There are a lot of options when it comes to advertising across Facebook. From increasing your page likes, to generating more visibility to your page posts, you can really get creative with your content. However, with all of the options – some of it can get confusing. What are all of these grey areas, and how do we navigate the differences between all of these ad styles? Specifically – what is the difference between a website clicks ad, a website conversion ad, and a lead generation ad. It sounds like they all have the same goal right? Not so – here’s a crash course on what each ad is and how they differ.

Website Clicks Ad

A website clicks ad is pretty self-explanatory. You create an ad and direct it back to a specific web page or landing page. You can upload a custom image, add a blurb about the post, insert the link you wish to drive traffic to and voila! You’re now targeting an ad to users who may be interested in what your web page has to offer. Now when a user sees your ad and clicks on it they’ll be taken to your page where they can browse and take further action, however the job of the ad was done when they landed on your site. This is where this ad differs from a conversion ad.

Website Conversion Ad

A website conversion ad has the same essential bones as a website clicks ad in the sense of set-up, looks, and targeting – however the goal of it is different. A conversion pixel will need to be placed on the web page/form that you want to track conversions from, and the ad will direct people to that page, thus encouraging an action to take place. Using that code that was placed, you can track what people do on your website – from browsing web pages and registering for a seminar to making a purchase, you can track their actions after they saw your ad on Facebook.

Lead Generation Ad

So what is all this business about lead generation ads? Surely there can’t be yet another website click (type) ad that is actually different? Oh but it can. A lead gen ad will allow you to create an ad similar in looks and feel to both the website clicks ad and website conversion ad but the difference is that it allows you to add a form to collect information from people interested in your business to hopefully convert into a customer. You can then download that lead list to either add to your newsletter list or submit to your sales team to follow-up with, the opportunities are endless.

Each of these ads can allow you to achieve different goals. Are you just interested in driving up site traffic? Do you want to track the actions taken once a user reaches your site? Or do you want to collect useful information on potential customers to further market to them? The choice is yours, now you have the knowledge and the tools to make it happen.

Stay social my friends.