Lead caps are an effective tool to help manage ad spend on your digital sampling campaigns. Part of the Automated Rules feature in Meta Ads Manager, lead caps can be set so that ads automatically turn off when a set amount of leads have been captured.
In this guide, we'll show you how to set up a lead cap and talk about some of the best practices that we recommend. Please note, your screen may look a little different to the screenshots below as Meta updates their Ads Manager interface frequently.
How to create a lead cap
You can create a lead cap from two different areas within Meta Ads Manager. Your first option is to click through from the Campaigns tab. The other option is to click through from a specific Campaign, Ad set or Ad to create the rule. We'll show the latter in this guide, creating a lead cap for a specific campaign. Our goal is to pause all ad activity within the campaign once a certain lead cap is reached.
🤔 Automated rules, such as lead caps, can be set and applied to specific campaigns, ad sets, or ads. The level you choose will depend on what you're trying to achieve.
From the Campaign tab, click Edit alongside the campaign you want to set the lead cap for. Then in the top right corner, click the menu icon and click Create rule.
From there, you will be taken into the Create rule flow. Click the Next button to continue.
In this screen you can:
Give your rule a name
Check that the rule is applied to the selected campaign
Set the action to take. In this example we're going to select turn off campaign.
You are now ready to set up a condition. When the condition is met, the rule will trigger and the action will be carried out automatically.
Select Other > Leads from the dropdown, and then set your quantity. In the example below we've set the cap to 1,100 leads. You need to click the Add button to ensure the condition is applied.
We would recommend leaving the schedule as 'Continuously'. This will allow Meta to check the rule's condition every 30 to 60 minutes.
⚠️ Digital sampling campaigns often drive a high quantity of leads in a short space of time. Due to the fact Meta only check the rule condition every 30 to 60 minutes, it is still possible to exceed the lead cap.
However, it's better to turn the ad off within 30-60 minutes than have it run for longer.
To wrap things up, check the box if you would like to receive a notification when the rule executes, and click Create to complete the flow.
How many leads do I need to collect?
The number of leads you need to collect will depend on a number of factors:
How many samples are available?
Have you added any qualification steps?
Are you utilising SoPost's Intelligent Filtering?
All of the above will impact your lead utilisation rate, and therefore influence the lead cap quantity needed. Please speak to your Customer Success contact at SoPost for guidance.