"Facebook leads are rubbish" is usually shorthand for "we are getting exactly the leads we asked for". Meta is very good at finding people who will complete the action you optimised for. If that action is easy and unqualified, so are the people.
Here are the twelve fixes, roughly in the order of impact.
Fix the form first
1. Switch instant forms from "more volume" to "higher intent". 2. Add two qualifying questions — budget, timeline or property type. 3. Turn off phone prefill so people type the number. 4. Add a short disclaimer stating what happens next and that you will call.
These four settings alone typically remove most accidental submissions.
Fix the offer
5. Remove giveaways and prize draws — they attract people who want the prize. 6. State a price or price range in the creative. 7. Name who it is not for. An ad that says "for homeowners with a budget over $10,000" gets fewer leads and better ones.
Fix the targeting signals
8. Exclude existing customers and recent leads. 9. Build a lookalike from closed customers rather than all leads, so the algorithm models buyers instead of form-fillers. 10. Widen the audience rather than narrowing it — Meta's delivery works better with room to optimise.
Fix the feedback loop
11. Send qualified and closed status back to Meta with the Conversions API. When Meta only knows a lead was submitted, it optimises for submissions. When it knows which leads became customers, it starts finding more of those.
This is the highest-leverage item on the list and the most frequently skipped. It is exactly what Meta Conversions API implementation is for.
Fix the follow-up
12. Call within five minutes. Meta lead quality reports collapse when follow-up takes a day, because the person has forgotten. Automated SMS within 60 seconds followed by a human call within the hour is the practical standard.
If you apply all twelve and quality is still poor, the issue is likely the offer-market fit rather than the ads.