Here at AdStage, we're jumping up and down with the release of LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms! We couldn't wait to get our hands dirty so we built our first campaign using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms and set up an integration with our CRM.

AJ Wilcox of B2Linked agrees. "Lead Gen Forms are a dream for B2B advertisers," he says. "It's an easy-to-understand offering that doesn't require the further education that a landing page provides. Normally, marketers pay for each click to the landing page, and then only a small percentage of those convert to leads.

With LinkedIn's new Lead Gen Forms, the cost an advertiser pays for the click is also the conversion, often resulting in costs per conversion that are 1/10th that of what she is used to paying. This is definitely an ad unit that all LinkedIn Advertisers should test out!"

Why You’ll See More Mobile Conversions with Lead Gen Forms

This ad format helps marketers drive leads from Sponsored Content campaigns , particularly on mobile devices where conversion rates tend to be lower, as users don’t want to fill out a long form on-the-go. For mobile users, the lead form will automatically populate with the member’s data. This is a win-win for both the advertiser and the user: we have an easier way for prospects to express interest without having to type out their information by hand, plus advertisers get a boost in leads.

For B2B advertisers, the quality of the leads on LinkedIn are already far superior to other ad networks that offer lead gen ads. And, just like any other LinkedIn campaign, these campaigns come with the same reporting capabilities that LinkedIn already offers, so you can easily measure return on ad spend, cost per lead, and conversion rate.

How to Set Up Your LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms

Log into your LinkedIn Campaign Manager <>, head to the account in which you’d like to run the campaign, and create a new Sponsored Content campaign.

After you name your campaign, select “Collect leads using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms” as shown below. Note that this selection is sort of like a Facebook campaign objective. You can’t go back later and change this option to direct traffic to your website, so only select this when you’re truly ready to run a Lead Gen Form campaign.

From here you can use existing creative or create a new ad. Once you’ve decided on the creative, click “Next” and you’ll be prompted to select your CTA and Form. (If this is your first form, the form dropdown will be empty and you’ll need to click “Create New Form Template” as shown below.)

Below you’ll see what’s required for the lead gen form. Note that the your company’s privacy policy URL is a required field so if you don’t have that, we recommend publishing one before setting up your campaign.

You can select up to 7 fields that you’d like to collect in your Lead Gen Form. The options could include the person’s name, contact info, company name, seniority, job title, location, and more.

Once someone submits the Lead Gen Form, you have the option to tailor a thank you message and display a URL that directs the user to your ebook, website, or landing page of your choice.

Once you complete the creation of your Lead Gen Form, choose your desired CTA that will be attached to the Sponsored Content. Select the form you’d like to use and click Next. From there, you can set your targeting, bid, and budget as you would a normal campaign and launch it.
Very simple and straightforward. But I bet you’re wondering where the leads go when people submit the Lead Gen Forms.

How to Sync Your Leads with Your CRM

LinkedIn offers a few different options for automatically syncing your lead lists with your CRM or marketing automation solution. For instance, you can use a pre-built integration with Driftrock or Zapier. We’re big fans of Zapier at AdStage so we’ll cover that integration today. And, it’s free.
Take a few minutes to create your Zapier account if you don’t already have one. Then, from there, you can create a Zap. The trigger will be using your LinkedIn Lead Gen Form where you’ll select the one option that’s available: New Form Response.

When prompted, you’ll connect your LinkedIn account by entering your credentials and selecting which account and form you wish to set up the Zap for.

You can now choose which CRM or marketing solution that you’d like to add the leads to.

We use Pardot at AdStage, so that’s what we selected when we reached Zapier, but there are over 800 solutions you can choose from so don’t panic if you don’t use Pardot.

Once you supply your account credentials for the marketing or CRM provider you select, there are a number of actions you can choose from, such as sending the leads to sales member, adding them to a newsletter list, enrolling them into a webinar and so on.

In our case, we had our leads populate in a Pardot campaign and then used their automation rules to email leads in that campaign our most recent eBook . Essentially, we used LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms as a way to gate an asset, without having to convince leads to go to a landing page.

They never even have to leave LinkedIn! The entire process from being served the Lead Gen Form, to receiving the ebook, takes less time than loading your webpage, and you don’t have to do a thing except sit back and watch the leads roll in.

Download the Complete Guide to LinkedIn Ads

In the future, LinkedIn will have pre-built integrations set up with Marketo, Eloqua, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 so you can easily send your lead data to these marketing automation systems if you use one of these. Additionally, stay on the lookout for more granular reporting.

LinkedIn also plans to offer insights around demographics to show the exact number of leads you acquire from specific audience segments. We’re looking forward to this.

If you’ve launched your first LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, tell us if you saw a boost in mobile conversion rates in the comments section below! Any fun integrations you want to share with the world? Be sure to check out our LinkedIn Ads Suite if you're looking to drive more leads.