How to Optimize Facebook Messenger Ads at Scale
Every two or three years since it’s started to truly monetize its platform, Facebook has given marketers new opportunities to engage and convert consumers on their various platforms. In the past it might have been a pivot to video or an emphasis on news content in timelines. With Facebook’s pivot to messaging, today and potentially tomorrow’s moneymaker formats will mostly come in the form of Facebook Messenger Ads.
Brands are plenty familiar with marketing and advertising through Facebook Messenger already, however, with Facebook’s recent nixing of the Discover tab and emphasis on lead generation templates, marketers need to be aware of how large and common certain Facebook Messenger Advertising is becoming.
The most important thing to understand is that messaging has become a better way to convert consumers. Facebook has recognized this and is responding by making it easier to start advertising with Messenger. While there are basic ways to improve RoAS through FB messenger, the best solution is one that’s built on conversational AI that’s purpose-built to talk to consumers, rather than throwing all your hard-earned media dollars at a pre-built template.
What is Facebook Messenger Advertising?
Facebook Messenger Advertising is composed of three main categories: in-Messenger ads, sponsored messages and Click-to-Messenger ads. The first format appears within the Messenger home screen, along with other personal messages and conversations exchanged by the target customer. The second allows brands who have an existing message history with an individual consumer to broadcast promotional or sponsored messages to them about new offerings or other announcements.
The third, however, is becoming the money-maker for many marketers. Click-to-Messenger ads land in Messenger, but they can start from any Facebook Newsfeed or Instagram ad. This means that instead of sending your consumers to a landing page or a lead generation form within Facebook, you can start a conversation with them that reserves optionality based on their top concerns or desires.
This means that you can, in some ways, both multiply the number consumer intents you account for in an ad and also increase the conversion you might get on any given intent. Let’s say someone starts a conversation, but they just want to explore products. Others might want to visit the brand’s website, ask about pricing, or speak to a representative. All of these options are available to users, and with the right technology can all be automated effectively.
The fun thing is, this can also be done through Instagram. Combined with practices like customer journey retargeting, this basically enable you to supercharge any part of your Facebook advertising funnel. Facebook Messenger Ads are a core enabler for brands and marketers who need to break free from the traditional one-way approach that most ads and landing pages restrict us to, but what’s the easiest way to get started?
What is the easiest way to start Facebook Messenger Ads?
The easiest way to get started is with Facebook’s lead generation templates for Messenger. This allows you to build basic chatbots that respond to predictable questions and even include some more elaborate conversation flows in case consumers require.
The thing is, effective Facebook Messenger Ads – particularly for eCommerce – increase cart value by allowing consumers to discover new products that weren’t necessarily advertised to them. If you don’t know what these cart-enhancers will be in advance, how can you anticipate them through normal lead generation templates?
This doesn’t mean that you should hold off until you have a fully-equipped conversational AI experience to power your conversational ads, but building a virtual sales advisor is a critical first step to ensuring you get the maximum possible benefit from Facebook Messenger Advertising.
These expert product advisors learn about your offering and then, using novel conversation design, learn about your consumers and what they’re really looking for, enabling them to discover new products, receive recommendations and happily buy more.
How do I maximize RoAS with Facebook Messenger Ads?
It’s crazy to think that some people are claiming 7x RoAS with Facebook Messenger Advertising, but for a spin on traditional retargeting messages like those centered on abandoned carts, it’s no surprise that they really work.
While, in the case above, working down from a $234 CPA may have something to do with improving RoAS, those already running a tight ship can still hope to improve their outcomes by deploying a fully functional conversational experience – one that enables consumers, rather than limit them when they want information most.
The real goal here is that marketers and brands need to have an effective facebook chatbot at the ready when they start considering facebook messenger advertising. By deploying the right chatbot (powered by conversational AI), you can offer intuitive conversations that maximize conversions.
Conversational AI, at its base, generates multiple minutes of engagement and consumer insights for conversation. All of this already gives you a basis upon which to optimize your Facebook Messenger ads. However, with a 30% increase in sales compared to traditional eCommerce, along with high rates of customer satisfaction, you can finally turn your ads into an opportunity to build a real relationship with your customers – whether it’s from the Facebook, Instagram or Messenger app (or, in Europe, WhatsApp!, where Facebook enables chats to open there).
What is the best Facebook Messenger Ads Solution?
The best Facebook Messenger Advertising solution is going to have two things: the AI technology necessary to talk about your products, and the Natural Language Understanding necessary to talk to and learn about your consumers.
By doing this, your Facebook Messenger solution can act as a product expert. This means that if your consumer has a particular concern (let’s say their skin is dry or they’re looking to renovate their basement), you can target them with products and services as you learn about them (it could be a skin cream, or it could be tools that make the job a little easier).
As you learn more and more about consumers, you can then offer comprehensive recommendations, upsell and cross sell different products and enable them to discover every single amazing product your brand has to offer. You can also learn what’s most likely to help them convert, and target them in-conversation as well as retarget them with the same ad formats if ever they choose to move on.
Using Conversational AI with Facebook Messenger Ads
Conversational AI, when built properly, can be as easily deployed on Facebook Messenger as it can be on a website, in another ad format or through a voice assistant. Conversational AI is one of the most powerful new ways that marketers are engaging and converting consumers.
The inherent benefits it offers – ones like higher engagement, more insight, higher satisfaction and 2X add-to-cart compared to your usual ads and eCommerce sites – show that marketers need to start thinking conversation-first if they’re going to survive.
Clearly, Facebook has bought into this “whole-hog”, which means that you need to follow suit – not only if you’re advertising on Facebook or Instagram, but basically if you’re advertising anywhere that can be linked to a conversation.
As it happens, with the advent of conversational advertising, these interfaces are popping up in more places and converting more consumers than ever before. When you deploy conversational AI on one channel, however, you make it that much easier to deploy it everywhere else. So, if you have the right core technology at your disposal, there’ll be nothing stopping you from starting advertising with Facebook Messenger – or with any other channel that can get your consumers to convert!
Still have questions? We’re fired up to help as many brands as possible to raise the bar of user and customer experience in eCommerce. If you need help implementing website engagement tools for your brand or want to talk further about any of the tactics in this article, we should talk ASAP!
