Solved: Prevent Low Intent Leads Submitting Lead Form

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

I've had a look over the situation with your joiner client's campaign. On the surface, an £8.35 cost per lead sounds fantastic, and it's easy to see why you'd think the campaign is doing really well. But as you've discovered, the real story is in the quality of those leads, not the quantity. Calling people who have no idea why you're ringing is a frustrating waste of time for your client and a quick way to burn through goodwill and budget.

This is an incredibly common problem, especially with Meta's Lead Forms. The platform is designed to make it as frictionless as possible for users to submit their details, which often means you get a high volume of low-intent, 'tyre-kicker' leads. The good news is that this is entirely fixable. It's not about small tweaks; it's about fundamentally rethinking the strategy from the ground up, focusing on attracting high-intent customers from the outset, rather than just collecting contact details cheaply.

I've put together some detailed thoughts for you below. We're going to move away from chasing a low Cost Per Lead (CPL) and instead build a system designed to deliver a low Cost Per *Qualified* Lead (CPQL), which is the only metric that actually matters to your client's bottom line.

We'll need to look at the real cost: Why your CPL is a dangerous distraction

Right, let's get straight to the heart of the matter. You're currently measuring success by the Cost Per Lead (CPL). You have 14 leads for £116, giving you a CPL of £8.35. You've noted this seems "really good". And in a vacuum, for some industries, it would be. But for a high-ticket service like joinery, it's a massive red flag. Why? Because it tells you absolutely nothing about the business value being generated.

Your client confirmed that only 2 out of 14 leads were "high intent". That's a qualification rate of about 14%. The other 12 leads were essentially worthless. They cost your client not only the ad spend (£8.35 x 12 = £100.20) but also their valuable time making pointless phone calls. When you factor this in, the picture changes dramatically.

The metric you should be obsessed with is the Cost Per Qualified Lead (CPQL). This is the true cost of finding someone who is genuinely interested in your client's services. Let's do the maths on your current campaign:

Total Ad Spend: £116
Total Qualified Leads: 2
Your Actual CPQL: £116 / 2 = £58

Suddenly, the campaign doesn't look so cheap, does it? You're paying £58 for every real conversation. This single shift in perspective is the most important change you can make. Stop optimising for cheap form-fills and start optimising for valuable conversations. When you optimise for a low CPL, Meta's algorithm will dutifully find you people who absent-mindedly click and let their phone auto-fill a form in two seconds. They are cheap to reach precisely because they are not in-demand, low-intent users. You're basically paying Facebook to find you the worst possible prospects.

I've built a small calculator for you below. Play around with the numbers. See what happens to your CPQL when your lead qualification rate is low, even if your CPL looks great. This should make it crystal clear why we need to focus on quality above all else.

I'd say you need to sell a specific solution, not a general service

The next peice of the puzzle is your offer. I'd wager your current ads say something generic like "Local Joiner Available" or "Quality Carpentry Services". This is a massive mistake. A generic message attracts a generic, low-quality audience. You are shouting into a crowded room and hoping someone, anyone, listens. It's the advertising equivalent of a flyer through the door – mostly ignored, occasionally glanced at, and rarely acted upon by someone serious.

To attract high-quality clients, you need to advertise a high-value, specific solution to a painful problem. Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, "I desperately need to hire a joiner today." But they absolutely do wake up thinking, "I'm sick of the mess in this living room, we've got no storage and the TV looks awful just stuck on the wall."

Your client doesn't sell wood and screws; they sell organisation, beauty, and increased home value. You need to build your campaigns around that. Instead of one "general joinery" campaign, you should create separate, focused campaigns for specific, high-margin services. For example:

• -> Bespoke Media Walls: This is a very popular, high-ticket item. People searching for this have a clear idea of what they want and a budget to match. The pain point is a messy, unstylish living room. The solution is a beautiful, integrated entertainment and storage unit.
• -> Custom Under-Stair Storage: This solves the pain of wasted space and clutter in hallways. It's a specific problem with a specific solution that adds huge practical value to a home.
• -> Fitted Wardrobes & Alcove Units: Again, this targets the pain of poor storage in bedrooms and living rooms. It's a premium product compared to standalone furniture.

When you advertise a specific solution like a "media wall," three magical things happen:

1. Self-Qualification: Only people interested in a media wall will click the ad. You immediately filter out 99% of the time-wasters.
2. Perceived Expertise: Your client is no longer just 'a joiner'; they become 'the local media wall specialist'. This specialisation builds trust and allows them to command higher prices.
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3. Targeting Becomes Easier: It's much simpler to find an audience for a specific product than a general service, which we'll get into next.

This is probably the biggest strategic shift you can make. Pick ONE of these high-value services with your client and build the entire next campaign around it. The ad copy, the images/videos, and the lead form should all be hyper-focused on that single solution. Your lead quality will transform overnight, because you'll be starting a conversation with someone about a specific project they are already considering, not just a vague 'need' for a tradesperson.

You probably should re-engineer your lead form for quality

Now that we've sorted the offer, let's fix the mechanism you're using to capture leads. As we've established, the default Meta Lead Form is built for speed and volume, which is the enemy of quality. Your current form with a free text box is a good start, but it's not enough. We need to add what I call 'positive friction' – a series of questions that forces the user to stop, think, and actively engage with the process. A serious buyer planning to spend thousands on a joinery project will not be deterred by a 30-second form. A time-waster scrolling on the toilet will.

The goal here is to make them qualify themselves to you before your client even picks up the phone. Here’s how you should structure the new form:

1. Ditch the Open-Ended First Question: "Provide details about the work" is too vague. It invites rambling, low-quality responses. Replace it with a required multiple-choice question.

-> Question: "What specific service are you interested in?"

Options:
- Bespoke Media Wall
- Fitted Wardrobes
- Under-Stair Storage
- Alcove Shelving
- Other (please specify)

This immediately segments your leads and makes the follow-up call much easier.

2. Add a Budget Qualifier: This is the single most powerful question you can ask. It feels a bit forward, but it is absolutely essential for filtering out people who can't afford your client's services. It saves everyone a huge amount of time.

-> Question: "To help us provide an accurate estimate, what is your approximate budget for this project?"

Options:
- Under £1,500
- £1,500 - £3,000
- £3,000 - £5,000
- Over £5,000

Now your client can instantly prioritise calling the leads in the higher budget brackets.

3. Add a Timeline Qualifier: This helps separate the serious, ready-to-go buyers from the "just browsing" crowd.

-> Question: "How soon are you looking to have this work completed?"

Options:
- As soon as possible
- Within the next 3 months
- 3-6 months from now
- Just gathering ideas

Again, this allows for easy prioritisation.

4. Add a 'High-Intent' Custom Question: Finally, add one question that cannot be auto-filled and requires a moment of actual thought. This is the final hurdle that breaks the mindless scrolling pattern.

-> Question: "Please provide the postcode of the property where the work is required."

This is simple, non-intrusive, and confirms they are in your client's service area. It forces them to type something manually.

By implementing this multi-step, multi-question form, you will see your number of leads plummet. And that is a good thing. Your CPL will skyrocket, maybe to £20, £30, or even £40. But your qualification rate will jump from 14% to maybe 70% or 80%. Your Cost Per Qualified Lead will fall dramatically, and your client will spend their time talking to genuinely interested people with a budget, which is exactly what they are paying you for.

You'll need to find customers who are actually looking

The final, and perhaps most crucial point, is about the platform itself. Facebook and Instagram are 'interruption' platforms. You are showing ads to people who are there to look at photos of their friends' holidays, not to hire a joiner. Even with perfect targeting, you are fighting for attention against a tide of entertainment. For generating leads for a local service business, this is often an uphill, expensive battle to find quality.

The most powerful leads for any trade business come from 'intent' platforms, and the king of intent is Google. When someone goes to Google and types in "bespoke media wall installer in manchester", they are not casually browsing. They have a problem, they are actively seeking a solution, and they have their wallet ready. This is a fundamentally different type of prospect than someone you've interrupted on social media.

While your £10/day budget is small, it's far better spent on Google Search Ads targeting a handful of high-intent, location-specific keywords than on Meta. We've worked on many campaigns for service businesses. For instance, a campaign we're currently running for an HVAC company in a competitive area is seeing costs of around $60 per lead. On the other hand, one of our best consumer services campaigns for a home cleaning company achieved a cost of just £5 per lead. The exact cost will depend on your client's location and competition, but the principle remains the same: the quality from Google Search is almost always superior.

You'd want to build a small, tightly-focused campaign around keywords like:

• -> [joiner near me]
• -> [carpenter in CITY]
• -> [bespoke media walls CITY]
• -> [fitted wardrobes installer COUNTY]

The cost per click might be higher (£2-£5), and your on-paper CPL might end up being £40-£50. But if 90% of those leads are qualified, your CPQL is excellent, and your client is converting them into profitable jobs. This is how you build a sustainable lead generation engine for a trade business. Meta can be used later for remarketing or for showcasing visual work to build a brand, but for pure lead generation, Google Search should be your foundation.

I've included another calculator below to help you project the potential return from a small Google Ads budget. It shows how even with a higher CPL, the superior lead quality and conversion rate can lead to a much stronger Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

My main recommendations for you

To pull all this together, this is a summary of the strategic changes I'd recommend you implement for your client's campaign. Moving away from the current approach and adopting this framework will shift your focus from generating cheap clicks to generating profitable work for your client.

Implementing these changes will require a bit more work up-front than simply running a generic leads campaign, but the difference in results will be night and day. Your client will go from being frustrated with time-wasting calls to being busy with profitable, enjoyable projects. That's how you prove your value and build a long-term, successful partnership.

This is obviously a lot to take in, and getting the setup right—from the keyword research on Google to the audience building on Meta and the technical implementation of the forms—can be tricky. A small mistake in campaign setup can easily waste the entire budget without producing a single valuable lead. This is where leaning on experience can make a significant difference. We specialise in building these kinds of high-quality lead generation systems for businesses, ensuring the strategy is sound and the execution is flawless from day one.

If you'd like to discuss this in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can go through your client's specific situation and map out a precise plan of action. It could be a really valuable 20-30 minutes for you both.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh