How to Increase Booking Show Rates for Facebook Lead Ads
If you're running Facebook Lead Ads to book sales or discovery calls for your program, one of the most important and most overlooked things you need to know is how to get more people to actually show up to those calls.
It’s not enough to get booked. If the show-up rate is weak, the ads are going to burn money, lead qualification data will get messed up, and your sales team will get frustrated or demotivated. But with some attention you can improve ROI with the same ad spend, dramatically improve close rates, and create a much smoother feedback loop between marketing and sales.
Sadly, many people don’t bother.
The main reason people get low show up rates is because don’t follow up after the booking. They think that “the right people will be motivated to join own their own”.
It sounds simple, but this happens all the time.
A lead books a call on Calendly and then they get no confirmation and no human interaction. Just an automated calendar invite and wishful thinking. This results in about maybe a 10-20% show rate, if you’re lucky.
Other classic missteps:
The call sounds too much like a sales pitch. The ad or booking page doesn’t explain what value they’ll actually get - so people ghost. You haven’t given them a strong enough reason to show up.
There’s no reminder system in place. Or if there is, it’s buried in the email spam folder or completely generic.
Poor deliverability on email reminders. Email marketing platforms often get caught in spam filters - whereas booking tools like Calendly tend to have much better deliverability.
The booking window is too wide. When people can schedule 1–2 weeks ahead, they forget, lose urgency, or just cool off. Anyone who books a week out is far less likely to show up.
You can fix all of this. You just need to treat your booking funnel like it’s only halfway done once someone hits the calendar. Here's how to take control and double your show-up rate.
1. Call Booked Leads to Confirm
This is hands-down the biggest game-changer.
As soon as someone books a call, pick up the phone and call them to confirm. This makes the interaction human, helps them remember who you are, and gives you the chance to clarify expectations and weed out bad-fit leads early.
Here’s a simple script I often suggest:
“Hey, this is [Name] calling from [Brand].
I just saw you booked an appointment at [Time] and wanted to double-check we’ve got your details right - is this the best number to reach you on?
Great.
You’ll be speaking with [Person], and we’ll be covering A, B, and C - so we’re excited to chat with you!”
When should you do this?
Ideally within 5-10 minutes of the booking. Same day at the latest. Treat this like a warm inbound lead - because that’s exactly what it is.
One client of mine in the B2B health services space was getting just 20% show rates. And once we added this one step, and they jumped up to 40–50% almost immediately.
2. Use Email & SMS Reminders from a Booking Tool
Where most people go wrong here is relying on their email marketing system to send reminders. Deliverability has become a mess lately, so I think it’s just not worth the risk to rely on it alone.
What to do instead:
Use Calendly or Cal.com’s built-in reminder emails. These tools have better infrastructure and tend to land in the inbox much more reliably.
I like to keep it simple, but make sure the following are super clear:
Local time of the meeting
Zoom or call link (in the body, not just the calendar event!)
A reminder of what the call is about and who they’ll be speaking with
3. Send a Personal SMS Before the Call
Sounds like a bit of a pain but I suggest this is worth considering.
About 15 minutes before the scheduled call, have the person leading the sales call send a quick SMS like this:
“Hey [Name], it’s [Sales Person Name] from [Brand] just a heads up, I’ll be calling you in a few mins for our appointment at [Time]. Looking forward to it.”
This adds a human touch, reduces confusion, and builds just enough rapport to make a difference.
I think it’s better to send these manually from the number that’s about to call them.
4. Narrow the Booking Window to 2-4 Days
The final lever is timing. One issue I see over and over is leaving the calendar open for 7–14 days.
The problem is people who book more than a week out forget, flake, or deprioritize the call, so I recommend changing it to 2-4 days.
Why 2–4 days is the sweet spot:
They’re more likely to still be warm after booking
But not so short that you accidentally block out key booking times, e.g. Friday still shows availability for Monday
If you only offer the next 2 days, you’ll miss those early-week slots. But with 4 days, Friday bookings can still fill Monday and Tuesday - which keeps the sales team busy.
So in the end my point is that overall, getting a lead to book isn’t the win - getting them to show up is half the game.
And it’s not just chance or “lead quality.” The systems and follow-up process directly impact show rates, and with the right tweaks, it’s fully in your control.
If you improve this, even modestly, the compounding effect on your revenue is and sales team morale is significant.
Want help with Facebook lead gen ads? Here are 3 ways I can help:
Drop a comment below if you’ve got a question or want help thinking through your offer - I’m happy to share feedback.
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Get me to run your ads for you. If you want done-for-you help, that’s what I do, specifically for sales-led and education businesses.