Facebook boasts some 2 billion active users worldwide and it continues to be an important marketing platform for businesses of all sizes. If you still think Facebook is just for consumers or B2C then you are missing out! With the advent of Facebook Messenger Ads you can now reach potential customers via their Facebook Messenger service and, if you get it right, it will have a huge impact on your digital marketing success.

What is a Facebook Messenger Ad?

According to Facebook (as disclosed at the Facebook Gather event, Brussels, Jan 2018), people are 53% more likely to do business with a company when they can message them directly. In fact, more than half of people would prefer to message or text in real time rather than call a customer service centre or send an email.

What Facebook Messenger advertising allows you to do is initiate a conversation once the user clicks on the link in an ad. It not only means that you can attract new customers, but you can also target and engage with existing ones and create a loyal customer base.

How Messenger Ads Work

There are a few options for utilising Facebook Messenger Ads: When placing a Facebook Ad instead of a link to your website, there’s a ‘send message’ option which utilises the users Messenger account. You can choose to have destination ads in the normal news feed, sponsored messages that go into the user’s inbox, and those that appear directly on the dashboard of the messaging app itself.

Once someone clicks on the ad, you can start a conversation directly with them and begin to tailor your communications more confidently.

This approach has a number of advantages:

• First, you can give an instant response (consider using the automated response service to manage expectations until you’re able to respond, especially for out of hours times). This has proved particularly important with customer service enquiries where people don’t want to wait days for a reply to their query or sit on hold for 15 minutes and explain to 3x different people what their query is. With more and more of us preferring messaging as a way of communicating with businesses, it makes sense to take advantage of this tool – the quicker you can interact the more likely you are to get a positive response and that applies whether you are selling a product or a service.
• If you have the right strategy in place, Facebook Messenger Ads give you a route into long-term engagement with customers. For instance, you can target those that have shown interest in your ads in the past and you can more closely tailor ad content to the people you are reaching out to. It’s proving to be a great tool when it comes to remarketing and the different options for ad placement gives businesses a lot of flexibility in their approach.
• The Facebook ad service has a local awareness feature that allows you to target potential customers in a specific location. That means you can focus clearly on local traffic and offer tailored messages that will appeal to these customers.
• Being able to communicate directly with your target market gives you the chance to develop more qualified leads that are likelier to turn into conversions. You’re not depending on a static landing page that may or may not entice an individual to buy your product. You’ll be able to chat directly with customers, learn what their needs and wants are and change your approach accordingly in real time.

Facebook Messenger Ads are relatively easy to use and set up and there are plenty of useful tutorials and online courses if you get stuck. Remember, test, measure and tweak to gain the best return on your investment. Of course, if you need help managing and optimising your Facebook ads get in touch, we’ll be happy to help.