How to Connect Facebook to Mailchimp

Bridging the gap between the audience you've built on Facebook and your dedicated email list is a game-changer for any marketing strategy. Doing so turns casual social media followers into highly engaged subscribers you can connect with directly. This guide provides a complete walkthrough on how to connect Facebook to Mailchimp, covering everything from the official integration to powerful lead ad automation and the best practices to follow once you’re set up.

Why Connect Your Facebook Page to Mailchimp?

Before getting into the step-by-step process, it's worth understanding why this connection is so valuable. At its core, it automates the process of converting your social media traffic into tangible, owned audience members. While you have to play by a platform's rules to reach your followers on Facebook, your email list is an asset you fully control.

Here’s what connecting these two powerhouses allows you to do:

• Grow Your Email List Effortlessly: Allow users to subscribe to your newsletter directly from your Facebook Page or through simple, pre-filled forms in ads. This reduces friction and leads to higher sign-up rates.
• Automate Lead Generation: When a user signs up through a Facebook Lead Ad, their information can be automatically added to the correct Mailchimp audience, kicking off a welcome sequence without you lifting a finger.
• Create Hyper-Targeted Ad Campaigns: Sync your Mailchimp contacts with Facebook to create highly effective Custom Audiences. You can use this to either retarget your existing subscribers with specific offers or create Lookalike Audiences to find new people who are just like your best customers.
• Unify Your Marketing Funnel: A well-executed connection turns a passive social media presence into the top of a powerful marketing funnel, nurturing followers into customers through a combination of social and email touchpoints.

Method 1: Using the Official Facebook Integration in Mailchimp

The simplest way to get started is by using the direct integration built into Mailchimp. This method is great for adding a signup form to your Facebook Page and for creating basic social media ads directly from your Mailchimp dashboard.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

To make the process smooth, make sure you have these three things ready:

• An active Mailchimp account.
• A published Facebook Business Page (not a personal profile).
• Admin-level permissions for that Facebook Page.

Step-by-Step Guide to Connecting

Connecting your accounts is straightforward. Follow these steps, and you'll be set up in minutes.

1. Log into Mailchimp and Navigate to Integrations: Once logged in, click your account name in the lower-left corner, and then select "Account &, billing." From there, click on the "Integrations" option in the navigation menu.
2. Find and Select the Facebook Integration: In the Integrations Directory, you'll see dozens of apps. You can either scroll to find Facebook or use the search bar. Click the Facebook block to begin the setup.
3. Click "Connect": You will be presented with an overview of the integration. Click the "Connect" button. This will open a Facebook pop-up window asking you to log into your Facebook account and grant Mailchimp the necessary permissions to manage your pages and ads. Make sure to accept these permissions.
4. Choose Your Facebook Page: After authorizing the connection, Mailchimp will ask you to select which Facebook Page you want to connect to. Choose the correct page from the dropdown menu.
5. Select a Mailchimp Audience: Next, you'll need to choose which Mailchimp audience you want new subscribers from Facebook to join. You can only connect one audience per Facebook Page through this particular integration.
6. Configure the Signup Form Tab: Finally, you’ll have the option to add an email signup form tab directly to your Facebook Page. Customize the label for the tab (e.g., "Sign Up," "Join Our Newsletter") and save your settings.

Once you’ve saved, the basic integration is complete! Subscribers can now sign up for your list right from the tab on your Facebook Page. Keep in mind that this tab is primarily visible on desktop, so its impact may be limited, but it's still a good tool to have available.

Method 2: A Deeper Look at Connecting Facebook Lead Ads

While the basic integration is nice, the real power for most businesses lies in connecting Facebook Lead Ads. Lead Ads are a special type of ad format designed to capture user information without making them leave the Facebook or Instagram app. The form is pre-filled with their information, making the entire subscription process take just two taps.

Connecting your Lead Ad campaigns to Mailchimp automates this process, sending contact information directly to your chosen audience as soon as someone submits the form.

How to Connect Lead Ads to Your Mailchimp Audience

This process is also handled within the Mailchimp Integrations Directory but focuses specifically on the Lead Ads tool.

1. Return to the Integrations Page: In your Mailchimp account, go back to the "Integrations" page and find "Facebook Lead Ads."
2. Connect to Facebook: Click "Connect to Facebook" and authorize permissions if you haven't already. If your main account is already connected, it might skip this step.
3. Link Your Audience, Page, and Form: This is where you connect the dots. You will be prompted to select three things from dropdown menus:
   • The Mailchimp Audience you want to add new leads to.
   • The Facebook Page associated with your lead ad campaign.
   • The specific Facebook Form you want to get leads from. If you have multiple active lead ad campaigns, all your forms will appear here.
4. Map Your Form Fields: This is the most important step. Mailchimp needs to know which information from your Facebook form goes where in your audience fields. You'll see two columns. On the left are the fields from your Facebook form (e.g., Email, First Name, Last Name). On the right are the corresponding fields (or Merge Tags) in your Mailchimp audience (e.g., EMAIL, FNAME, LNAME). Make sure you match them correctly. Forgetting to map the email field, for instance, means no contacts will be added.
5. Save and Repeat: Once your fields are mapped, click "Save." Your form is now officially connected. If you have other lead forms you need to connect, simply repeat the process.

Best Practices for Your New Facebook-Mailchimp Funnel

Getting your Facebook and Mailchimp accounts connected is only the first part. To get the most out of it, you need a strategy that nurtures these new subscribers and moves them from social followers to loyal customers.

Segment Facebook Leads Immediately

Don't just dump everyone into one giant list. Create a segment or tag in Mailchimp specifically for contacts who signed up via Facebook Lead Ads. You can often do this by setting a subscriber's "Signup Source" field. This allows you to track the performance of your ad spend and send targeted communication to this group, acknowledging where they came from.

Create a Dedicated Welcome Automation

Your new subscribers are coming from a social environment, so greet them appropriately. Instead of tossing them into your standard newsletter flow, create a specific welcome email (or a short series of emails) triggered to send as soon as they subscribe. Acknowledge that they signed up from Facebook, deliver whatever incentive you promised in the ad (like a discount code or free guide), and introduce them to your brand.

Leverage Custom Audiences for Smarter Ads

Your email list is a goldmine for targeted advertising. Sync your main Mailchimp audience to Facebook to create a Custom Audience. Now you can:

• Run retargeting ads to existing subscribers: Promote a new product, a special sale, or a webinar exclusively to people who are already familiar with your brand.
• Create exclusion audiences: If you're running a lead generation campaign to find new subscribers, you can exclude your existing Mailchimp audience. This saves you money by not showing sign-up ads to people who have already subscribed.
• Build powerful Lookalike Audiences: Ask Facebook to find new people who share characteristics with your most engaged email subscribers. This is one of the most effective ways to find high-quality new customers.

Final Thoughts

Connecting Facebook to Mailchimp turns your social media efforts into a sustainable asset-building machine. By setting aside just a few minutes to connect your accounts, you create a seamless funnel that efficiently moves potential customers from discovery on social media to direct communication via email.

We've seen how valuable this direct line of communication with an audience is for growing a brand. Once your lead generation system is humming, the challenge becomes consistently creating the social content that feeds that system. At Postbase, we designed our platform to remove the friction from social media management, especially for modern, video-centric formats like Reels and TikTok. By making planning, scheduling, and engagement truly simple, we help you stay focused on crafting the great content that gets people to sign up in the first place.