3 Simple Steps to Promote Your Lead Magnet With Facebook Ads in Under 1 Hour

The lunch-hour lead magnet launch.

That would be a pretty awesome product name, right ;-)

Today, we’ll cover a crash course on how to quickly launch and promote your lead magnet using Facebook ads.

You’ll be collecting leads and building your email list before procrastination or perfectionism even have time to kick in.

3 Simple steps to save you boatloads of time and cash.

Speed and validation are your friends.

When it comes to launching your magnet (or, anything for that matter) we need to beat: procrastination and perfectionism.

Many ideas have been lost to a crowded inbox or crumbled up Sticky Notes (procrastination). Or, worse, wasted time, energy, and money building something that doesn’t work (perfectionism).

Our goal today…

Get it out into the world, quickly, then determine if it works.

We deploy 3 simple steps to launch and promote your lead magnet to leverage speed and validation – saving time, money, and frustration.

All we need is our lead magnet and a way to deliver it.

Step 1: Film 3 Instagram Reels.

First, we create 3 Instagram Reels.

9x16 vertical video filmed with your phone is the fastest way to promote your lead magnet. Why? It doesn’t require a designer or hours in Canva scouring templates.

These will be our ads, but they can be posted organically, too.

I recommend these guidelines:

• The videos should be under 60 seconds in length.

• Film 9x16 / vertically like a Reel.

• Face-to-camera (Talking head).

Here are the 3 videos I recommend starting with:

Reel 1: Direct Offer.

Explicitly state the offer (or purpose) or your lead magnet.

Reel 2: Overt Benefit.

State the overt benefit of them downloading and implementing your lead magnet.

Reel 3: Pain Point/Symptom.

State the pain point or symptom they’re experiencing that your lead magnet will help them overcome/alleviate. There might be more than one so start with the primary one.

Here’s a sample video script framework:

• First sentence: Headline/Hook.

• Transition into: Promise (Ex: What they will learn, the meat of Reel 1, 2, 3)

• Finish with a CTA (Ex: Click the link below)

No fancy editing is required. I recommend adding captions (try CapCup, Captions.AI, Descript, or the native captions while editing on Instagram or TikTok).

Pro Tip: You can edit your videos on Instagram. Then save them without ever posting them.

Now that we have our videos, let’s build our ads.

Step 2: Instant Form Lead Ads.

We’re going to use Facebook Instant Forms.

I’ve found Instant Forms the simplest and fastest way to launch.

This allows us to keep people on Facebook/Instagram. It removes the need for a funnel or pixel tracking setup and the time, energy, money, copywriting, tech know-how, etc. that goes along with it.

An Instant Form acts like a “funnel” on Facebook. We can capture names and emails and deliver our lead magnet without someone ever leaving the app.

Creating our Instant Form:

• Create a ‘Lead’ campaign.

• Select ‘Instant Form’ for the conversion location on your ad set.

• At the ad level, create (or select) your Instant Form. (Follow the prompts)

Note: ‘Messenger’ can also work well, too. It’s almost the same but instead of them filling out a form they do it through Messenger or Instagram DM. The process to setting it up is the same but you select ‘Messenger’ as the conversion location.

Delivering your lead magnet:

Instant Forms give you two options.

1. Direct download.

2. Link to URL/Website (Ex: Google Doc, Video, Page, etc.)

Both work. I like to give a link when I have the assets available to do so. When I don’t I will use the direct download.

Last step…

Create our 3 ads:

• Create an ad for each video we recorded.

• Select the Instant Form we created for the ad ‘Destination’.

We’re ready to go.

Now, I’m aware this is high-level here (to avoid a 5,000-word article).

If you’d like a step-by-step video walkthrough on setting up your campaigns and Instant Forms I have recorded one for you here.

It’s inside my ‘Content To Cash’ training. The walkthrough starts at minute 42. Click here to watch the walkthrough.

Step 3: Zapier Integration.

Step 3 is a bonus.

By ‘Bonus’ I mean, it’s nice to have but not required. If the thought of using Zapier freaks you out? No sweat. I will explain how to manage and get your leads from Facebook below. 

When we use an Instant Form, Facebook stores the leads on the Facebook Lead Center.

You can view and access them here: https://business.facebook.com/latest/leads_center

Here are 3 Ways to manage your leads:

1. Manage them within Facebook. (Everything can be done within Facebook).

2. Export them and import them to your CRM/Email Software.

3. Use Zapier (or Make) to connect the Instant Form to your CRM/Email Software so they are automatically added when they opt in.

There’s a little button to export them when you’re in your Lead Center:

All methods work.

Personally, I use Zapier or Make. But, exporting and importing them might be preferred based on your level of comfort using these tools.

Some final housekeeping…

Ad Copy.

You might have noticed I didn’t elaborate on “copy” for your ads. There’s a reason…

I don’t think ad copy is as important for vertical videos. The video (and offer) is really what matters. I secretly want to test video ads with no copy at all.

Video ad copy can be short, and to the point because we want them to watch not read.

I recommend modeling what you said in the video (The direct offer, overt benefit, or the pain point). Even transcribing the video (free in Descript) and using ChatGPT to summarize it into a 1-3 sentence ad copy can work.

Here’s an example of copy I wrote for a client using this system:

“[Expert Tips For Improving Egg Quality and a Healthy Pregnancy] 

Get [EXPERTS NAME] Free 14-page Guide To See How Women Are Improving Egg Quality and Fertility, and Getting Pregnant Naturally Even When Their OB Says It’s Impossible.”

The lead magnet was a free guide to improve egg quality for natural pregnancy.

No fancy copy is needed. As you can see I stated what it was with a CTA.

The goal of the lunch-hour lead magnet launch.

Validate if it “works.”

Simple and cost-effective, first. Then determine if we want to build out more robust marketing assets.

Here are some guidelines I use:

• I like to get (lead magnet) leads between $1 - $5.

• I like to spend around $100 - $200 testing the lead magnet.

• I might launch a campaign at $20/day, run it for 7-10 days then assess the cost per lead. (You can spend less, or use a lower budget and run it for longer)

If our cost per lead is under $5 (or lower than our other funnels), I will look at adding an email sequence to promote our core (or other) offer on the backend.

If it’s above $5, or higher than other funnels, we will test the next option.

This is why I like this method. A lot of things “don’t work”, or we realize our messaging is off or needs refinement. Keeping it simple and cost-effective allows us to be agile in refining our marketing.

Note: Lead magnets are not the same as a free webinars, or challenges. Those types of funnels typically have a higher cost per lead. And therefore the “cost” shouldn’t be directly compared. I would always expect a lead magnet (video, checklist, pdf, etc.) to have a lower cost per lead than a free webinar or challenge.

A final note.

Every account, market, and offer will be unique.

Compare this to your account averages if you have them.

For example:

Client A:

Our webinar leads are $4. So I am for $1-2 for our lead magnets using this model. For them, $5 CPL here would be too high.

Client B:

Our webinar leads are $12-15. So I’d aim for anything around $5 or less using this model.

Hope this helps.

Landon