Meta’s got some new enhancements for its lead generation ads, including AI-powered targeting, and verification and lead nurturing tools for your promotions.

Meta says that the new options will provide more capacity for marketers to tap into demand in the “Q5” period, which is the after-Christmas quiet time, when opportunities are high.

Well, theoretically at least. If platforms keep promoting the opportunities of Q5, then no doubt more brands will be jumping on board, which could mean that demand gets real high, real quick.

But based on previous years, Q5 presents more opportunities, and these new lead-gen updates could help.

First off, Meta’s making its Advantage+ leads campaign option available globally, so more marketers can tap into the power of its AI-powered targeting.

As explained by Meta:

“Advantage+ leads campaigns is Meta’s latest end-to-end campaign automation solution, built specifically for advertisers focused on generating high-quality leads. Advertisers benefit from Meta’s most advanced AI-optimizations by leveraging Advantage+ audience, placement, and budget, giving our AI the flexibility to find the most cost-effective, quality leads at scale.”

Meta’s very keen to highlight the benefits of its evolving AI ad targeting tools, which it says are producing better results, based on relevance matching for each user.

Which makes sense. AI tools are essentially super-powered pattern recognition, and an AI system built on Meta’s engagement data should be able to match the patterns that see this or that user become more likely to tap on each specific ad.

That’s seemingly the case with Advantage+ leads campaigns:

“Businesses using Advantage+ leads campaigns saw 14% lower cost per lead and 10% lower cost per qualified lead, on average.”

Results will vary, but Meta’s betting a lot on improved performance of its ad system, and as it continues to invest in AI, it should be better at finding the right audience for your ads.

Meta’s also rolling out new lead qualifying tools, which will ensure that the leads you are getting are legit.

Using SMS or email verification, Meta says that advertisers will be able to reduce spam and false information in their lead gen forms.

“Advertisers can require prospective leads to verify their phone number with a new SMS verification feature. Or if using the “require work email” feature, leads will be required to provide a valid corporate email before submitting an instant form (available on Instagram or via the Marketing API). We’re also testing the ability to confirm lead addresses are valid prior to instant form submission.”

To be clear, Meta’s lead gen forms auto-populate, so this seems like a lesser issue on Facebook and IG. But you can manually input the information, and these options will give marketers another way to verify respondent information within the process.

Meta’s also testing an “automated lead generation agent,” which will respond to lead gen ad queries.

“This tool unlocks instant, 24/7 lead nurturing after interest is expressed in a service. The automated agent offers a variety of capabilities; for example, obtaining a lead’s availability for a follow-up phone call.”

Meta now offers a range of ways to train your own business AI chatbot, which can engage via Messenger and/or WhatsApp, and these new lead nurturing options could help you capitalize on leads faster, ensuring better response.

Meta’s also testing third-party messaging templates integrations (via Manychat and Botcake), while advertisers can now also create one campaign that generates leads through both website and instant forms.

“This new feature optimizes an ad for two conversion locations within a single ad set or campaign, dynamically delivering instant forms to those interested in quick submissions and website forms to those who prefer more context from a website before submitting information.”

Finally, Meta’s also improving the integration process within its Conversions API, which will enable marketers using platforms like Salesforce and Zapier to streamline the onboarding flow, and utilize more options.

In terms of streamlining, advertisers will now be able to optimize for a single conversion event directly in the ad creation flow, which will then guide Meta’s AI targeting to optimize for that outcome.

So rather than having to go through a multi-stage set-up process, you’ll now be able to utilize Meta’s AI targeting for a key focus outcome within your regular campaign creation process.

Meta’s also enabling more options via its Conversions API:

 “Advertisers who integrate their CRM with Zapier can now send up to 100,000 lead events to Conversions API for free, and beginning next month, advertisers using Salesforce’s Sales Cloud can directly send lead events from their CRM via Conversions API, in addition to Salesforce Data Cloud available today.”

So a range of ways to update your lead gen promotions, which could help you drive more response this holiday season.

You can read more about Meta’s lead gen ad updates here.