JotForm, Facebook Leads & Google Forms – A Comparison

Lead generation is an important KPI businesses use to measure the success of their campaigns. And when it’s the agency who’s generating the leads – oh, boy – the pressure is tenfold. But fortunately, some tools help you generate both quality and quantity leads that can be used to get access to customer data for sales.

In this blog, I’m going to go over three different lead generation tools that are commonly available to marketers, and which I’ve used to generate results for my clients, i.e. JotForm, Facebook Lead Forms and Google Forms.

Accessibility and Popularity

Google Forms:

Before there was anything else, there were Google Forms (for me, anyway). I remember coming across the feature during my nerdy teenage years and loved it! I remember creating random forms and admiring them over and over again until I grew up and realized I needed a real hobby.

The point is, Google Forms have been around since 2008 (12 years, to be exact) and thus, are a popular way to generate leads for many businesses. They’re also accessible and easy to use, making them a winning contender in this category.

JotForm:

Now to be fair, JotForm has been around for longer than Google’s counterpart (only two years), but I got to know about it may be a few years back. However, that doesn’t take away the fact that while Google Forms are more popular and accessible, setting up a JotForm is equally easy. While Google and Facebook forms can be created through your native account, JotForm is a third party tool which means you have to sign up separately, but that’s a small step and doesn’t take much time.

Facebook Forms:

Facebook Lead Forms were introduced back in 2015 and became instantly popular due to the auto-fill feature the platform offers to its in-app users. The form is pretty accessible too, but it’s a little more tricky to set up, but once done, you can use to generate leads on the go as the form collects data from within Facebook and Instagram’s platforms and lets users auto-fill data as saved in their accounts.

Round winner: Google Forms!

Why? Because Google has been the top choice of marketers and business owners for ages, being one of the most used platforms despite being introduced just 12 years back, as compared to JotForm’s foundation 14 years ago. It’s also easier to set up and track than Facebook leads, and that’s why Google wins this round fair and square.

The Quality Of Leads:

Google Forms and JotForm:

The quality of leads on each platform depends on the quality of the form itself, and the channel through which users are visiting said platform. For Google and JotForm, because their links can easily be generated and shared or embedded, the quality of leads depends upon the quality of targeting that generates traffic to said forms. If you’re sharing links directly among your circle, the leads are bound to be good, and if you’re generating leads through ads, your targeting strategy can determine the kind of leads being generated.

Facebook forms:

Facebook forms, however, are a different story. Because these forms are only available on Facebook or Instagram and are auto-fillable with user data, the quality of the leads can be skewed unless you target people through a proper strategy.

For example, in my experience, open targeting for Facebook leads while costs less, it does generate random results and the leads received through the form are a bit low quality. However, the quantity of leads is always good.

However, on selecting detailed targeting options like age group, locations, interests or demographics, I have been able to generate a relatively better quality of leads from the forms. You can also retarget your audience to create pin-point targeting and reach a better quality audience. But mind you, detailed targeting can be tricky and can even cost higher than website click ads that may take your users to Google or JotForm. Another tip is to add custom questions to your Facebook form. While it can slow down a customer while they’re filling your form, it can be a filtering mechanism which can help qualify customers for the next step in your sales process.

Another hack is to use the higher intent or restricted feature for Facebook lead forms. The higher intent feature lets users recheck their information while submitting the form, adding another step that optimistic marketers like me think may discourage unqualifiable candidates shy away from submitting the form. And the restricted feature only allows those users to fill the form who’s first-hand seen the post linked to the form, instead of through viral reach.

Round Winner: It’s a tie!

For me, it’s a tie between all three platforms as the quality of leads depends upon the way you take your users to the form. The smarter you are with your filtering techniques, the better leads you’re bound to get.

Features:

Form Creation:

Google Forms:

Google offers you multiple ways to create a comprehensive form that can be used for your business, education, research – anything! The tool offers field formatting for numbers, dates, and emails, and also gives you an option to create scales and charts through questions to help you collect feedback or data for research.

JotForm:

JotForm probably has the most comprehensive set of forms that can be used for multiple purposes. The platform offers 10,000+ – yes, you read that right – templates to choose from including product forms, customer feedback forms, survey templates, file upload forms, and much, much more through its portal. That’s convenient, right?

JotForm also offers other features including form widgets, PDF conversion, secure forms, report builder and more. Some of its features are premium, but even the free ones are pretty impressive.

Facebook forms:

Facebook forms offer pretty straightforward features which may or may not be updated in the future. The most advance features on FB forms include setting the form for high volume or intent, and restricting or opening access to the forms. They also offer you multiple custom question options but that’s about it for the tool.

Automation and Follow Up:

Google Forms:

Automating lead collection through Google Forms is very easy. All you have to do is link a spreadsheet to your form and voila! Your leads will directly be uploaded to the sheet as soon as the form is filled. That’s the advantage of having your suite of tools, I guess. But Google only allows collection automation, and if you are frequently sending emails or communication collateral to your leads, you’ll have to do that manually or through a CRM.

JotForm:

JotForm allows easy automation in both collection and communication for leads generated. The platform gives you an option to easily integrate your tool of choice to the form, and the leads can be automatically updated, and emails can be automatically sent to users after your setup is done. JotForm also offers you direct email follow-ups, through which you can set up a custom email that will be sent to your leads once they fill out the form. That’s the most convenient thing a marketer like me can ask for, and that’s why JotForm is a great answer to my lead generation woes.

Facebook Forms:

As convenient as Facebook forms are, they don’t allow automation in their tool unless it’s connected to a third party CRM like Zapier. However, recently Facebook has introduced Lead Centre, a tab on your page which showcases all the forms and their generated leads in one place so you can easily check their data. But for a person like me who usually has to share leads with clients, the lead center doesn’t help much as downloading and sharing leads through a Google Sheet is simpler.

For follow-ups, Facebook offers three options that help the customer get in touch with the business via call or website. While that’s the least of the offers from all three, for urgent queries this is the most you can ask for.

Round winner: JotForm!

JotForm is easily the winner of the round due to the extensive features it offers and the kind of customization available on the channel. If Google or Facebook started offering these features, I would gladly edit this article and name them the winning contender – but for now, JotForm is the royal lead.

Pricing:

Google:

Google forms are free! They don’t require an arm and a leg for any setup, nor do they have a prior requirement except that you need to have a Google account signed up to be able to create forms.

JotForm:

JotForm has one free and three pricing plans that allow users different creation limits and storage space, along with monthly form visits and branding options. The prices may be too much for some, but compared to the convenient features of the tool, they may be just the right value.

Facebook Forms:

Facebook forms too are completely free, however, considering the organic engagement rate on the platform, you may have to run ads to generate leads through this medium, associating a cost to the medium.

Round contender: Facebook… And maybe Google.

Why Facebook? Because it can offer you easy access to simplistic features for quick lead generation. While yes, it does have a cost associated because of ads, but you may have to run ads to generate leads from social or web platforms anyway, so why not consider the option. And Google, because while Facebook needs paid marketing to create good results, Google forms can be easily shared, creating an organic route to lead generation. However, that isn’t always the most viable option, which is why it stands second.

Bonus:

Google Lead Forms:

Not to be confused with Google Forms, Google’s lead forms are created through search ads. Till now, they only offer basic information collection like name, email and location, but if you run Google ads frequently and need a fast but reliable lead generation tool, you can try these forms out. The good thing about them is that in search, Google targets people looking for the exact keywords you want it to target, thus, the leads are bound to be of quality.

Website Forms and a Retargeting Strategy:

Got a website that can be used as a lead generation platform? Create a landing page on your website to generate leads and don’t forget to track those leads through UTM codes, Facebook Pixel or Google Tag Manager. And if you want to go one step further, you can use the above-specified lead forms to target people who have visited your website without taking any action and can generate leads from that pool as well.

Till then…

Practise, practise, and practise. As a marketer, it’s your job to keep trying to bring results as efficiently as possible, for which you’ll need to keep trying new avenues and platforms available to you so that you can bring in the best results for your client or your brand, and save cost while doing so.