Best Practices for Setting Up Instant Forms on Meta

Meta’s Instant Forms, formerly known as Facebook Lead Ads, are a powerful tool for generating leads, building email lists or gathering customer insights from social media campaigns. Instant Forms have a user-friendly design and seamless functionality that allows you to collect user information directly on the platform.

In this article, I’ll outline everything you need to know about setting up and optimising Meta Instant Forms to ensure you achieve optimal results.

What Are Meta Instant Forms?

Meta Instant Forms are a feature that simplifies lead generation for businesses. Instead of redirecting users to an external landing page, Instant Forms collect user information directly within the Meta platform.

This creates a seamless experience for the customer and reduces friction when generating leads.

Instant Forms are suitable for almost any type of business. For example, tradies and builders might use Instant Forms to collect customer details for a quote, while a B2B company might use them for webinar sign-ups.

Why Use Meta Instant Forms?

• Convenience – Users stay on the platform, which reduces friction.
• Higher conversion rates – Pre-filled fields based on user profiles encourage form completion.
• Mobile-friendly – Designed with the Meta app in mind, these forms load quickly and fit perfectly on mobile screens.

Setting Clear Objectives

Before creating an Instant Form, it’s crucial to understand and define your purpose. This ensures that the form’s design and content align with your key performance indicators (KPIs).

Common Objectives:

• Generate leads for your sales team.
• Build a subscriber list for newsletters or email campaigns.
• Drive registrations for events or webinars.
• Gather market research or customer feedback.

A good framework for establishing effective goals and objectives is the SMART system. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

As an example, instead of setting a vague goal like, “Generate more leads,” a SMART goal would be, “Generate 500 qualified leads from Meta Instant Forms within the next 30 days at a cost per lead of $10 or less.”

Clearly defined objectives inform how you set up and implement your campaign whilst providing direction and measurable benchmarks for success.

Crafting a User-Centric Instant Form

A form that provides an optimal user experience is key to maximising engagement. Users are more likely to complete forms that are intuitive and quick to fill out.

Keep It Short and Simple

An often-cited statistic is that the average human attention span is only 8.25 seconds. This is misleading and not based on reputable research.

In reality, attention spans vary by age and fall within the 30 to 76 second range. In practice, this means you have a short window of opportunity to capture a user’s attention and get them to engage with your form.

Meta recommends using 3-5 questions to avoid overwhelming users and increasing drop-off rates.

• Limit your form fields to essential information. For example, if you’re promoting a free e-book, you might only ask for a name and email address.
• Avoid unnecessary questions like, “How did you hear about us?” unless it’s critical to establishing attribution.

Meta allows you to utilise pre-fill fields using user profile data, such as their name and email address. This feature reduces the effort required from users and improves completion rates. The caveat is that it can also increase the likelihood of spam leads.

Use the Right Tone

Match your tone to your audience. For professional audiences, use formal language, while a casual tone may be more appealing to younger users and for B2C campaigns.

Incorporate Eye-Catching Visuals

Use high-quality images or videos that support and align with your message. For example, a construction company might use a video featuring before and after footage of a site build.

To avoid slow loading times and negate drop-off rates, ensure your videos and visuals are optimised for mobile.

Crafting an Irresistible Offer

Your offer is key to success and will ultimately convince users to share their information with you. Ensure your offer is clearly articulated, valuable and relevant.

Here are some examples of good value propositions:

• Download our free e-book: 10 Steps to Financial Freedom.
• Get a free consultation with our solar energy experts.
• Enter to win a $100 gift card – sign up today!

Compelling CTAs

Your call-to-action (CTA) should align with the offer. Use compelling, action-oriented terminology like:

• Claim Your Free Guide.
• Sign Up for Early Access.
• Get Your Free Quote.

Ensure the CTA is visually prominent and encourages the user to take the intended action.

Designing Instant Forms

Creating an effective Instant Form requires careful consideration, especially when you add conditional logic to the process.

Choose the Right Form Type

Meta provides three primary form types to suit different objectives:

More Volume:

• This option is ideal for campaigns that need to generate leads as quickly as possible.
• It simplifies the process by minimising the number of steps it takes a user to submit their information.

Higher Intent:

• Use this option for campaigns that are focused on generating high-quality leads.
• It includes a review screen where users can review their information before submitting a lead, which can reduce unqualified or accidental submissions.

Rich Creative:

• This form type gives you the option to add more engaging content, such as carousels, videos or additional images.
• It’s perfect for storytelling, product showcases, or campaigns that require more compelling creative assets to capture user interest.

Custom Questions

Custom questions are a powerful tool within Meta Instant Forms that enable you to go beyond basic information and gather targeted insights. These questions can help you qualify leads by ensuring that the responses align with your specific business objectives.

By asking specific questions, you can focus on individuals who are genuinely interested in your product or service. For example:

• A B2B software company might ask: “What CRM are you currently using?”
• A fitness brand could ask: “What’s your primary fitness goal?”

Understanding the Relationship Between Custom Questions and Conditional Logic

One of the most under-utilised features of Instant Forms is conditional logic. Custom questions and conditional logic are complementary tools that work together to enhance the functionality and effectiveness of lead forms.

Together, they allow you to collect more relevant information from potential leads by tailoring the experience based on user responses.

Conditional logic, also known as logic branching or dynamic questioning, enables forms to adapt in real time based on the user’s answers to previous questions. Instead of showing each user the same questions, the form automatically adjusts, only asking questions that are relevant to each individual.

How It Works:

When a user selects a particular response to a question, the form triggers follow-up questions that are directly related to that choice.

For example:

• If a lead answers “Yes” to the question, “Are you currently using a CRM?”, the next question could be “Which CRM are you using?”
• If the answer is “No,” the follow-up could ask, “Would you like to learn more about how a CRM could benefit your business?”

This approach creates a more personalised user experience and ensures businesses collect data that’s relevant to each individual lead.

The Benefits of Custom Questions and Conditional Logic

• Enhanced lead qualification – Custom questions set the stage for gathering detailed data, while conditional logic ensures the questions asked are tailored and relevant. Together, they improve lead qualification by filtering out irrelevant or low-value leads.
• Improved user experience – Conditional logic makes forms shorter and less overwhelming for users by eliminating unnecessary questions. This increases completion rates and provides a smoother experience.
• Actionable insights – Custom questions and conditional logic help businesses collect highly actionable data.
• Segmentation and personalisation – The data collected through custom questions and logic can be used to segment leads into more specific categories. This enables personalised marketing campaigns and follow-ups.
• Reduced drop-off rates – By only showing users the questions that matter to them, conditional logic reduces form abandonment. People are more likely to complete forms that are relevant, intuitive and easy to navigate.

Privacy Policy

Including a privacy policy link in your Meta Instant Forms is a compulsory step. It ensures compliance with global data protection laws and builds trust with your audience. A well-crafted privacy policy can serve as a safeguard, provides transparency and adds credibility to your brand.

Design an Effective Confirmation Screen

The confirmation screen is the final step users see after submitting their information. 

While it may seem like a minor detail, this screen is a valuable opportunity to continue engaging with leads, guide them to the next step and leave a positive impression.

A well-designed confirmation screen can enhance user experience, increase conversions and create a seamless transition from lead generation to nurturing.

The Benefits of an Effective Confirmation Screen

• Reinforces brand credibility – A clear and professional confirmation screen assures users that their submission was successful and leaves them with a positive impression of your brand.
• Encourages further action – This is a key touchpoint to push leads toward the next step in your sales or marketing funnel, such as visiting your website, downloading a resource or contacting your team.
• Improves user experience – A concise and visually appealing confirmation screen wraps up the interaction smoothly, reducing any confusion about what happens next.
• Boosts engagement – Including a call-to-action (CTA) keeps users engaged with your brand, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Pro Tip: For all three elements – custom questions, privacy policy, and the confirmation screen – consider your audience’s expectations and preferences. Clear, user-friendly design enhances the form’s effectiveness and builds trust.

Integrating Instant Forms With Your CRM

Integration ensures that the leads you collect are automatically stored and managed in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system or Leads Management System (LMS).

Popular Integration Tools:

• Zapier – Connect Instant Forms to a wide range of CRMs.
• HubSpot or Salesforce – Set up direct integrations for seamless lead management.
• Meta’s Native Integrations – Use Meta’s built-in tools to connect to popular platforms.

Benefits of CRM Integration:

• Automated follow-up emails or calls.
• Better lead tracking and segmentation.
• Faster response times, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Targeting the Right Audience

The success of your Instant Forms depends on reaching the right audience. Meta provides robust targeting tools to ensure your ads are seen by the most relevant users.

Use Advanced Targeting

• Demographics – Age, gender, location, etc.
• Interests and behaviors – Target users based on their interests or online activities.
• Lookalike Audiences – Create audiences similar to your existing customers for precise targeting.

Advantage+ Targeting

Advantage+ Targeting is Meta’s advanced AI-powered solution. It’s designed to expand your audience reach and improve campaign performance. It dynamically optimises your targeting by using Meta’s machine learning algorithms to identify users who are more likely to take the desired action.

Benefits of Advantage+ Targeting

• Increased reach with precision – Advantage+ helps you discover new, relevant users who may not have been included in your original targeting setup.
• Improved performance – By continuously learning and adapting, Advantage+ ensures your ads are shown to users most likely to complete your form.
• Time efficiency – Reduces the need for constant manual adjustments and refinements in your targeting settings.
• Budget optimisation – Maximise your budget by prioritising the most effective audience segments.

A/B Testing

Test variations of your targeting to determine which audience performs best.

• Compare broad interest targeting to custom Lookalike Audiences.
• Test Advantage+ Targeting against manual targeting.
• Evaluate performance differences, refine your targeting, and adjust strategies accordingly.

Optimising Performance

To properly optimise for performance, it’s important to establish your key performance indicators. These are the metrics that will measure whether your campaign is achieving the intended marketing objectives.

Monitor Key Metrics:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Leads
• Cost per lead
• Conversion rate (CVR)

In Meta, performance is never static and it’s critical to regularly optimise your campaign and ensure it’s delivering the best possible results. However, making frequent changes can negatively impact performance because adjustments trigger the learning phase, during which Meta’s algorithm recalibrates ad delivery.

Allow your campaign to exit the learning phase before making any changes. This typically takes 3–7 days, depending on your daily budget and the volume of optimisation events (form submissions).

If you notice high drop-off rates, review the form experience. Are users leaving because there are too many questions, or is the CTA unclear? Make adjustments based on these insights.

To improve performance experiment with the following form variables:

• Headline variations
• Creative assets
• Different CTAs
• The number of form fields

Turn Meta Instant Forms Into Business Growth With Gordon Digital

Meta Instant Forms are a versatile and effective tool for lead generation. Their success hinges on thoughtful design, strategic targeting and continuous optimisation. By following these best practices, brands can create high-converting forms that deliver real results.

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, schedule a free growth call with Gordon Digital. Our certified Meta professionals will create bespoke campaigns that generate the results that matter most to your business!