How to create Facebook lead ads with instant forms

It's an ad that opens a form inside Facebook or Instagram, so people can send you their details without leaving the app. Meta may prefill their name, email and phone number. A form has a form type, an optional intro, at least one question, a privacy policy and an ending screen.

Sources: Meta Business Help Centre: About lead ads with instant form, checked 15 October 2026; Meta Business Help Centre: About instant form types, checked 15 October 2026

The simplest route, with short-answer questions only:

1. Go to your Facebook Page and click Advertise, then Create new ad.
2. Under Goal, click Change, select Get more leads and click Save.
3. Add a headline and choose a button label in the Ad creative section.
4. Click Create form, tick the contact details you want (full name is collected by default) and add any short-answer questions.
5. Choose the form language, add your privacy policy link and click Save.
6. Complete the audience, duration, placements and payment sections, then click Publish.

• Meta says you can't target lead ads to people under 18.

Source: Meta Business Help Centre: Create a lead ad with instant form from your Facebook Page, checked 15 October 2026

Ads Manager gives you all form features, such as custom and conditional questions:

1. Go to Ads Manager, click + Create, select Leads and click Continue.
2. Work through the steps until the Conversion section at the ad set level, and choose Instant forms as the conversion location.
3. Under Performance goal, choose Maximise number of leads, or another goal if available.
4. At the ad level, choose Single image or video or Carousel and complete the creative.
5. Under Destination, choose where people go, such as your instant form, then click Publish.

• Meta says that from April 2026 the qualified leads goal needs a Conversions API integration for new campaigns.

Sources: Meta Business Help Centre: How to create a lead ad using Meta Ads Manager, checked 15 October 2026; Meta Business Help Centre: About lead ads with instant form, checked 15 October 2026

From Ads Manager:

1. Open the Ads tab and find the lead ad.
2. Click On-Facebook leads in the results column.
3. Filter by ad, location, language or date, click Next and choose CSV or XLS.
4. Click Download.

• You can also download from the instant forms page or Leads Centre in Meta Business Suite, or connect a CRM.
• Each Leads Centre CSV shows up to 10,000 leads.

Source: Meta Business Help Centre: Download or retrieve your leads data from Meta, checked 15 October 2026

Common problems and Meta's answers:

• Can't edit the form: published forms can't be edited. Duplicate it, make the changes and publish the copy.
• Old leads missing: Meta keeps lead information for 90 days, so older leads can't be downloaded.
• Can't download leads: before permissions are customised, only people with full control of the Page or messaging permissions can download them.
• Saved forms disappearing: Meta keeps only your most recent 100 instant forms.
• Missing question types: forms made from your Page or Business Suite are simpler. Use Ads Manager for more.

Sources: Meta Business Help Centre: Edit a lead ad with instant form, checked 15 October 2026; Meta Business Help Centre: Download or retrieve your leads data from Meta, checked 15 October 2026; Meta Business Help Centre: About lead ads with instant form, checked 15 October 2026

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Zolyp plans the week across your content themes, writes the captions and designs the visuals against your Brand Brain (your tone, colours and rules, saved once), then schedules and publishes to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads. You review and approve the week, and Autopilot lets you hand off publishing theme by theme once you trust the output. Plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, with a 3-day free trial and no card required.