LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms – Potential Game Changer in Business Lead Generation?

LinkedIn has launched a new feature in sponsored content campaigns  aptly named LinkedIn Lead Gen forms. Just like Facebook’s lead gen forms, these will provide an extremely easy user experience.

Ad posted via LinkedIn sponsored campaigns.

Instead of having to filling out a form with a few fields, now, at the click of a button the form is automatically populated with user information taken right from the user’s LinkedIn profile. On a mobile device, filling in even a couple of fields can be a painful task and creates a barrier for user follow through.
However, unlike Facebook, these forms promise to be much more qualitative. As LinkedIn is a network for professionals, influencers, industry thought leaders and most importantly, business decision makers, user profiles are usually complete and accurate. When a form gets automatically pre-populated with this profile information, the ratio of high quality lead forms will go up, and bogus leads will go down – thus the main advantage of these LinkedIn Lead Gen forms, compared to other social networks.

Automatically Populated LinkedIn Lead Gen Form

It doesn’t end there. After users submit the form, they can be presented with an in-app thank you page that immediately connects them with more content or they can be taken to the website.

Follow Up page to LinkedIn Lead Gen Form

Right now, the new functionality is only available on mobile.  That really isn’t much of  a hindrance considering that according to LinkedIn, 80% of engagement with their Sponsored Content campaigns occurs via smartphones.

LinkedIn is saying there is a lot of great reporting and lead management functionality to go along with this, such as integration with CRM systems. You can read more about all that “technical stuff”, but the most important take away is that businesses can now amplify their targeting, and greatly improve on the quantity and quality of leads. That’s a great bottom line.

This tactic won’t apply to every business.  But for most businesses looking for leads from other professionals in identifiable and targetable demographics – this can be a game changer.