A guide to Meta instant forms: Examples & how to create them

Using instant forms for your Meta lead generation campaigns can make things easier for a few good reasons. For starters, it’s convenient. You can collect lead information directly on Meta platforms so users don’t have to leave. 

Plus, Meta can automatically fill in some of the user’s information, making it quicker and simpler to gather data. However, taking a look at a few high-performing instant form examples, we see that they are often created by experienced marketers. Facing this level of competition requires you to have a robust system.

Managing and following up on leads is important. With automated data bridges, you can receive notifications instantly whenever a new lead comes in from ads across Meta technologies. This can happen by automating your Meta ads campaign integrations, such as:

This guide will walk you through creating Meta instant forms, show a couple of instant form examples, and explain how to integrate them with tools like LeadsBridge for better results.

What are Meta instant forms?

Meta instant forms are powerful tools used in Meta advertising to easily collect leads directly from users’ social media feeds. They let people show interest in your business with just a few taps, and the results speak for themselves.

This can also be done without leaving the app, which helps reduce friction. These forms are mobile-friendly, load fast, and auto-fill using information from the user’s Meta accounts (Facebook, Instagram, etc.).

Details like name, email, and phone number might already be filled in if the person has previously shared that information with Meta.

How do they look? Take a look at this instant form example:

Anatomy of an instant form

When you set up a lead campaign in Ads Manager, you can select instant forms to collect leads. These are simple to use. However, we can consider different instant form examples depending on your goals.

Instant forms usually have four main parts:

1. Introduction (optional): A quick intro about your product or service, so people know what they’ll get after filling out the form.
2. Questions: Ask the questions you need answered—at least one is required.
3. Privacy Policy: You need this to let people know how you’ll use their info, which helps build trust. You can link to your existing privacy policy.
4. Message for leads: Add a message and a button to encourage people to stay engaged after they submit their info.

The number of screens depends on how much info you include.

You can also add extra features to better understand your audience and achieve your goals:

• Custom questions: Ask specific questions important to your business.
• Conditional logic: The form can change based on how someone answers specific questions. Use these questions to better qualify your leads.
• Gated content: Let people download things like PDFs or images directly from the form.

Keep in mind that these extra features are only available if you create your form in Ads Manager. If you use Meta Business Suite, you can only make a simple form to collect contact info.

In case you are looking for more info, you can find a breakdown of the anatomy of a Facebook ad here.

How to create an instant form on Facebook

When you create a lead campaign in Meta Ads Manager, you can choose instant forms as your way to collect leads. Here’s a step-by-step guide to set it up:

Step 1: Go to Ads Manager and create a lead ad.

Step 2: At the ad set level, choose “instant forms.”

Step 3: At the ad level, either create a new form or pick an existing one. If you’re making a new one, a form editor will guide you through the steps.

Step 4: Choose your form type for:

• More volume: A simple, quick form.
• Higher intent: Adds a review step for users to confirm their info. This only works on Facebook mobile.
• Rich creative: This option lets you add images, branding, and product details.

Step 5: Add an introduction, questions (you can include up to 15), and any pre-fill info you want to use.

Step 6: Include your privacy policy link and any legal disclaimers.

Step 7: Finally, create a message for leads to tell them what happens next, and add a call-to-action button if needed.

Once people fill out the form, you can download the lead info from Ads Manager, your Page, or Lead Center in Meta Business Suite. The best course of action for managing your incoming Facebook leads is, however, to connect your lead ads to a CRM system. More on this in a few paragraphs.

How to edit an instant form on Facebook

The first thing to note here is that you cannot edit an existing instant form after it has been published. However, you can edit a form if it is still saved as a draft. To make changes to a published instant form, you must duplicate the form, apply the edits you need, and then republish it.

That said, you can easily edit it through either Meta Ads Manager or Meta Business Suite. Here’s how:

Editing an instant form draft in Meta Ads Manager

1. Go to your lead ad in Meta Ads Manager.
2. At the ad level, find the instant form section where all your forms are listed.
3. Hover over the draft form you want to edit and click Edit.
4. Note: The option to edit will only appear for forms saved as drafts.
5. Make the necessary changes, then:
   • Click Save draft to save the updated draft.
   • Click Publish to finalize and activate the updated form.
   • If you’re still working on the form, save it as a draft to continue editing later.

Editing an instant form draft in Meta Business Suite

1. Open Meta Business Suite.
2. Click All tools, then go to Advertise and select instant forms.
3. Switch to the Draft forms tab.
4. Find the draft form you want to update and click Edit.
5. Apply your changes, then:
   • Click Save draft to save your changes for further editing.
   • Click Publish to activate the updated form.

How to create an instant form on Instagram

When you set up a professional account on Instagram, you’ll unlock a number of perks. Among them is the ability to run ads from your account and use Meta tools to create ads that show up on both Instagram and Facebook.

There are three ways to run ads on Instagram:

1. Directly from Instagram: Once you switch to a professional account, you can boost your Instagram stories, feed posts, and reels right from your Instagram profile.
2. From your Facebook Page: If you manage a Facebook Page, you can link your Instagram professional account to that Page and create ads that appear on both platforms.
3. Using Meta Ads Manager: Ads Manager gives you more advanced tools to create and manage ads on Instagram and Facebook.

Before running your ads, make sure to switch to a professional account on Instagram. Depending on your location, you may also need to connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Page you manage to run ads directly from Instagram. Learn more about Meta ads best practices here.

Benefits of using Instagram CRM integrations

An automated Instagram CRM connection helps you get the most out of your Instagram advertising. With an Instagram CRM integration, you can:

• Allow multiple team members to view your Instagram ad results since all your data is automatically transferred to your CRM.
• Send follow up messages automatically to as many users as you’d like, at once.
• Automatically score and qualify leads.
• Track key metrics and see how well your marketing campaign is performing.
• Improve customer service by giving personalized replies and solving issues fast.

Here are a few of our popular integrations:

Instant form examples on Facebook and Instagram

Facebook instant form example by SumUp

SumUp is a European financial tech company that wanted to boost its Facebook lead generation and sales. They used lead ads with instant forms on Facebook and Instagram. The company added a filtering question to their instant form, “Are you a business owner?” to qualify leads. 

This helped them get more relevant leads and reduce unqualified submissions.

Results:

• 4X lower cost per lead.
• 3X lower cost per customer acquisition.

SumUp’s lead filtering approach led to more genuine leads and increased sales. As a result, their campaign became much more cost-effective.

Instagram instant form example by MG Motor India

MG Motor India wanted to attract high-quality leads for its cars, focusing on people most likely to buy. They ran lead ads for their Hector model. The campaigns included photo and video ads with a “Book Now” button that led to pre-filled instant forms for test drives.

The campaign was optimized for conversion leads, combining Meta’s tools with MG’s customer management system to target high-intent buyers.

Results:

• 40% more qualified leads compared to their regular lead ad campaigns.
• 29% lower cost per qualified lead than their usual campaigns.

MG Motor India generated more qualified leads at a lower cost by optimizing for high-intent audiences.

But what about smaller brands? Do Facebook ads work for small businesses? Find out everything you need to know here.

GymNation’s instant form example on Facebook and Instagram

GymNation used ads that directed people to their website. However, they wanted to gather more high-quality leads at a lower cost. This leading gym chain was able to gain a 64% increase in leads by using Facebook and Instagram lead ads with instant forms. They also reduced their cost per lead by 39%.

They tested two types of lead ads:

• One opened to an instant form directly within Facebook or Instagram, where contact details were auto-filled.
• The other directed users to a form on their website.

Ads with instant forms on Facebook and Instagram brought in more leads at a lower cost. This is a testament to the effectiveness of keeping users within the platform for quicker and easier lead capture.

BYJU’S instant form advertising results

BYJU’S wanted to increase interest in its after-school programs among parents and encourage them to choose BYJU’S as their preferred education provider. They ran testimonial video ads featuring parents, with a ‘Get a Call Back’ button leading to an instant form. Take a look at this Facebook instant form example by BYJU’S.

This made it easy for parents to submit their contact info without leaving Facebook, streamlining lead collection.

The outcome:

• 7.9-point higher ad recall
• 4.3-point lift in consideration
• 3-point increase in action intent
• More efficient collection of high-quality leads using instant forms

Facebook instant form example by Female Invest

Female Invest is a Danish guidance service for women investors. The company aimed to close the investment gender gap by offering educational resources and webinars on personal finance and investment. 

To attract more participants to its free webinars and drive subscriptions, Female Invest used Facebook lead ads and instant forms with conversion leads performance goal.

Female Invest targeted adult women in Denmark with personalized ads. This method allowed the company to focus on generating higher-quality leads, leveraging pre-filled forms, and integrating them with a CRM system to improve performance and measurement. 

This approach simplified the sign-up process and increased the relevance of the leads the brand generated.

Results:

• 7% increase in leads.
• 6% lower cost per lead.

Facebook instant form example by NTT East

NTT East is a regional telecommunications provider in Japan that wanted to improve the performance of its marketing campaigns for the GigaRaku Camera. The company tested Facebook lead ads as an alternative to its conventional photo ad campaigns to achieve this.

By using lead ads with instant form, NTT East allowed users to seamlessly submit their contact information without leaving Facebook. The forms were pre-filled with users’ existing Facebook profile information, making the process faster and reducing the likelihood of form abandonment.

The lead ads campaign was tested against traditional photo ads using the conversion objective, running in both Feed and Stories placements.

Results:

• 2.2X higher clickthrough rate compared to traditional photo ad campaigns.
• 88% lower cost per lead than the photo ad campaigns using the conversion objective.

Facebook instant form example by Universidad Villanueva

Universidad Villanueva is a private university in Madrid that sought to attract potential students by generating high-quality leads for its admissions team. The university tested Advantage+ shopping campaigns alongside its existing Facebook and Instagram campaigns to boost its marketing efforts.

They also used automation and machine learning through Advantage+ shopping campaigns. This strategy helped simplify their campaign management while improving targeting and efficiency. The A/B test compared its traditional manually managed campaigns with the automated Advantage+ campaigns, using the same creative elements across both setups.

Results:

• 66% lower cost per action with Advantage+ shopping campaigns.
• 3.7X higher conversion rate than the usual campaign setup.

Benefits of integrating Meta instant forms with LeadsBridge

Automation is the backbone of your lead generation strategy. Integrating Meta instant forms with LeadsBridge is an intelligent way to boost your lead generation efforts.

When you create an interconnected data technology stack, you can automate the process of moving leads from Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to your CRM or email marketing tools. This offers much more than meets the eye.

Here are the top 5 benefits of connecting LeadsBridge with Meta:

1. Instant data updates: You’ll get your leads in real time, allowing you to follow up with them quickly.

2. Save time: You can automate repetitive tasks so your team can focus on more important work.
3. Reduce errors: No more manual data entry, which lowers the risk of mistakes.
4. Better targeting: It can potentially improve your conversion rates through implementing the Conversion leads performance goal. This way, you’ll optimize your audience segments, and as a result, boost the effectiveness of your lead forms and drive higher-quality leads.

5. Track customer journeys: You’ll be able to build a connected system where you can easily see the full customer journey with all your data in one place.
6. Sending Instagram and Facebook leads to email for free. Learn more here.

You can use LeadsBridge to create Facebook lead ads-CRM integrations and Instagram lead ads-CRM integrations. This makes your marketing campaigns even more efficient by allowing you to access your lead data as it comes in.

Final thought

Meta instant forms are easy to use. But the reason they’ve become so popular is because they’re a powerful way to collect valuable lead data. As we saw with the previous instant form examples, they can also help you get more conversions and understand your customers better.

Once you’ve got your leads, managing the data is just as important. That’s where LeadsBridge comes in. Connecting lead ads allows you to easily sync your lead data with the rest of your marketing tools. With just a few clicks, you can automate your workflows, letting LeadsBridge handle the data management workflows for you.

Connect Meta instant forms and LeadsBridge today and watch your business grow!