Junk Facebook leads usually trace back to the lead form, the ad in front of it, or how long the lead waits to hear back, and often to more than one of those. Meta's default form fills in a person's contact details from their profile, so one tap sends you a lead, even from someone who hit the button by accident or hasn't used that number in years. Put that form behind an ad built around a discount, call back the next afternoon, and plenty of buyers who meant it end up looking as dead as the fake ones.
Why do people say they never filled out my form?
For a lot of them, filling it out took one tap. Meta's instant forms come in two main types, More volume and Higher intent, and More volume is the default. It pulls the person's name, email and phone number off their Facebook profile and puts a submit button under it, so somebody scrolling in bed can send you a lead with their thumb and forget about it within the minute. Some were curious for a second. Others hit it by accident. When you call two days later they don't remember your ad or your business, and you paid for that lead the same as you paid for the one who wanted the job done.
Why are so many phone numbers on Facebook leads wrong?
Because the number on the form is whatever the person gave Facebook when they opened the account, and nobody reads it over before tapping submit. Lots of people set up their profile years ago, so the prefilled number rings through to an old work line or to somebody else entirely, and the email goes to an inbox they stopped checking. A smaller group types junk on purpose. They wanted a price without a phone call, so you get a fake name and a 555 number. Typing your own number takes a few seconds and makes you decide whether you want the call, and a prefilled form skips that step.
Do qualifying questions on a Facebook lead form help?
Yes, and one or two is plenty. Start by switching the form type to Higher intent, which adds a review screen where the person sees their details and has to confirm them before anything gets sent. Then add a multiple choice question that takes a second of thought, like which city the job is in or when they want it done. Meta's form builder also supports conditional logic, so a person who picks a city outside your area can be sent to a closing screen and their details never reach you (Jon Loomer's guide to instant forms walks through the setup). Every question you add cuts the number of leads and raises what each one costs, so judge the change on how many of them book.
Should Facebook ads go to a landing page or an instant form?
For bigger jobs I lean toward a landing page. On a page, people type their own name and number, which takes longer than one tap on a prefilled form, so fewer people finish and more of the ones who do meant it. The page should repeat the offer from the ad, show your own work, put a few reviews near the form, and keep the form to about three fields with a call button beside it on phones. An instant form with a review screen and a question or two still works, mostly for smaller jobs where the person wants a callback today. I'd test both. Run them on the same budget for a few weeks and compare what each one cost per booked job, because one week tells you very little (how long before ads work explains why). What goes on that page is its own topic, and I covered it in landing page vs website.
Can the ad itself filter out tire-kickers?
Yes, because an ad pulls in more of whoever it describes. Meta decides who sees an ad largely from what's in the ad, so one built around a discount and a "limited time" banner tends to reach people shopping on price, and once a few of them fill out the form, the system goes looking for more people like them. Say in the ad who your customer is. If you can stand to, put your usual price range in it, something like "most of our kitchens run $40,000 to $80,000," and use photos of your own jobs. Fewer people will respond. The ones who do have already seen the price and your past jobs, and they still want the call.
How much does slow follow-up make good leads look like junk?
More than it gets blamed for. Someone who filled out your form at 7:40 on a Tuesday night wanted to hear back that night, and by Wednesday afternoon they've often booked somebody else or lost interest. In a 2011 Harvard Business Review study of more than a million sales leads, companies that tried to reach a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to get a conversation with a decision maker as companies that tried even an hour later. That study covered business-to-business sales and it's 15 years old, so take the exact multiple loosely. Before you write a lead off as junk, compare the time stamp on the lead with the time of your first call. A text that goes out in the first minute or two, with a question or a link to book, reaches people while they still remember the ad. I went further into this in speed to lead.
How should you judge Facebook lead quality?
By booked jobs, and by what each one cost you. Lead count only tells you how many people tapped submit, and after everything above, plenty of those people were never going to pick up. Mark every lead with what happened to it (wrong number, no answer after three tries, not a fit, quoted, booked), and after a month you'll see where they fall off. Say form A brings in leads at $30 and one in 12 books, so each job cost $360 in ad spend. Form B runs $70 a lead and one in four books, which is $280 a job. Form B looks worse in the ads dashboard and books more jobs for the same money. Meta can learn from those outcomes too. Send it back the leads that booked and it looks for more people like them, which Meta calls optimizing for conversion leads. The rest of the math is in what a booked job costs you.
If you're paying for leads that never pick up
Book a call. I'll ask what your form asks people, how long a new lead waits before anyone calls, and what a booked job is worth to you, and by the end you'll know whether I'm the right person to run your ads and what that would cost.
