The Complete Guide to X (Twitter) Lead Generation - Driftrock

X (Twitter). A leading social media platform and medium of communication, this powerful micro-blogging site is shaping trends across the world!

Its impact on modern digital life is quite undeniable. 

For brands and marketers particularly, X (Twitter) presents several opportunities to attract prospects. In fact, you can regularly engage audiences with exciting formats, such as lead generation forms, using the platform's massive capabilities and influence. 

As Elliot Saxton (Head of Customer Experience, Driftrock) points out, "X (Twitter) is still the best platform for conversing with your customers and finding out what they really think by asking them questions, sharing ideas, running polls or offering discounts. And you can do that by using an authentic tone of voice."

X (Twitter) flexibility is what makes it more effective in generating leads. Because X users use it for real-time updates, you can leverage it to reach them in the moment with highly relevant content. 

It's no surprise that the platform has a total ad potential reach of 486 million Twitter users (July 2022). 

People spend as much as 26% more time viewing X ads than other platforms (because they're so engaging!). 

Monetisable daily active X (Twitter) users grew by 13% to 217 million in Q4 of 2021 alone. 

Plus, it's still the unbeatable #1 platform for discovery!

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This guide takes on the exciting task of X Lead Generation Forms to capture more leads and raise brand awareness.

Generating leads via X (Twitter)

There are two broad ways of generating leads on X:

1. Without ads

There are multiple ways you can generate leads on X organically. 

Start with optimising your brand profile. To keep prospects interested, ensure your bio communicates the value you provide with a visible landing page link, a pinned tweet (preferably, this should be a lead magnet with clear CTA) and a branded header image.

Next, you may add brand-related keywords or hashtags to your bio and tweets to improve your discoverability on the platform.

Remember, your leads will stick with you if you constantly provide relevant information and interact with them. Find out what they consume by deriving insights using X Analytics. Also experiment with multiple content formats for better engagement.

It's challenging to run a business while being continuously active on social media. An easy way out is to batch-create content and follow a posting schedule. For instance, posting during the work week best suits B2B companies. Whereas for B2C, weekends may offer higher traffic.

Another way to make your X profile more discoverable is by (we know, this is a little obvious) becoming more visible. You can answer relevant audience questions and participate in X Chats, Communities and Spaces on topics related to your offerings.

Setting up organic lead generation on X is time-consuming. And it certainly doesn't bode well for a brand in a fast-moving business environment.

That’s where paid X advertising can pop in. 

2. X (Twitter) Lead Generation Cards

X Lead Generation Cards (no longer active) were introduced in 2013 and replaced by a larger advertising suite over the years. These cards were essentially promoted tweets for capturing form fills (aka leads). 

At the time, lead generation cards were revolutionary – allowing users to share information without ever having to leave X via a form linked to a tweet. The form was a concise landing page within the tweet.

All brands had to do was develop a compelling tweet copy limited to 50 characters, sharing their offer with creatives and a CTA.

X Lead Generation card sped up the process of capturing leads while improving the user experience and boosting overall conversion rates. And what's more, they were successful and popular.

Since then, X has segued through cards into X Business accounts.

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3. X (Twitter) Lead Generation Forms (by Driftrock)

Driftrock's X Lead Generation Forms bring back this popular ad format.

These forms can be created in a few clicks to improve your X conversion rates, letting you collect lead data from promoted tweets, analyse them within Driftrock's platform and pass them onto your CRM in real-time.

When a X user sees your promoted tweet and clicks the image or CTA, they're directed to a Twitter Landing Page Form hosted by Driftrock. The form loads almost instantly with information fields you want the user to fill in – including name, email address and postcode.

The forms are customised for the platform with tracking and best practices. Marketers can monitor form views and lead submissions using X Conversion Pixel to optimise their audiences and campaigns without coding.

X lead forms are effective because they combine an authentic message with a clear benefit for audiences to engage. You can use these forms to offer content that provides genuine value to your target audience and aligns with your organic tone of voice.

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You can set up lead generation forms on X in various ad formats, which we’ve listed below. 

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The X (Twitter) ads library has a plethora of campaign types falling under three buckets – awareness, consideration and conversion. While we dive into them, we’ve also highlighted the best campaign type to generate leads. 

A. Awareness

1. Reach

You can use a reach campaign with a lead generation form to maximise the number of people who see your ad in a given period. It builds awareness, enhances brand perception and increases your relevance. 

B. Consideration

1. Video Views

A video views campaign, as the name suggests, can extend your video's reach and drive more views through native video, GIF and live video.

2. Pre-roll Views

You can pair a pre-roll views campaign with some of the best and most-watched video content. 15+ content categories are available for you to choose from.

3. Website Traffic

You can drive prospects to your website through different ad formats with the website traffic campaign. This type offers a X (Twitter) Pixel setup with conversions API.

Among the X (Twitter) ads library, website traffic, along with Driftrock's Pixel, is the best way to capture leads.

4. Engagement

Engagement campaigns encourage more people to interact with your content and brand, driving more conversions. 

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C. X (Twitter) Ad Specs

We've also made this guide easier and more comprehensive by listing down X creative ad specs.

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Given their effectiveness, you're probably curious to know how you can set up X Lead Generation Forms using Driftrock. And that's what we get into next.

You can start generating more leads from X in two easy parts – 

• Part 1: Create your X form within Driftrock 
• Part 2: Create your campaign on X and connect your Form

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Part 1: Creating your X (Twitter) form within Driftrock 

1. Login or Sign Up to your Driftrock account

2. From the Lead Capture Library click on the Setup button for X Landing Page Form

3. Give your Capture a name

4. Next, go to the setup step in the capture wizard. In the capture wizard:

• Upload your logo and a hero image for your X (Twitter) Landing Page form. 
• Next, fill in the fields such as title, description, and form heading. 
• You will see a preview of your form on the right side. You can also click on the Preview Form button to view the form in a new tab. 
• Start adding form fields. These fields are the questions in your forms. You will have a selection of Driftrock Fields to map these questions to or you can also add a new custom field. Once you have selected your field, you have the option to change the question text from what has been suggested.

• Add consent information you would like your user to view. You will find this under the consents section. We will store the information to indicate customers who are consenting to marketing. You can also attach your privacy & policy URL in the Form Builder.
• Lastly, customise your thank you page and add a call to action + URL that you would like your user to visit after finishing the form.

5. Add the X (Twitter) Conversion Pixel (X Event ID)

• To get the best performance from your X lead generation campaigns, add your X Conversion Pixel to the Driftrock form. 
• In your Twitter ads select “Events manager” under “tools”. 
• If you have never created a Pixel on X before, you will need to add an event source. In “Events Manager” click on “Add event source”. 
• Click the “Save event source” button to save your new Pixel. You will be brought to the “Events Manager” main screen. 
• Next, you’ll need to create events to track actions across your website. Click the “Add events” button.

• Give your event a name and in Event type, Select “Lead (formerly sign up)”.
• In the next step, select “Define event with a code”

• From the event installation step, select “Install with Tag Manager”. Copy the Event ID.
• Paste the Event ID into the settings of your Driftrock X Landing Page Form. 
• Now all form views and lead submissions will be tracked on X! 

6. Optional Steps

• Adding static fields to your form (Using static fields allows every lead to have a fixed value for the field. This will be attached to every lead a user submits. These are often things such as campaign ID, Lead Type, and any additional information that isn't asked as a question on the form itself.  Once each static value has a DR field, these fields will be mapped to a CRM field in the next stage.)
• Transform incoming Driftrock fields. (You have the option to transform the values for an incoming field using a lookup table. For example, if you wanted to convert a range of model names to numerical IDs, you would set up a transformation field.)
• Add/Edit marketing tracking information.

7. After building the form, it’s time to map your data and connect your CRM. 

• Click on destinations on top of the wizard and click on connect new destination. Select your destination from the options lists presented.
• You then need to map each Driftrock field (that you just created either in form fields or static fields) to your corresponding CRM field. 
• Once you have finished setting up your form, head back to your lead captures and activate the sync.

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Part II: Creating your campaign on X (Twitter) and connecting your Form. 

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1. Login or Sign up for a X Ads Manager account.
2. Create a campaign and ad group in your account. 
3. We recommend using a Website Traffic campaign objective and optimising for conversions that are tracked with the X Pixel that you set up in Step 1. This typically results in a lower cost per lead.
4. Select existing tweets or create a new ad to promote through this campaign.
5. In your Ads use the Driftrock link as your destination link. 

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Bonus tip: add UTM parameters to your link to automatically capture the UTM data in Driftrock.

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Driftrock has two key features that optimise your campaign for maximum ROI.

1. Reporting and tracking 

You can connect to X (Twitter) and track conversions across the sales funnel with Driftrock.

Tracking leads throughout the customer journey helps you identify how many high-quality leads X (Twitter) Lead Generation Forms generate.

With this information, you can gauge and measure the channel's effectiveness. 

Once you've measured the platform’s contribution, you can allocate resources appropriately to grow lead volumes. Granular data on parameters such as lead source, campaign, ad, keywords, and more can help you optimise your X campaigns to drive more sales.

If you use conversion pixels to track form views and submissions on X, you can do that from within Driftrock's platform.

Since all businesses function differently, Driftrock also lets you set up customised dashboards, making reporting frictionless and easy to understand.

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2. Lead Validation

Lead validation is critical in ensuring that only high-quality and viable leads pass on to the CRM. It verifies and determines the quality of any prospect.

Driftrock's lead validation process checks parameters such as email, phone number and location, and runs the contact data through suppression lists. You can also directly sync leads to support tools like the CRM or email, analytics and automation platforms once they're validated. 

It blocks invalid leads from landing in your rep's lap, to save time, improve productivity and convert leads faster.

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Now that we’ve seen how X lead generation works, let’s get down to how it’s executed in the real world!

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1. Al Watania Agriculture

A social initiative for food security in Saudi Arabia, Al Watania Agriculture specialises in organic agricultural production. The brand ran an engagement campaign on X (Twitter) to build awareness, generate leads and increase sales.

The campaign succeeded due to Al Watania's high-quality video featuring real people. Moreover, an easy-to-understand Tweet copy showed their value for culture and people. This made it relatable to the audience while staying aligned with the brand image.

The result? 50% increase in sales, compared to ads on other platforms, and a high engagement rate of 44%!

2. Airtable

Airtable is a cloud-based, spreadsheet-database hybrid solution used to build collaborative applications for work teams.

In their X (Twitter) lead generation ads, the brand wanted to target middle and bottom-of-the-funnel users, driving them traffic to the website with a lead magnet.

The campaign is an excellent example of attracting prospects by laying down hard-hitting statistics, highlighting the problem at a glance and offering a relevant solution with a direct CTA. 

3. HOKA

Hoka develops performance footwear and apparel for athletes.

During COVID-19, the brand wanted to celebrate nurses and their tenacity by positioning its high-performance, comfortable footwear for nurses to use during this difficult time.

Driving on emotion and relevance, HOKA attracted more leads with a creative Tweet copy. The campaign brought in 4.5 million impressions and a 98% new user rate for the brand.

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While the above brand examples give you some starting ideas, following X (Twitter) best practices ensures your campaign is well-rounded for success.

Here’s everything you need to know:

1. Keep an active presence on X (Twitter)

Consistent tweets boost visibility and engagement, that's key to making the X algorithm work for you. Tweet at least once and at most five times each day during peak engagement hours.

2. Use hashtags purposefully

A X ad receives 10% more attention when you use branded hashtags. Use easy-to-remember hashtags to encourage people to interact. Hop onto relevant, trending hashtags. Avoid too many hashtags in one tweet copy.

3. Be mindful of Tweet copies

The best-performing tweets are 50-100 characters long. Keep your copies simple and direct with a strong CTA (like follow us or sign up). Motivate audiences to take immediate action.

4. Bank on attractive Visuals 

Use eye-catching visuals to deliver your message at a glance. Keep videos short at 15 seconds for a higher completion rate, and add clear branding in the first 3 seconds.

5. Be mobile-friendly

Choose more vertical image or video formats, so the full tweet is viewable at once. Test how your creative appears on a mobile screen before going live.

6. Monitor and optimise

Start with broad targeting and check the audience's response to your content. Optimise the campaign after a couple of weeks and periodically fine-tune it for success.

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X (Twitter) continues to remain the best platform for discovering trends and hot topics. Given its relevance and effectiveness, marketers and brands must make the most of it to drive authentic conversations.

Brands can capture high-quality leads from X with Driftrock's Lead Generation Forms through authentic branding, accountable targeting and optimised conversions.

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