Why Facebook quote requests have a bad reputation, and how to qualify them

"I tried Facebook, I got rubbish leads." That is the sentence I hear most often on a first call.

It is almost always true, and it rarely describes a platform problem. It describes a default setting doing exactly what it was asked to do: maximise the number of forms submitted, without caring who submits them.

Here is what is actually happening, and how to fix it.

Why the default setting produces browsers

Meta's native form fills in three seconds: name, email and phone number are pre-filled by the platform. The user taps twice and it is sent.

The result: people who never really formulated a request, who do not remember making it when you call, and who had no dated project.

Add a campaign objective set to lead volume, and the algorithm does its job diligently: it goes looking for the profiles that fill in forms easily. Not the ones who buy.

The six settings that change everything

1. Move from the native form to a landing page

The contact has to leave the app, land on your page, read it, then fill it in. That takes thirty seconds of effort instead of three.

You will get fewer enquiries at a higher unit cost. The number of useful appointments almost always goes up.

If you want to keep the native form, Meta offers a higher-intent option that adds a confirmation step. That is an acceptable compromise.

2. Add fields that require commitment

Town, type of project, timing, rough budget, owner or tenant. Every extra field pushes volume down and quality up.

The most effective field is the timing: someone who ticks "within three months" has a project, and someone who ticks "just looking" is telling you exactly where they stand.

3. Optimise on what counts

If you can feed the information back to Meta, optimise on the appointment booked rather than on the form submitted. The algorithm will go looking for different profiles.

That requires server-side conversion tracking and a signal coming back from your own tracking tool. It is the most technical setting on this list, and the one with the greatest effect over time.

4. Say it plainly in the ad

An ad that says "from this budget upwards" or "within this area only" will put some people off. Good: the ones who stay know what they are getting into.

That feels counter-intuitive to a lot of advertisers, and it is nonetheless one of the most effective levers available.

5. Tighten the area

You work within a given radius. Every enquiry outside it is a refusal you paid for. Check too that the targeting covers people who live in the area, not those merely passing through.

6. Call back within the hour

This is not an advertising setting, but it is what saves the most contacts.

A homeowner who fills in a form at 9pm has often filled in two or three. If they do not hear from you until the day after next, they have already booked with someone else — and you will conclude the lead was bad.

Set up an immediate notification and an automatic confirmation message stating when you will call.

The right indicator

Stop looking at the cost per enquiry. Look at the cost per attended appointment.

An example everyone recognises:

Campaign A has all the pretty numbers. Campaign B fills the diary. If you steer on cost per enquiry, you will switch off the good one.

What you have to accept

A well-qualified campaign produces fewer enquiries, more expensive each, and a better-filled diary.

That is hard to accept when you look at the dashboard, because every surface metric gets worse. It is nonetheless exactly what you should be aiming at, and it is why I always measure in appointments obtained, never in number of contacts.

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Going further: Facebook ads for a pool builder and What a signed job really costs through online advertising. Compare with buying: buying leads or generating them.

Your current leads are going nowhere? Book a 30-minute call. We look at your campaigns, your form and your call-back time.