Solved: Facebook Instant Forms vs. Landing Page Quality

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on this. It's a debate that comes up a lot, but honestly, framing it as "Instant Forms vs. Landing Pages" is looking at the problem the wrong way round. It's not about which one is better overall, but which one is the right tool for a specific job. Most people get this wrong and end up burning a load of cash before they figure it out.

The truth is, both can work brilliantly, and both can be a complete disaster. The outcome depends entirely on your goal, your offer, and how you set them up. I'll walk you through how we think about it and make the decision for the campaigns we run.

We'll need to look at the real question: Are you hunting for volume or quality?

This is the first and most important question you need to answer. Your choice flows directly from this. Anyone who tells you one is always better than the other doesn't really understand the mechanics of paid advertising.

Meta's Instant Forms are built for one thing: reducing friction. They pre-fill a user's contact information (name, email, phone) directly from their Facebook or Instagram profile. A user sees an ad, taps a button, confirms their pre-filled details, and submits. The whole process takes seconds and they never have to leave the app. Because it's so easy, you will almost always get a higher number of leads and a lower Cost Per Lead (CPL). The downside? This low friction can attract a lot of tyre-kickers, people who are mildly curious but have low buying intent. They submit the form because it's easy, not necessarily because they're ready to buy.

Landing Pages are the opposite. A user clicks your ad, they're taken away from the social media app, they have to wait for your website to load, they have to read your copy, and then they have to manually type in all their information. Every single one of these steps introduces friction. People will drop off at each stage. This means you will almost always get fewer leads and a higher CPL. But here's the upside: the people who actually complete this higher-friction process are sending a massive signal. They are far more invested, more interested, and generally much higher quality. They've put in the effort, which means they're more likely to be serious.

So, the trade-off is clear: Quantity vs. Quality. Neither is inherently 'good' or 'bad'. A business that needs to fill a sales pipeline with as many names as possible for an outbound calling team might prefer the volume from Instant Forms. A B2B company selling a high-ticket service that only wants to speak to highly-qualified decision-makers would be much better off with a Landing Page.

To make this decision clearer, here's a simple flowchart that maps out the thought process.

I'd say you need to get the maths right, or you're just guessing...

The biggest mistake I see people make is obsessing over the Cost Per Lead (CPL). A low CPL looks great in a report, but it's a vanity metric if none of those leads turn into customers. The only metric that actually matters is your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) or your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) for a paying customer. A £50 lead from a landing page that converts into a customer 25% of the time is far cheaper than ten £10 leads from an Instant Form that convert at a rate of 1%.

You need to understand the full-funnel economics. Tbh, most people don't bother to track this properly, which is why they make bad decisions. Let's run the numbers. Let's say your average customer lifetime value (LTV) is £2,000.

• Scenario A: Instant Form. You get leads for £10 each. But they're lower quality, so your sales team only converts 2% of them into customers. To get one customer, you need 50 leads (1 / 0.02). Your true Cost Per Acquisition is 50 leads * £10/lead = £500.
• Scenario B: Landing Page. The leads are more expensive, say £40 each. But they're much higher quality, so your sales team converts 15% of them. To get one customer, you need about 7 leads (1 / 0.15). Your true Cost Per Acquisition is 7 leads * £40/lead = £280.

In this example, the method that produced leads that were 4x more expensive was actually almost twice as profitable in the end. This is the kind of maths that separates successful campaigns from failing ones. This principle was crystal clear in a campaign we ran for a client selling high-ticket industrial products. Initially, using Instant Forms brought in a high volume of leads, but the sales team spent most of their time disqualifying them. We shifted the strategy to drive traffic to a dedicated landing page that detailed the product's specifications and value. The cost per lead was higher, as expected, but the leads that came through were far more educated and serious. The sales cycle shortened dramatically because they were speaking to the right people from the start, proving that the more expensive lead was ultimately far more profitable.

To help you figure this out for your own business, I've built a simple calculator. Play around with the sliders to see how small changes in conversion rates can have a huge impact on your final ROI.

You probably should optimise before you criticise...

Okay, so it sounds like Landing Pages are always better for quality, right? Not necessarily. Too many advertisers give up on Instant Forms because of "low quality leads" without ever trying to properly optimise them. You can dramatically improve the quality of leads from Instant Forms if you're willing to do a bit of work.

First, use the "Higher Intent" form type. When you create your form, Meta gives you two options: "More Volume" or "Higher Intent". The default is volume. Switching to "Higher Intent" adds an extra confirmation screen where users have to review their info and slide to submit. This one small step adds a bit of friction and helps to weed out accidental submissions and people who aren't serious.

Second, and this is the big one, add custom qualifying questions. Don't just settle for name, email, and phone. Add 2-3 multiple-choice or short-answer questions that force the user to actually think and engage. This does two things: it filters out the lazy people, and it gives your sales team valuable information to pre-qualify and segment the leads before they even make a call. For a marketing agency, a good question might be "What is your current monthly advertising budget? (£1k-£5k, £5k-£10k, £10k+)". For a SaaS company, it might be "What is your primary goal with our software? (Save time, Increase revenue, Improve collaboration)".

And finally, you need an instant follow-up process. The value of a lead decays incredibly fast. If you wait 24 hours to contact them, they've already forgotten they even submitted the form. You need to connect your Instant Forms to your CRM or email marketing system using a tool like Zapier, so that the lead gets an automated email or text message the second they submit the form, and your sales team is notified immediately. Speed is everything with these leads.

You'll need the right campaign objective, no matter what...

This brings us to the second part of your question, and it's a really important one. Which campaign objective to use? You'd think for generating leads, you'd pick the "Leads" objective. This is what Meta wants you to do. But in our experience, it's often the wrong choice if you care about quality.

Here's how the algorithm works:

• Leads Objective: This tells Meta's algorithm to "find me people who are most likely to fill out a form, for the lowest possible cost". The system gets very good at finding people who are serial form-fillers. These people might not be your ideal customers, but they are happy to submit their details. This often leads to that low CPL but poor quality we've talked about.
• Conversions Objective (optimised for Leads): This tells the algorithm something much more powerful: "find me people who are similar to the ones who have already become valuable leads for me". To use this, you need to have the Meta Pixel installed correctly on your website and be passing back a 'Lead' event when someone converts. Even if you're using an Instant Form, you can (and should) set up your campaign this way. Over time, the algorithm learns what a 'good' lead looks like for your business and actively seeks out more people like them.

The cost per result might be slightly higher initially with the Conversions objective, but the quality is almost always significantly better in the long run. We almost exclusively use the 'Conversions' objective for lead generation campaigns for our clients. It requires a bit more setup, but it delivers people who are actually likely to become customers, not just fill out a form.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

So, to bring this all together, it's not a simple choice. It's about building a proper strategy. The table below summarises the key decision points and actions for you to take depending on the path you choose. Most advanced advertisers end up using both methods for different parts of their funnel.

As you can see, there's a fair bit to consider. Getting this right isn't just about flicking a switch in Ads Manager; it requires a proper strategy that aligns with your business goals, a solid understanding of your customer, and the technical know-how to implement and track it all correctly. This is often where working with an expert can make a huge difference, saving you from months of expensive trial-and-error.

If you'd like to go through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can look at your current setup and give you some tailored recommendations. Feel free to book a time that works for you.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh