

Creating a LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms Template

The following are steps o how to create your template.

Step 1

Log into LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Step 2

Select the account you’d like to create a lead gen form template for.

Step 3

Under Account assets, click “Lead Generation Form”

Step 4 - Describe your Offering

On your template, insert your headline and explain your offer. Keep it simple. Add you privacy URL which is required to allow members to read more about your policies on the usage f their data.

This is the first page that the visitor will land on when they click on your call-to-action on your sponsored content. Your offer headline will play a key role on if they will actually agree to convert to make it good.

Step 5 - Select the fields you’d like to add to your form template

Choose the fields that you want to add to your templates. You can select up to 7 fields. The information for these fields will be filled automatically from member’s profiles but there is also an option for them to edit fields that are missing.

Step 6 - Create a “Thank You” page

You can input a “thank you” note here and also provide additional information with thank-you pages for your calls-action-action.

Once you’ve completed the above steps, your template is now ready to add onto your ad.  When setting up your sponsored campaign, just select the option to “collect leads using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms”.

To download leads from Campaign Manager, click on “account assets” in your account. Next, click “download” for the template that you’d like leads on.

Note: You need to be a company page admin to be able to download access to leads.  

Optimizing your Lead Gen Campaign for results

Use Relevant And Consistent Images (In Your Ad)

Ensure that your messaging – through text and the images you use, is consistent so as not to confuse users. From the “sign-up” to the “thank you” keep it consistent.

While doing this, be direct with the offer and the value the user is getting from giving you their information.

Less Is More (For Your Lead Gen Form)

Less is more. Have this in mind when creating you Lead Gen Template, don’t use too many fields. Use at least 3 to 4 at most. The users can see the information you’ll be collecting from their profiles.

If it’s too much, they probably will be hesitant about handing it to you and they are less likely to sign up if they feel overwhelmed.

Also, try not to include fields that require users to manually type up their data. Find out the fields that are generally in the profiles of members in your market and try to work with these.

Remember, your goal is to increase conversions so try stick to information likely to be on member’s profiles.

Measuring Results

At this point, you want to measure the performance of your lead gen campaigns. Click on the “leads” tab on your campaign manager dashboard where you will see key performance indicators which include: the total number of leads, completion rates and the total cost per lead.

As a marketer, you will have access to data for 90 days. Why 90 days? LinkedIn deletes all the data after 90 days to protect members. You can download your lead data often for your records or set up a real-time marketing automation system onto your CRM.

Advantages of using lead gen forms

Reduce Cost

A pilot conducted showed that 50 customers had lower cost-per-lead (CPL) with Lead Gen Forms compared to their standard Sponsored Content campaigns.

Improve the Quality Of Your Leads

The data gotten from the LinkedIn professional audience is more accurate that the manually filled forms and are more likely to generate better sales opportunities and prospects.

You Can Measure Your ROI

The tools in the campaign manager track metrics lie CPL, form fill rate and other key indicators that help you manage your campaign better.

Manage Your Leads Better

The whole process of lead management is simplified with the use of lead gen forms.

Conclusion

You can maximize your leads using LinkedIn’s exciting new tool. Go on, give it a try and test it. See for yourself how the lead generation experience would work for your business.

Of course, it is a process which means you will need to put your time and effort to reap the very best out of LinkedIn lead gen forms system.