Aiming to make it easier for people to fill out forms on mobile devices and for businesses to gather that data, Facebook announced today that it’s testing a lead ad unit.
The new ad format automatically populates forms with contact information — such as email addresses — that consumers have shared with Facebook. Facebook is testing versions of the ad for signing up for newsletters, price estimates, follow-up requests and other business information.
Facebook explained in a post on its business blog:
The lead ads that we’re testing use a native signup flow within Facebook. This helps avoid a lot of the pain points usually associated with filling out forms, like having to leave one app and start a form in another app, and having to enter all of their information from scratch. Just a few taps and people are done. Like our other ad formats, we’ve built this ad type with privacy in mind. People can edit their contact information, and information isn’t sent to the business until a person clicks the “submit” button. Advertisers may only use this information in accordance with their privacy policies, which we make available in the lead ad before people click submit. Advertisers are also restricted from re-selling lead information to third parties.
Facebook is testing the new ad unit with a small group of businesses.
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