Facebook lead ads VS Landing pages

The landing pages and facebook lead ads are both prominent online advertising methods.
But which is a better advertising tool? Which should you use for your campaign? while some will tell you that landing pages are better, others would swear that the facebook lead ads will give better results. So which one is a better option?
There are endless articles on Landing Page optimization, and on facebook lead ads as well, so in order to get a clearer picture, we need to look over the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Shall we start with the landing page? Let’s go

What is a landing page?

The landing page is a web page that a visitor “lands” on, after he clicks on an ad. It is a web page you create especially for this reason and is not part of your regular website pages. The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales or leads.

Landing page Advantages over facebook lead ads:

1- the landing page has endless design options. Each landing page you see is completely different - the landing page is eye captivating and lures the visitor in.
2- The design capabilities allows landing pages to sync with their website and product/service design, which gives them consistent unified message.
3- Created content is not limited in the landing page. You can include a video, an infographic, images, larger amount of text...etc.
4- The form you create in your landing page can collect any data you wish. You can use as many fields as you like to get the information you need.
5- When you use a landing page the visitors are sent to your website, which allows you to add them to your Website Custom Audiences.

Landing page disadvantages:

1- Since the landing page is so versatile it takes a lot of time and effort reaching your target.
2. Slow loading time. From the time the user clicks on an ad till the time he reaches your landing page, he may already changed his mind.
3- Since the form in the landing page is not pre-filled, the user needs to fill in the form himself. With this in mind, in order to simplify things for the user, you need to use as fewer fields as possible and this sometimes narrows your data collection options.

Now let’s look at the facebook lead ads option

What are facebook lead ads?

Facebook ads that look just like the mobile ads we’re already familiar with, except when clicked, a form opens up inside Facebook instead of leading to your website. This form is pre-filled with information from the user’s profile.

Facebook lead ads Advantages over landing pages:

1- the biggest advantage of lead ads is the pre-filled form. Currently the forms can include up to 18 different preset fields which minimizes the amount of typing required.
The fact that the form fields are auto-populated makes it so easy for the user, leaving him with no excuses for not submitting the form.
2- “lead ads “take out the middleman” of the landing page and form, making the process much smoother” (Kalle Tiihonen, Top 3 Reasons to Try Out Facebook’s Lead Ads).
3- saves you time and efforts in design and creation. The lead ads have a very basic look and all ads look almost the same. There is no need to work hard.
4- Increases mobile conversions. Mobile users are impatient and a pre-filled form is just what they need.
5- fully customizable forms creation available on Facebook
6- Staying inside facebook while & after the form is submitted makes the risk of losing the client smaller.

Facebook lead ads disadvantages:

1- Facebook has not yet integrated with 3rd party platforms. You need to manually download your leads from facebook and upload them to the other platforms you are using. (Although there are special leads connector tools to make this integration simple).
2- the lead ads have a basic design for all their ads. Since they do not focus on design at all, you cannot create an ad that will totally sync with your website or product.
3- “Lead Ads can result in a lot of poor quality leads Says Betsy Kent, (The Pros and Cons of Facebook Lead Ads). “Many people may sign-up because it’s so easy and they simply followed the directions. They may not be interested enough to attend or even remember that they signed up. Those people are likely not going to be great leads for your business.”
4- according to Ted Vrountas "People will likely be more comfortable filling out a landing page form, not Facebook lead ads". In his post "7 Reasons Why Landing Pages are Better than Facebook Lead Ads" he talks about a survey taken by CNBC, that found that "Facebook was the most feared tech company in regard to personal data collection".

AdEspresso had the same dilemma and decided to test it with: The $2,000 Facebook Experiment.
They created an experiment with 2 parallel campaigns for the same purpose: to get a website visitor to download one of their eBooks.
The difference between the campaigns was that one went to a landing page to fill out a form to get the eBook, and the other allowed the user to fill out their information in a form without leaving Facebook via a Lead Ad.
“Daily budget of 60 dollars per day, with a total spending cap of 1000 dollars per campaign. So 2,000 dollars total”. (“Landing Pages vs Lead Ads: The $2,000 Facebook Experiment”).
The results showed that Lead Ads performed better than the Landing Pages on mobile placements, while Landing Pages performed better than Lead Ads on Desktop.

As I see it, Facebook Lead Ads are a great tool, and so are landing pages. They are different, sure, but each has its merits and should be used for lead generation. Advertising is not a science and it’s almost impossible to compare others experiences: what works for someone else may not work for you. What’s needed is patience and testing. so If you can afford to do both and see which one gets better results for you - i recommend it.