How to Use LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms solve one of the biggest problems in online marketing: friction. By pre-filling a form with a user's profile information, they make it incredibly easy for your ideal customer to say yes without having to manually type their name, email, or company. This guide will walk you through how to set them up, from building your first campaign step-by-step to the practical strategies that turn good campaigns into high-performing ones.

What Exactly Are LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms and Why Should You Care?

Imagine scrolling through LinkedIn on your phone. You see an ad for a free e-book that looks incredibly useful. You tap the "Download" button, and instead of being sent to a slow-loading website where you have to pinch-and-zoom to fill out a tiny form, a native LinkedIn form pops up. Better yet, your first name, last name, email address, and company are already filled in. All you have to do is hit "Submit." That’s a Lead Gen Form in action.

These forms live directly inside LinkedIn and can be attached to various ad formats like Single Image ads, Video ads, or even Sponsored Messaging. Because they pull information directly from a user's profile, they dramatically increase conversion rates by eliminating manual work.

Key Benefits of Using Lead Gen Forms:

• Reduced Cost-Per-Lead (CPL): By removing friction, more people are likely to complete the form, which generally lowers the cost of acquiring each lead.
• Better Mobile Experience: Over half of LinkedIn engagement happens on mobile devices. Lead Gen Forms are designed for a seamless mobile experience, which is often a major pain point for traditional website landing pages.
• Higher-Quality Data: The information is pulled directly from a user’s professional profile. This means you’re more likely to get their professional email address and accurate job title, not a mistyped personal email from a burner account.

Setting Up Your First LinkedIn Lead Gen Form: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let's walk through the process of launching a campaign from scratch. For this example, let's say we're a B2B SaaS company promoting an e-book titled "The Ultimate Guide to Remote Team Management."

Step 1: Get into Campaign Manager

Everything starts in your LinkedIn Campaign Manager. From your LinkedIn homepage, click the "Advertise" button in the top right corner. Select the correct ad account you want to work from.

Step 2: Choose Your Campaign Objective

LinkedIn will ask you to choose an objective for your campaign. For Lead Gen Forms, this part is simple: you must select the Lead Generation objective. This tells LinkedIn's algorithm to optimize your campaign for form submissions from users who are most likely to convert.

Step 3: Define Your Target Audience

Here’s where LinkedIn’s power really shines. You can get incredibly specific with who sees your ad. You can target based on attributes like:

• Company: Target by industry (e.g., Computer Software), company size (e.g., 51-200 employees), or even a specific list of target company names.
• Job Experience: Target by job title (e.g., "Human Resources Manager" or "Operations Director"), job function (e.g., Operations, Human Resources), or years of experience.
• Location: Target professionals in specific countries, states, or cities.

For our e-book example, a good audience might be "HR Managers," "People Operations," and "VPs of Operations" at tech companies with 50-500 employees in North America.

Step 4: Select Your Ad Format

You can attach a Lead Gen Form to several ad formats, including:

• Single image ad
• Carousel image ad
• Video ad
• Message ad (Sponsored InMail)
• Document ad
• Conversation ad

For beginners, a Single image ad is a great starting point. It’s simple, effective, and easy to create.

Step 5: Create Your Ad and Build the Form

Now, it's time to build the user-facing part of your campaign. This has two parts: the ad itself and the form that opens when someone clicks your call-to-action (CTA).

Designing the Ad Creative

Your ad needs to grab attention and make a compelling case for why someone should give you their information. For our e-book:

• Ad Text: Write compelling copy that highlights the value. Instead of "Download our e-book," try "Struggling to keep your remote team engaged? This free guide gives you 10 actionable tactics used by top remote companies. Get it now."
• Ad Image: Use a clear, professional visual. A visually appealing mockup of the e-book cover works perfectly.
• Headline: Make it direct and benefit-driven. "Ultimate Guide to Remote Teams."
• Call-to-Action (CTA): LinkedIn provides several CTA buttons. For gated content, "Download" or "Learn More" are both solid choices.

Building the Lead Gen Form itself

When you're creating your ad, you'll see an option to "Create a new form." This will open the form builder. Here's how to structure it:

1. Offer Details:
   • Form Name: This is for internal use only. Name it something descriptive, like "Remote Team Ebook Form - V1."
   • Offer headline: What will they get? Keep it short and clear. "Get Your Free Guide to Remote Team Management."
   • Offer details (optional): Use bullet points to briefly explain the benefits or what’s inside the e-book.
   • Privacy Policy URL: This is legally required. Link to the privacy policy page on your website.
2. Form Fields (Lead Details and Custom Questions): This is the most important part. By default, LinkedIn suggests fields it can pre-fill, such as:
   • First Name
   • Last Name
   • Email address
   Then you can add more fields, such as Job Title, Company Name, Company Size, and Industry. Remember the golden rule: only ask for what you absolutely need. Every extra field you add can potentially decrease your conversion rate. A good starting point for a B2B e-book is First Name, Last Name, Work Email, Job Title, and Company Name. You can also add up to three custom questions (multiple choice or open-ended text entry) to help pre-qualify leads. For example: "What is your biggest remote work challenge?"
3. Confirmation (The Thank You Page): After a user hits submit, what do you want them to see?
   • Confirmation message: A simple "Thanks! Your guide is on its way." works well.
   • Landing page link: This is where you deliver your offer. Provide a direct link to the PDF or a "Thank You" page on your site where they can download the file.
   • Thank you page CTA: You can drive them to a next action. CTA options include "Visit Company Website," "View More," or "Try Now." This is a great place to link to a relevant case study or your main website.

Step 6: Launch and Monitor

Once you’ve saved your ad and form, you're ready to set your budget and launch the campaign. After it's approved and running, you can access your leads directly from Campaign Manager by selecting your campaign and looking for the "Lead gen forms" tab, where you can download your leads as a .CSV file.

Best Practices for Getting the Most Out of Your Lead Gen Forms

Setting up the form is only half the battle. Here’s how to make your campaigns truly effective.

1. Your Offer Is Everything

A flawless form can’t save a weak offer. People don't give away their professional contact information for fun - there has to be a compelling value exchange. Make sure your offer (e-book, webinar, checklist, demo) solves a real pain point for your target audience. Your ad copy and headlines should focus entirely on the outcome or benefit for the user.

2. Keep the Form as Short as Possible

Seriously, challenge every single field on your form. Do you really need their phone number right at this moment? Could you find their company size through other means later? Start with the absolute bare minimum (e.g., Name, Email, Company). You can always add fields later and test if conversion rates suffer.

3. Follow Up Instantly - Every Second Counts

A lead is never hotter than in the first five minutes after they submit a form. Manually downloading a CSV of leads once a day isn't fast enough. A delayed response sends a signal that you're not on top of things. You must have a process for immediate follow-up. This is where automation becomes a non-negotiable.

Set up an integration with your CRM or email marketing tool (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, Marketo) so that as soon as a lead comes in, they are immediately added to an email nurture sequence. Many of these services offer direct integrations, or you can use a tool like Zapier to connect LinkedIn to thousands of other apps.

4. Test and Optimize Meticulously

Don't just set it and forget it. A/B testing can dramatically improve your results. Set up two identical campaigns and change one variable to see what performs better. You can test:

• Form Headlines: "Get Your Free Guide" vs. "10 proven remote work tactics".
• Number of Fields: Test a 3-field form against a 5-field form.
• Ad Creative: Try different images or video creative.
• Call-to-Action Button: "Download" vs "Learn More."

5. Be Smart with Custom Questions

Custom questions are your secret weapon for lead qualification. Instead of just getting contact info, you can gather critical business intelligence. For a B2B SaaS offer, a great custom question might be:

• "What is your #1 priority for a new project?" (Multiple choice)
• "How many people are on your team?" (Multiple choice with ranges)

This allows your sales team to have a much more contextual and relevant follow-up conversation from the very first outreach.

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are a powerful tool because they align perfectly with how people actually use the platform - especially on mobile. By creating a frictionless path from interest to conversion, they allow B2B marketers to capture high-quality, accurate leads without ever forcing a user to leave the LinkedIn app.

While gathering leads through paid ads is essential for growth, those ads perform best when supported by a strong, consistent organic presence that builds trust and authority over time. After all, a compelling ad from a company with an active, valuable feed is far more credible than one from a ghost page. We at Postbase built our platform to help you effortlessly manage that organic strategy. You can visually plan your content calendar, reliably schedule posts for LinkedIn and all your other platforms, and see what's actually working - ensuring your organic and paid efforts empower each other.