It’s 2022, so you probably already know how important it is for your business to have a social media presence. This is nothing new. But did you know just how powerful social media follow-up can be for generating leads, particularly those on Facebook?

Don’t Let Good Leads Die

Lack of follow-up is the number one reason quality leads disappear. My company, ReminderMedia, invests millions of dollars to generate thousands of leads through our Facebook ads, which may seem like a lot to spend on a single social media channel. However, the results speak for themselves. We’re currently seeing a 386 percent ROAS (return on ad spend)—all because we understand how crucial it is to follow up with our leads; it makes our investment worth it and proves how lucrative these types of ads can be.

But our success is just one example. We’ve also been testing the efficacy of Facebook ads with my brother Stephen’s company, Acree Brothers Real Estate. In 2021, Stephen spent roughly $18,000 in ads, generating more than 1,500 leads and twenty-three transactions. Those transactions brought in over $3.6 million in sales and $107,000 in commissions—a return of 564 percent. Because of how successful these tests have been, we’ve decided to launch a Facebook Ads pilot program for a handful of our customers, the results of which have solidified what we already know—that there is a ton of money to be made from following up.

So how can you apply this same strategy to your business when running ads on Facebook?

Pick up the phone.
Don’t send a mass email to all your Facebook leads. Call them. And don’t wait a week or even a day to do it. Call your leads as soon as possible after they have interacted with your ad to show prospects that you’re serious about building this relationship.

One of the most crucial pieces of information we found in testing is that, in most cases, you need to be calling your leads up to eighteen times in order to convert them to a sale. After we get a lead on the phone, the average time to the transaction is four to five months. This type of persistent follow-up almost always pays off. If you don’t have time to call your leads, consider delegating it to another person on your team or a group of individuals to ensure the speed of your follow-up is consistent.

Even if only a handful of leads pick up, you now have a pool of new people to add to your database that you can nurture forever. It’s only a matter of time until those leads need the services you provide, and because your ads are in front of them all the time, they’re going to call.

Triple dial and text.
If you call a lead and they don’t answer, call them again. If they still don’t answer, call them again. If they don’t answer after the third time, send them a text message. This is called the triple dial, and, while it might sound excessive, it’s guaranteed to pique the interest of your lead and push them to pick up the phone. If you’re not willing to do the triple dial, it’s time to start thinking about how serious you are about converting this lead.

Your lead might be taken aback at how persistent you are, but this offers an opportunity for you to present yourself in a positive light. You’re following up because they expressed an interest in what you sell, and you didn’t want to drop the ball by letting their interest go to waste.

Start a drip campaign for your leads.
So you called a lead eighteen times, triple dialed them, and texted them, and they still haven’t responded. You might think it’s a waste of your time and resources to keep hanging on. But you’d be wrong. Never throw away a lead.

Instead, move these leads into an email drip campaign. Keep an eye on open rates and click rates to determine which of these leads are still interested in your business and how interested they are. Make sure the emails you’re sending make sense for what kind of information they want. For example, if a lead interacted with an ad for a specific product or service that you offer, continue to send them emails about that specific product or service. If a lead is consistently opening your emails, do not stop calling.

When it comes to what to say when you inevitably get a lead on the phone, it’s best to keep things simple. Here’s an example of a script you can use for following up:

“I saw you were looking at [name of product/service] online. I just wanted to call and see if you found what you were looking for.”

Keeping your approach simple and lighthearted puts the lead at ease, shows them you genuinely care, and leaves the conversation open for additional questions.

Whether you’re running Facebook ads in-house or choose to use a company like ours to do it for you, you might initially be unsatisfied with the quality of the leads. Don’t. Give. Up. The value is there, and these leads interacted with your ad for a reason. Follow up and be persistent, and your sales will increase.

Take Action:
Gather a list of leads from your most recent ad, call them, and add them to an email drip campaign.