Lead generation advertisers face many challenges including balancing quality leads vs. quantity of leads, abandoned lead forms, and optimizing campaigns to find quality leads. When it comes to PPC, there are multiple types of lead form ads that you can utilize in lead generation campaigns to help with these challenges.
Today, I’m going to compare just two of those: Google Lead Form extensions and LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms.
Google Lead Ad Extensions
Google lead extensions help solve the previously mentioned lead gen challenges by enabling seamless, intent-based connections between the marketer and the prospective customers. Lead form extensions enable businesses to connect with high-intent users that are searching for their company, product or services offered. Google lead ad extensions also help reduce abandoned forms by leveraging pre-filled user information instead of relying on website or mobile forms.
Getting started with lead form extensions is easy. You create the extension as you would any other in the Google UI and set up to receive the leads. You can either download leads in a CSV or add a webhook URL for CRM integration. You also have the choice to use Zapier or Leadbridge to upload leads directly to the CRM. Once you have that setup, you can customize your lead form. You are able to choose from multiple calls-to-action and can include compelling and relevant extension text to engage the user.
Once the extension is created, you will personalize the user-facing lead form. You are allowed a headline (30 characters), description (200 characters), and will submit your business name and a background image. You get to choose what information will be submitted by the user from their name, phone number, email, and zip code.
Lastly, you will create a personalized submission message once the form has been submitted. You can set a headline (25 characters), description, and choose from 3 pre-set calls-to-action.
Since this is an ad extension of your current search campaigns, you are able to define your specific demographics, audiences, and any other detailed targeting options you would normally have within a search campaign.
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
Per LinkedIn, Lead Gen Forms are “a solution that helps you drive even more high-quality leads from your Sponsored Content campaigns by removing the main barrier to mobile conversion: making someone complete a clunky contact form on a smartphone.” Lead Gen Forms are pre-filled with the users’ LinkedIn profile data, such as their name, contact info, company name, seniority, job title, and location, which provides more accurate work contact information.
To get started, you would create the personalized Lead Gen Form under your Account Assets. You can customize the form details with a headline (60 characters) and offer details or a description (160 characters). Next, you choose what detailed information you would like to collect from your user and add any custom questions to the form.
Lastly, you will create your confirmation message (300 characters) and choose from 4 pre-set calls-to-action. You are able to download your leads directly from Campaign Manager or pass your leads to the CRM or marketing automation platform of your choice.
You are able to use these types of forms with both Sponsored content and Message Ad campaigns as long as the objective is Lead generation. You will have the same targeting options as with any other sponsored content or message ad.
The Differences Between Google Lead Ad Extensions And LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
The two types of forms above help engage high-intent users for your business, services, or products. As similar as each form is, they do have their differences.
Overall, the Google Lead Form Extensions are more limited in terms of collecting data. Google Lead Form Extensions can be placed on any Google Search campaign you have created in your account. However, if you have multiple ad extensions within one Search campaign, you are not able to choose which ad extension shows.
In addition to that limitation, the amount of customization on the form itself is standard with the information you can normally collect from the user (name, phone, email, zip).
In turn, the amount of customization on the LinkedIn Lead Gen forms is much more robust. You have the following categories to choose what information you would like to receive from the user:
- Contact
- Work
- Company
- Education
- Demographic
Within each of those categories, you are able to get even more granular in the user info that’s submitted. For example, the name, size, or industry of the company or the degree, field of study, University/School, start date, or graduation date of someone’s education. You are also able to submit custom questions for the user to answer on the form itself. Since these types of forms are able to be used on both Sponsored and Message ads you are able to have a separate message before the user even engages with the form. This allows you to provide even more relevant information to the user to engage them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, both of these forms eliminate common lead generation challenges like website and mobile form abandonment. Both forms also leverage users’ pre-filled demographic information.
That being said, in my experience with both types of lead gen forms, LinkedIn lead gen forms were more successful because of their ability to capture more user data.
LinkedIn can leverage an array of professional data that’s mostly up-to-date. The upkeep of the profile by most members ensures that the lead data captured is accurate (much less likely to be fake), creating better informed, easier-to-convert sales opportunities. LinkedIn lead form ads’ robust targeting and customization allows you to pinpoint your exact target audience. Also, the form is visible each time your ad is shown to a user, which provides a higher completion percentage. This is not the case for Google’s lead form ad extensions.
Regardless of which form you choose to test, I would always recommend checking the quality of the leads you receive before determining the success of your test.
Additional Resources
Google Ads: Lead Form Extensions
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms: An easy way to collect quality leads for your business
