As Facebook continues to diversify its ad formats and placements, it’s a great time to rethink your creative strategy beyond the tried-and-tested News Feed and try something new – namely Messenger advertising. The popular messaging platform boasts over 1.3 billion users worldwide, so it’s well worth the consideration as an advertising channel. Read on to uncover the opportunities on Messenger to help you reach mobile consumers wherever they are.
The Low-Down on Messenger Ad Placements
The Messenger ad placement is served on the home screen of the Messenger app between conversations. Messenger placements currently support Link Clicks and Conversions as objectives and Link or Carousel Ad formats. To advertise on Messenger, you’ll also need to select News Feed as an additional placement.
As Messenger is often used to share links, make plans, and exchange tips, you could try reflecting that in your creatives and copy. For example: a meal kit service could run ads for enjoying cooking in company.
Chatbots, Customer Service, Conversions
If your business has any kind of service element to it, for example airlines or e-commerce, chances are that you already have a thought-out script and ecosystem in place for serving your customers online – why not bring instant gratification into play by answering your customers directly on Messenger?
Chatbots can help ease the load from customer service by automating a series of typical queries, such as order status, availability, and more. Moving your customer service to Facebook Messenger requires planning and carefully thought-out scripts – don’t advertise it until it’s tried and tested.
You can also integrate chatbots into your path-to-purchase; it’s particularly effective if you’re selling products and services with long consideration windows and extensive consumer research. Check out this chatbot case from the automotive giant Kia – they tripled their conversions by adopting a Messenger chatbot.
Once you have your bot (or humans) up and running, it’s time to send audiences to your Messenger with the this Facebook ad format:
How Click to Messenger Ads Work
- Enable messaging on your Facebook page if you haven’t done so already
- Use Carousel, Image, or Video creatives in the ad
- Click to Messenger ads can be created with the campaign objective of Link Clicks
- Placements supported: Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, Messenger Home and Instagram Feed
- The ad will send people to open the conversation in their Messenger inbox
- You can set an initial response that can include text, image, or even video
