More newsletter recipients thanks to Facebook lead ads

Case study

Facebook lead ads are perfect for generating new newsletter subscribers in a targeted manner. Inxmail uses its interface to bring the worlds of Facebook and email marketing together. Integration enables automatic data transfer, whichcan be used to dispatch mailings in real time. Freiburg-based Herder Publishing uses the integration to expand the recipients list for the newsletter of its ‘kindergarten heute’ magazine and increased its conversion rate in the process.

Practical example

Requirements

Improved performance for newsletter subscriptions

Herder Publishing has been sending out a newsletter on different topics – not to mention magazines – using the email marketing solution Inxmail Professional since 2003. The publisher uses lead ads campaigns on Facebook to expand the recipients list for the newsletter of its ‘kindergarten heute’ magazine.

These lead ads allow Facebook users to immediately subscribe to the newsletter without having to leave Facebook. Simple and mobile-optimised forms make subscription to the newsletter highly convenient for the user – which hadn’t initially been the case for the Online Marketing team at Herder. The addresses generated in Facebook had to be manually exported from Facebook and imported into Inxmail Professional. The result was that new subscribers experienced a delay in receiving their double opt-in registration email. This in turn had a negative effect on the confirmation rate and the lead ads’ performance.

Implementation

Address generation via Facebook lead ads

All Facebook users who meet the selected target group criteria will see a lead ad from Herder on their timelines. In this case, the ad targets people who work in education and advertises the newsletter of ‘kindergarten heute’. If an interested person clicks this ad, a form for subscribing to the newsletter will open automatically in Facebook.

The best thing of all is that contact information like the user’s name and email address are automatically pre-filled based on information shared to Facebook. The user can then decide what information they would like to provide from Facebook and also add to it or edit it if they wish. After sending this information, the interested person will automatically receive a double opt-in email without delay – all thanks to the Inxmail solution. This means that the future subscriber can immediately confirm their subscription after taking a quick look at their inbox.

Solution

Data transfer in real time thanks to integration

The Inxmail integration with Facebook lead ads makes the manual transfer of newsletter information by means of a CSV file a thing of the past. The interface comes into play as soon as the send button is clicked on Facebook. This enables the recipient data to be automatically transferred from Facebook to the email marketing solution.

The best bit is that the data is transferred in real time. The double opt-in mailing is sent live. This truly paid off for the Marketing team at Herder. Automation has given them more time to pursue other online marketing activities. As well as this, live dispatch of the confirmation email has had a positive effect on the subscription rate.

Results

More efficient processes and higher subscription rates

Live dispatch of the double opt-in subscription mailing has enabled Herder to communicate with the Facebook user in the exact moment that they have both the time and interest to subscribe to the newsletter. The probability that they will confirm their subscription is thus very high. This has a positive overall effect on the conversion rate and truly pays off. The double opt-in rate of newsletter recipients generated via Facebook lead ads is 37 per cent higher than for all other newsletter subscriptions. The costs per subscriber have become more reasonable since the Inxmail interface was introduced and the total expenditure for Facebook lead ads has therefore decreased.

Benefits at a glance

  • Automated transfer of prospective customers’ data in real time through integration of Facebook lead ads with Inxmail Professional
  • Manual transfer of potential new subscribers becomes a thing of the past, resulting in greater efficiency and a better performance for lead ads
  • Wide reach and lead quality on Facebook
  • Optimised forms and live dispatch of double opt-in subscription mailing has a positive effect on the conversion rate
  • Double opt-in ensures legally compliant email marketing

“Facebook has become the number one address generation channel for our newsletters in terms of cost per lead. The lead rate after double opt-in is higher and therefore the lead ads are less expensive. Since there is no need for manual data transfer, there is also more time to optimise other levers. We owe this to the Inxmail interface.”

Thomas Deyen, Senior Online Marketing Manager, Herder Publishing

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