Consequently, Facebook Messenger marketing can boost brand awareness and increase your sales with minimal Facebook ad spend. And this kind of Facebook Messenger ad campaign is easy to set up and manage.

So how does it work? Here’s an easy guide to show you how to set up ads that click to Facebook Messenger.

What are ads that click to Facebook Messenger?

Advertising that clicks directly to Facebook Messenger (known as click-to-Messenger ads) can also dramatically increase reach and engagement with potential customers. When someone clicks on your ad, it immediately launches a Messenger chat with your Facebook business page. As a result, click-to-Messenger ads allow customers to reach your business in one click. Moreover, the Messenger chat acts as a launch for Facebook users interested in your product. Once the interaction has begun, you can engage the potential customer directly (with live chat or a Messenger bot) to answer questions, communicate special offers or provide additional information about your product or service.

Ads that click to Messenger are the only kind of ads that will show up in both Facebook and Instagram feeds. As a result, you can capture your audience’s attention when they’re scrolling. They appear just like regular ads, except they have a Send Message button. And Facebook Ads Manager can create click-to-Messenger ads tailored for specific needs or desired business outcomes.

What are the benefits of click-to-Messenger ads?

These days, potential customers expect to have personal relationships with brands they do business with. And when consumers reach out to a brand on social media, 40% of them expect a response within one hour. Ads that click-to-Messenger not only provide a more personal interaction between your business and your audience, but also have the advantage of supplying that contact instantly. In addition to starting conversations, a click-to-Messenger campaign can also increase traffic, drive sales, help you build a subscriber list and target a custom audience network. Additionally, click-to-Messenger ads can maximize lead conversion without excessive Facebook advertising costs.

Other benefits of an ad campaign based on click-to-Messenger ads include:

Targeting a custom audience network

Click-to-Messenger ads allow business owners to specifically target an audience network according to geographic location. This helps drive local traffic and increase your product sales. You can also send personalized messages to people in the designated area with deals on your products. All you have to do is select your target audience or location when setting up your ad and your chatbot will take care of the rest.

Use Facebook Messenger to capture your audience’s attention

Messenger marketing is an effective way to enable discovery and influence purchase decisions. In particular, Stories have a big impact on what people buy: 58% of people say they have visited a brand’s website after seeing a product or service in a Facebook Story and 31% have gone to check out the product in-store. What’s more, 50% of consumers want to discover new products through Stories. By displaying ads that click to Facebook Messenger within your Stories, you can take advantage of this highly engaging format to help potential customers make informed purchases.

Recapture your customers with personalized content

A click-to-Messenger Facebook ad can be customized to send messages and promotions to customers who have already interacted with your brand and perhaps previously made a purchase. This kind of Messenger conversation can help you improve your engagement with past purchasers to create a long-term relationship with that customer. Repeat customers will also help improve overall brand recognition.

Easily scaling your interactions

A general click-to-Messenger ad on Facebook can reach out to a great number of people who might then start one-to-one conversations about their specific needs. Additionally, using chatbots with ads that click to Facebook Messenger can create a sales funnel that can start a casual conversation to build interest in your business before actually selling a product. Click-to-Messenger ads combined with chat marketing can promote your business generally but also be used for creating a dialogue with specific customers. This type of Messenger ad can welcome potential customers and convey that you’re available to help them and respond to their queries.

Setting up ads that click to Facebook Messenger 

Setting up ads that click to Messenger is very straightforward. Use Facebook Ads Manager for each of the steps below and you’ll have Messenger ads up and running in no time.

Click-to-Messenger ad formats

• Creative: keep the graphics, change the copy
• Content: keep the copy, change the graphics
• New ad: new copy, new content
• Headlines: same copy, change the headlines
• Targeting: send the same ad to a different audience
• Change the call to action
• Update with a new offer or new incentive

What is your objective?

Setting up an objective for your Facebook Messenger ads will optimize your advertising to get the results you want. In other words, your campaign objective will be based on what you want people to do when they see your ads. There are three types of objectives: messages, traffic and conversions.

Messages 

This objective will send your ads to the audience most likely to respond to you through Facebook Messenger. 

1. Click Create in Facebook Ads Manager.
2. Choose the Messages objective. 
3. Name your campaign and choose your budget/ad spend.
4. Click Next.
5. Select Click to Message under Ad Type.
6. Select Messenger under the Messaging Apps section.
7. Choose your Audience, Placements and Cost Controls.
8. Click Continue.
9. Select the format of your ad to complete your setup.
10. Under Template, choose Create New or Use Existing template.
11. If you create a new template, you can choose either Start Conversations or Generate Leads.
12. Click Create to create your flow. 
13. Click Save and Finish when you’re done.
14. Finish editing your ad.
15. Click Confirm.

Traffic

Choose this objective when your goal is to send people who click a lot of ads to your business website, your app or your online store (even if it’s not on Facebook).

1. Click Create in Ads Manager and choose the Traffic objective.
2. Choose your campaign budget/Facebook ad spend.
3. Click Continue.
4. Click Messenger in the Traffic section.
5. Choose your Audience, Placements, and Spending Controls.
6. Click Continue.
7. Finish editing your ad.
8. Click Confirm.

Conversions

Choose this objective for a specific event or to send your ad to those Facebook users most likely to make a purchase.

1. Click Create under Ads Manager.
2. Choose the Conversions objective.
3. Choose your campaign budget/Facebook ad spend.
4. Click Continue.
5. Under Conversions, click Messenger.
6. Under Optimizations for Ad Delivery, choose your conversion event.
7. Choose your Audience, Placements, and Spending Controls.
8. Click Continue.
9. Finish editing your ad and click Confirm.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to improve your brand’s reach, increase customer engagement and drive sales, then ads that click to Facebook Messenger are a great tool to help you accomplish your marketing goals. A click-to-Messenger ad campaign is a cost-effective and efficient use of Facebook and easy to set up and manage long term.

Need help implementing a Messenger marketing strategy? ManyChat can help. We support more than one million businesses (like yours!) and 200,000 marketing agencies worldwide. With our click-to-Messenger ad solutions, you’ll get discovered by and engage with millions of new customers through Messenger. 

Let’s Get Started!

The post How to Set Up Ads that Click to Facebook Messenger appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Instant messaging is a type of chat that enables users to send real-time texts via the internet. Messaging apps (not just WhatsApp) are popular because they are an inexpensive or free alternative to operator-based text messaging via SMS.

Most messaging apps have features such as group chats, graphics, video, and even audio messages, as well as stickers or emojis.

It sounds cool, but are messaging apps a genuine opportunity for your brand? In this article, we’ll explore the capabilities of WhatsApp Business, what to consider before getting on the app, and any disadvantages you should be aware of before embracing the channel.

What can your brand do with WhatsApp Business?

The WhatsApp Business App functions similarly to the regular WhatsApp consumer app (which is strictly for messaging and calling), but also includes features to help manage business transactions and communications. For example, businesses can tag conversations, create a product catalog, host a business-specific profile, and answer consumer queries.

The WhatsApp Business app also has features to help you stay connected with your customers, such as quick replies for automated customer support or product catalog capabilities right within the app.

Here’s the lowdown on what you can do with it:

Create a business profile

A WhatsApp Business account enables you to create a business profile with essential business information. Your customers will always know how to reach you, what you sell, and exactly how you can help them. The profile also includes a checkmark badge that lets customers know you’re the real deal.

Leverage distribution lists

Much like an email list, WhatsApp Business lets you create distribution lists to which you can send broadcasts with information on new offers, discounts, or special holiday offers.

Enable customers to purchase your products within the app

Did you know you can sell natively within WhatsApp? Its Cart feature offers convenience for both you and your customers. With Cart, customers can access your store catalog, check out a new product, gauge pricing, order as many products as they need, and confirm the order with a simple message in the same platform they use to message their friends. The days of customers spending time navigating your website are long gone.

Customers can message you to ask questions about your products, add items to their Cart, and send orders in real time. This is convenient for everyone from retail businesses to local restaurants trying to keep up with rush hour orders.

Here’s what to consider before using WhatsApp Business

Despite its numerous benefits, there are some considerations to take into account when deciding whether or not to create a profile.

First, find out your customers’ preferred channel for business and personal communications online. WhatsApp is the primary communication method for personal use in several countries, so there’s a chance most of your customers prefer WhatsApp over channels such as Messenger or email. But it never hurts to ask your customers what platforms they like most.

Second, determine whether your business model or use case demands a “storefront” on the Business App. If you sell something less consumer-focused, like business-to-business software, the Business App might not be the best channel for communicating with your customers. 

However, suppose you’re selling cakes instead. In that case, you can take full advantage of the Business App features, like having a catalog of the different cakes you sell and leveraging quick, automated replies to common questions like store hours.

WhatsApp also offers a WhatsApp Business API whose integrations make it easy to onboard your business from your website and conveniently establish another channel where you can offer customer care.

While the API isn’t a publicly available feature to all businesses, you can find more information about it and apply here.

What are the disadvantages of WhatsApp Business?

There are several advantages to using WhatsApp Business, but the platform also has a  downside: It doesn’t integrate with any current CRM. With no integration ability, it makes managing and tracking business conversations more difficult. If you need to integrate with CRMs and automation, opt for the Business API.

Depending on your business, the advantages of using WhatsApp may outweigh the disadvantages. You know your customers and your business best, and can make decisions about where your brand should have a presence.

While most businesses think of WhatsApp as a messaging platform for personal use, its capabilities offer companies far greater benefits.

Did you know ManyChat has partnered with WhatsApp to offer Automation in the future? Don’t miss out!

Sign up to get the latest updates.

The post Should Your Business be on WhatsApp? appeared first on Manychat Blog.

“I know this customer sent a direct message to ask about our Christmas store opening times earlier this week. I have the answer from my co-worker now, but I can’t remember which platform the customer sent the message through, so I need to sieve through thousands of messages across Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp to find it.”

Not being able to remember which platform to respond to a customer on is a common frustration for many social media managers. While each individual platform has its own built-in features to handle messages (like Instagram’s split inbox), it’s still not as easy or streamlined of a process to manage conversations from channel to channel.

It’s estimated that 35% of customers expect the ability to contact the same customer service representative on any channel, or standalone app. In other words, if they speak with Ben on Messenger, they expect Ben to respond to their Instagram DM. But this gets tricky when you have several people on your customer service team.

Sure, you can rely on your CRM to see previous customer conversations with people such as Facebook users and Instagram users. Combining those conversations in one dashboard, however, prevents you and other users from switching between tabs.

Luckily, there is a solution. This guide shares how to combine your business’s Instagram conversations with those already happening on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. 

How to combine Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp messages

Last year, Facebook announced that it was merging Messenger with Instagram, and hinted WhatsApp could be next. 

A Facebook spokesperson said about the potential Instagram, messenger, WhatsApp merge, “A small set of people were able to update to a new test experience for Instagram messaging. We hope they enjoy the experience and we are looking forward to testing it in other countries so we can keep learning from this.”

While there still is no official update on when this combined messaging service for WhatsApp users and Instagram users, it will be rolled out to the platform’s entire 6.2 million user base, there is a workaround through using social media management tools like Agorapulse or Sprout Social. 

Both platforms work with the main social media platforms and standalone apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and its social media inbox combines conversations happening across each platform. You can assign a team member to handle the query, and  respond from your computer without having to sign in to each site on your mobile device.

Unfortunately, most social media management tools don’t work with WhatsApp, so you’ll need another tool — like Shift — to combine WhatsApp conversations with those happening on Instagram or Facebook Messenger. 

3 tips to manage your business’s social media conversations

Now that you know how to see all of your conversations in one dashboard, you might be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of people wanting an answer from your business when trying an Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp merge. 

The good news is that you don’t always have to respond to these conversations manually. In fact, a chat marketing strategy helps you capture and manage the upcoming surge of social media messages. There will be 3 billion messaging app users by 2022 — not all of which you have to handle yourself. 

Let’s take a look at how you can use automation to manage your business’s direct messages (DMs).

1. Create Default Replies

The most obvious way to cut down on the volume of DMs you need to reply to is by creating Default Replies. Inside a Chat Marketing platform like ManyChat, build a chatbot that welcomes them, gives an estimated wait time, and asks the reason for their DM. 

These types of automated responses work because expectations are set early on. Generally speaking, people expect a response to their customer support message within an hour, yet the average company takes more than 12 hours to get around to responding to customer queries.

By explicitly telling customers in advance that they may be waiting a little longer for a person to respond to their message, they’re not left questioning whether or not their message has been ignored or not. 

2. Create Flows for your most popular conversations

Don’t want people to have to wait for a human response? Create Flows inside ManyChat for more common or popular types of conversation. For example, create flows that answer questions related to:

• Store hours.
• Service pricing. 
• Scheduling an appointment.
• Making a reservation.
• Stock availability.
• Downloading a lead magnet.

You can even tweak your Flow for the channel your customer is messaging you through. Those sending a Facebook Message, for example, have the option to view products through a call-to-action (CTA) button. And since WhatsApp users don’t have access to CTA buttons, send a link instead.

Once you’ve created your Flows, anyone initiating a conversation with your business across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram see a list of options. They get immediate responses to their questions surrounding booking appointments, stock availability, and making reservations — all without talking to a human on your customer service team.

3. Use the waterfall method

With Facebook being the biggest social media platform in the world, it’s safe to assume that most of your busines’s conversations are starting in Messenger with Facebook users. Use this as your opportunity to engage potential customers on other platforms using the waterfall method.

The waterfall method is the process of using Messenger, SMS texting, and email to send targeted messages to potential customers. The waterfall begins on Facebook, where customers are asked for their email address, which can be used for future retargeting. This is important because as they flow through the waterfall, customers can be retargeted through an email if they’re no longer engaged through Facebook, and eventually lead to SMS conversations. 

The process repeats itself, using different channels to keep customers engaged, and it’s all done automatically using ManyChat Flows. You can even combine your flow with live chat and segment audiences based on their interests and goals. 

Talk about delivering the personalized experiences that drive 20% higher customer satisfaction and 10%-15% conversion rates.

Chat Marketing just got easier

While Facebook is still tight-lipped on when its integrated inbox will be released to all users, there are short-term workarounds to merge Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp conversations. Tools like Agorapulse, Sprout Social, and Swift can combine them into one platform.

And if you’re overwhelmed once you see how many conversations people have with your business’s social media profiles, it’s time to start Chat Marketing. Build Default Replies to set response time expectations, create Flows to give personalized automated responses to people on each channel, and use the waterfall method to turn first-time visitors into customers. 

Need help managing your conversations? Start using ManyChat today.

The post How to Combine Instagram with Messenger and WhatsApp appeared first on Manychat Blog.

So what is Messenger marketing and how do ads that click to Messenger work? You already know that social media is the best way for brands to connect with their audiences. Research also shows that people want to engage with businesses on a personal level and they want a quick response. With ads that click to Messenger, you can meet your customers where they already are, in real-time, and maximize your chances of converting your audience to qualified leads.

When done right, ads that click to Messenger are a powerful and creative way to create brand awareness and boost sales. The best part is that they’re super easy to create and manage. In this post, we’ll answer all your questions about ads that click to Messenger, including:

• What are click-to-Messenger ads?
• The benefits of click-to-Messenger marketing
• How to set up a Messenger ad

What are Ads that Click to Messenger?

Ads that click to Messenger are a multi-platform marketing tool that allows customers to reach your business in one click. It’s simple: when a potential customer clicks on your ad, it launches a Messenger chat with your business.

The customer can then talk to a representative, ask questions about your products and learn more about current offers. Ads that click to Messenger are the only type of Messenger ads that can appear in Feed on both Facebook and Instagram, as well as within Messenger Inbox. This means you can capture your audience’s attention no matter where they’re scrolling.

Benefits of Ads that Click to Messenger

The ability to connect with businesses via Messenger is becoming more than a nice-to-have – it’s what people have come to expect when engaging with brands online.

Ads that click to Messenger allow you to do double duty: you can meet your customers’ desire for instant messaging while increasing your reach, boosting your sales, and improving your customer relationships. Here are a few ways your business can benefit from Messenger ads.

1. Reach people faster with live chat

When consumers reach out to a brand on social media, 40% of them expect a response within one hour. With ads that click to Messenger, you can connect with your customers immediately through live chat.

Not only will this keep your customers engaged – being quick to respond will give you an edge over your competitors. Don’t have the resources to guarantee rapid replies? Use an integrated chatbot to make sure you’re responding to your customers with the speed they expect.

2. Capture your audience’s attention

Messenger ads are an effective way to enable discovery and influence purchase decisions. Stories, in particular, have a big impact on what people buy: 58% of people say they have visited a brand’s website after seeing a product or service in a Story ad and 31% have gone to check out the product in-store.

What’s more, 50% of consumers want to discover new products through Stories. By displaying ads that click to Messenger within your Stories, you can take advantage of this highly engaging format to help potential customers make informed purchases.

3. Leverage better local targeting options

Ads that click to Messenger allow business owners to specify target audiences according to geographic location. This helps drive local traffic and increase your product sales.

For example, if you’re a restaurant owner, you can use ads that click to Messenger to target customers who can place an order through chat. You can also send personalized messages to people in the designated area with deals on your products. All you have to do is select your target audience or location when setting up your ad and your chatbot will take care of the rest.

4. Retarget your customers with personalized content

Ads that click to Messenger also enable retargeting campaigns by allowing you to send personalized messages and targeted promotions to people who have previously interacted with your brand via Messenger.

By specifically targeting and sending messages to consumers who have expressed interest in your business, you can increase your audience engagement and overall brand recognition.

5. Start real conversations with real customers

Ads that click to Messenger open up a two-way dialogue between businesses and customers. It’s not just about selling or buying – it’s about creating a relationship. You can use ads that click to Messenger to reach people at scale, then continue one-on-one conversations with specific customers and tailor your interactions to meet their specific needs.

As part of your sales funnel, you can also use Messenger bots to start a casual conversation with potential customers to build interest in your business before pitching a product. 

How to Set Up Ads that Click to Messenger 

Setting up ads that click to Messenger with ManyChat is very straightforward. Carefully follow each of the steps below and you’ll have Messenger ads up and running in no time.

What you’ll need

• A Facebook ad account: Every personal Facebook account has an ad account by default. Go to Ads Manager to access your ad account.
• A ManyChat admin role to activate the ads: You can change your ManyChat role from your ManyChat account.
• A role as an advertiser (or something higher) on a Facebook business page: You need this to make ads in ManyChat.

How to set it up

• Go to ManyChat and sign in to your account.
• Go to your dashboard and click the “Growth Tool” option.
• Choose the “Ads” option, which will be on the left side menu bar.
• Click the “Activate” button to get started.
• Click “Create New Ad” to begin.

You’ll see instructions from Ad Wizard to help you figure out the best option for your business. After creating an ad, the site will send you back to the ad list where your advertisement will be waiting.

Key Takeaways

If you’re looking to improve your brand’s reach, increase customer engagement and drive sales, then ads that click to Messenger are a great tool to help you accomplish your marketing goals. A click-to-Messenger ad campaign is not only cost-effective and efficient but easy to set up and manage long-term.

Need help implementing a Messenger marketing strategy? ManyChat can help. We support over 1 million businesses (like yours!) and 200,000 marketing agencies worldwide. With our click-to-Messenger ad solutions, you’ll get discovered by and engage with millions of new customers through Messenger. Let’s get started.

The post The Beginner’s Guide to Click-to-Messenger Ads appeared first on Manychat Blog.

While the decision to advertise on Facebook is easy, choosing how to reach and engage potential customers is often more difficult.

Many marketers rely on standard click-to-Messenger ads to start a conversation with people and hope for the best. This method is effective if you want to hire an army of support reps to chat with each person — but it isn’t efficient if you have a limited budget. 

So what else can you do? Use JSON — a type of javascript code that sends data from one platform to another — to guide people into a specific ManyChat flow once they click the Send Message button. With JSON, you can provide quick and reliable responses to their questions on autopilot and build trust in your business and products. 

Here’s how you can use ManyChat’s Facebook Ads JSON Growth Tool to get more leads at a lower cost and increase sales for your business. 

Getting started with Facebook Ads JSON

Before you jump into the tips below, here’s a quick refresher for how to set up JSON with Ads Manager and ManyChat.

Why use the Facebook Ads JSON Growth Tool?

If you’ve run Facebook ads with a Messenger or Traffic objective before, you know Facebook provides a basic template builder with questions and automatic one-time responses you can customize. But when someone clicks those buttons after entering Messenger, they trigger your default reply, unless you create keywords for each question. 

Here’s what it looks like:

JSON, on the other hand, acts as a bridge between your ad and your ManyChat flow for a specific campaign. When someone clicks on your ad, they enter a flow where you can get more creative with your automated responses.

There are a few considerations when running ads with JSON. Your first message block must:

• Contain no more than 150 characters
• Exclude variables such as First Name or CUFs
• Include at least one button 
• Contain only one content block

Here are two templates you can try (courtesy of Trilce Jiron, CEO of TBS Marketing): 

1. Short, impulse-driven questions such as “Hey! We finally invented this thing you wanted so much. Wanna know more?” Add two YES answers and one guilt-provoking  NO answer: 

• Sure! 
• Obviously! 
• I don’t want to save money. 

2. A brief text highlighting your product and how it helps the user. Then add three buttons that provide the responses for three commonly asked questions, such as:

• How does it work?
• Prices
• Book a call

Setting up your JSON code is simple with ManyChat. You can create the code from your ManyChat dashboard. Read Integrating Facebook Ads with JSON to learn how. 

Tips for running your Facebook ads with JSON

Here are some key tips for running your Facebook ads with JSON to lower acquisition costs and increase sales:

Add emojis and use a font that pops

Always add emojis or bold font to the top of your copy to call attention to it. Every advertiser uses text and an image, so make yours stand out from the rest. You can use www.yaytext.com to generate styled text and add it to your JSON.

Add the Facebook Comments Growth Tool 2.0 to your ad

Trilce uses her “Three Entry Point Strategy” to attract three different types of users on Facebook:

• Focused users: these individuals will go straight for your Send Message button
• Copy readers: those who see the images but immediately start reading the copy above. Always add calls to action like m.me or wa.me links in your copy
• Social users: people who’ll tag their friends, partners, or family members on a comment showing interest 

The Facebook Comments Growth Tool 2.0 helps start conversations with the social users who comment on your ad rather than clicking the Send Message button. This will kick off a conversation with them in Messenger.

Remember, Facebook optimizes your ads based on the objective. So when you set your ad for Messenger conversations, the algorithm will look for people most likely to click the Send Message button on your ad—ignoring the link clickers or commenters. 

When you use the Facebook Comments Growth Tool 2.0, you won’t be excluding them.

Add an m.me link to your ad copy

When creating a Facebook ad that clicks to Messenger, your Facebook CTA defaults to “Send Message.” But you have a second option to get viewers into your bot: adding an m.me link to your ad copy. 

Trilce’s research found that bot traffic from Facebook ads doubled after adding ManyChat’s Messenger Ref URL to her ad copy. 

“Sometimes the Send Message button can feel abrasive for users,” Trilce explains. “After A/B testing ads with and without the m.me link, we found users were more likely to engage with ads that included a Messenger Ref URL. Now we use this setup for every client at TBS.”

Set your budget at the campaign level

If you build your ad in Facebook Ad Manager, set your budget at the campaign level instead of the ad group level. You can then create multiple ad variants with different copy and creative to test which ads provide the highest click-through rates. Facebook will automatically optimize delivery towards the ad variation with the best results. 

However, if you create at least two different ads, you can monitor the results yourself and shut off the most expensive version if one is clearly doing better. 

Test your JSON code

Facebook allows you to test your JSON code by sending a preview message in the same way you can preview a ManyChat flow. But keep in mind that just because the preview looks fine doesn’t mean your ad will work. 

For example, you can preview a JSON with over 150 characters, but it may not go live. Make sure to follow the guidelines above to ensure your ads get published. 

Final thoughts

According to research from ProfitWell, customer acquisition costs have increased 50% over the past five years. And with the growing competition in social media, knowing how to nudge your customers into a conversation is crucial for generating sales. 

With ManyChat’s Facebook Ads JSON Growth Tool, you can send people into an engaging automated flow from your ads, provide quick and reliable answers, and encourage action.

Thank you to Trilce Jirón for sharing her insights and co-writing this article.

Want to generate more leads and revenue with your bots? Upgrade to ManyChat Pro today.

The post Tips for Using Facebook Ads JSON to Lower Acquisition Costs appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Our advice? Don’t wait any longer! Implement Facebook ads into your Messenger marketing strategy. They’re a great way to create brand awareness and increase your sales prospects in a fun and creative way; not to mention Messenger Ads are te super easy to create. 

Let’s take a closer look at how you can utilize Facebook Messenger Ads in your marketing strategy.

Why you should use Facebook Messenger Ads

Facebook Messenger Ads are especially beneficial for increasing your reach and encouraging customer interaction. Here are a few reasons why your business should use Facebook Messenger ads.

1. Reach people faster on their preferred medium.

For many consumers in the modern world, live chat, over any other medium, is their preferred mode of customer service. In short, customers have come to expect quick response times from businesses. 

Facebook Messenger Ads allow you to reach customers at a faster rate through live chats, a tool that gives your brand an edge over the competition, and keep customers interested. What’s more, you can use chatbots in your live chat to guarantee quick replies.

2. Personalize ads like LinkedIn’s Sponsored InMail.

Facebook Messenger Ads allow you to send personalized retarget messages to people who have previously interacted with your Facebook page advertisements. Similar to Linkedln’s Sponsored InMail, Messenger Ads are visible to users who are familiar with your brand. By specifically targeting and sending messages to consumers who have expressed interest in your brand, you’ll not only increase your audience engagement but increase brand recognition, too.

3. Messenger Ads offer better local targeting options.

Facebook Messenger Ads provide business owners with the option to specify target audiences according to geographic location. This helps drive local traffic and increase your product sales. You can also send personalized messages to people in the designated area with deals on your products. All you have to do is select your target audience or location when setting up your ad and Messenger will take care of the rest.

4. Messenger Ads are great for starting a conversation.

The great thing about using Messenger Ads is that businesses can have a conversation with potential customers before introducing them to your brand and products. When consumers are more aware of your brand and what it offers, there’s a greater likelihood these leads will turn into paying customers. As part of your sales funnel, use Messenger bots to start a casual conversation with potential customers to build interest in your business before pitching a product.

Facebook Messenger Ad types

There are several different Messenger Ad formats to choose from depending on what your business is offering to customers. Messenger facilitates business-consumer conversations that lead to an increase in customer actions and drive product sales. 

One thing to note, however, is that the placements for Messenger Ads are limited, and can’t be used in the partner network placements. But ads can be placed on Instagram. Facebook Messenger Ad types include:

Sponsored Messages

Sponsored Messages let businesses send personalized messages to users you’ve previously interacted with on Facebook. These types of messages help with re-engagement, which is vital for growing your brand ( retaining customers is just as important, if not more, as gaining new ones). 

With Sponsored Messages, brands can message customers who have shown interest in your products before or ordered from your company’s website in the past, and send them new offers and coupons to encourage them to reinvest in your brand. 

Click-to-Messenger Ads

Click-to-Messenger Ads are the only type of Messenger ads that appear on Facebook News Feed and Instagram Feed. You can also implement a call to action (CTA) , which sends customers into your business’s Messenger chat. The Messenger chat acts as a landing page for customers where they can converse with your representatives, asking questions about products and offers you’re advertising.

Click-to-Messenger Ads attract customers from a variety of different platforms, so your brand isn’t limited to just Messenger. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities. By interacting with Instagram users as well as Facebook users, you can exponentially boost your company’s engagement reach.

How to set up Facebook Messenger Ads

Setting up Facebook Messenger Ads isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Be sure to follow each step carefully, and you’ll have Messenger Ads running in no time.

What you’ll need

• A Facebook ad account: Every personal account has a Facebook Ad account by default.
• A ManyChat admin role to activate the ads: You can change your ManyChat role from your ManyChat account.
• A role as an advertiser, or something higher, on a Facebook business page: You need this to make ads in ManyChat.

How to set it up

• Go to ManyChat and sign in to your account.
• Go to your dashboard and click the “Growth Tool” option.
• Choose the “Ads” option, which will be on the left side menu bar.
• Click the “Activate” button to get started.
• Click “Create New Ad” to begin!

There are instructions from Ad wizard to help you figure out the option that’s right for your business. After creating an ad, the site will send you back to the Ad list, where your advertisement will be waiting.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for the best way to improve your brand’s outreach and increase customer engagement and interaction, then Facebook Messenger Ads is a great tool  to accomplish your marketing strategy goals. 

A Messenger Ad campaign is not only cost-effective and efficient, but is easy to set up and manage.

Used by over 1 million businesses and 200,000 marketing agencies worldwide, ManyChat helps businesses like yours engage with millions of new customers through Facebook Messenger and SMS to exponentially improve your return on investment.

Get started with ManyChat for free today!

The post Why Facebook Messenger Ads are Awesome and How to Get Started appeared first on Manychat Blog.

With the rise of eCommerce and a change in consumer expectations surrounding access to instant communication, businesses need new ways to communicate with customers. Luckily, chatbots have enabled businesses to connect with customers like never before.

Chatbots can dramatically enhance the customer experience your business provides by streamlining the interaction between consumers and your services; plus, the right chatbot solutions can help your organization cut back on customer service costs by reducing the number of people required to manage customers.

Although, some customer support staff is still needed as human intervention is still an integral part of the training and configuration process for chatbot technology.

In this guide, we’ll go over how chatbots work, how to set them up, and why your business needs chatbots.

What is a chatbot?

Chatbots are artificial intelligence (AI) software used to simulate digital conversations and interactions with users. Chatbots communicate in a natural language (written, spoken, or both) through different mediums including websites, mobile and messaging apps, or even on calls.

Artificial intelligence

With recent advancements in AI technology,  chatbots have become extremely sophisticated making them suitable to do more than just respond to specific queries with pre-determined templates. 

Thanks to AI and machine learning, chatbots can gather and process information regarding users, such as their preferences, interests, and inclinations, all of which help chatbots “learn” and understand how to better respond to user requests.

For example, artificial intelligence can help an eCommerce brand drive sales by streamlining product promotions and recommendations to target customers that have specifically expressed interest in similar products. This prevents businesses from irritating their customers with constant promotional emails and also helps cut back on advertising costs.

Natural language processing 

Natural language processing (NLP) is at the root of chatbot technology and forms the foundation for voice recognition systems for leading virtual assistants such as Cortana and Siri. But how exactly do chatbots work with NLP?

A chatbot works by first receiving a user request, analyzing it, and then returning an appropriate response. After processing all relevant information it’s crucial that the bot provides a useful response. If the chatbot fails to understand the user’s request or the intent behind it, then a human agent is alerted and can intervene.

After the chatbot has determined the user intent correctly, there are a few ways in which the software can respond to the query. The response may come from a standard, predefined template, from information stored in enterprise systems, or a question prompting the user to clear up some ambiguity for the chatbot. If the digital assistant fails to provide users with an appropriate response or lacks the ability to resolve the issue at hand, then a human agent can take over.

How are chatbots built?

Major players like Amazon aren’t the only businesses that can benefit from chatbots; banks, restaurants, eCommerce businesses, and more can also use them. 

There are two ways to make a chatbot: Create one from scratch or use a bot-building platform.

To design a chatbot from scratch, it’s important to:

• Identify specific goals that your chatbot should fulfill, and determine exactly what you want your chatbot to do.
• Design your chatbot’s interaction. This helps ensure that your chatbot offers an engaging user experience.

After ironing out these details, you will need to actually develop the chatbot, which requires programming experience. Of course, hiring a developer is an option, but, in general, using a chatbot-building platform is much easier.

There are several good platforms out there that provide templates for building your own, intelligent chatbot. Many existing platforms, such as ManyChat, don’t even require users to code. Thanks to a sophisticated drag-and-drop interface, business owners can conveniently build their own chatbot in minutes.

Which channels can chatbots be used on?

Chatbots can be integrated and used on many different platforms including social media websites like:

Messenger from Facebook

Messenger from Facebook makes it easy for business owners to create and integrate chatbots with Messenger, specifying default responses, welcome messages, AI capabilities, and more, to handle customer queries.

Messenger also provides advanced options, like galleries, that help enhance customer experience and engagement. (A chatbot can curate a gallery that  provides customers with different links and images to match their needs.)

SMS

Did you know that SMS open rates can be as high as 98%? This makes SMS (short message service, aka text messaging) the best option for communicating time-sensitive information. For this reason, SMS chatbots have become increasingly popular amongst various organizations.

By equipping your chatbot with multiple default responses, customers can have a two-way text conversation effortlessly. Additionally, many Fortune 500 companies and growing businesses include an additional live chat support option, so customers can swap over to human support at any time.

Instagram

Facebook rolled out some updates to the Messenger application programming interface (API) that support messaging on Instagram. Now, business owners can integrate chatbots with Instagram messaging, improving customer communications even further. The Messenger API allows for omnichannel messaging platform management, whereby businesses can manage messages coming in from their stories, shops, and direct profile messages too, with different workflow tools.

For now, the new Messenger API is still in the beta stage and only a limited number of developer partners (including ManyChat) have access to its features. Businesses can sign up on the waitlist if they are interested in utilizing the features following the post-beta launch.

Voice

Chatbots can be used on voice channels to provide users with an optimal experience, which is precisely what software like Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa does. These sophisticated software use NLP technology to understand user queries and simulate an engaging conversational interface.

What are chatbots used for?

Chatbots can be used to implement a rigorous marketing campaign, drive your eCommerce sales, engage customers, and more.

eCommerce

Chatbots are a great way for eCommerce businesses to increase sales or provide real-time customer service. With a chatbot, you can automatically recommend products, answer customer questions, recover abandoned carts, and more. Think of chatbots as an online concierge for your store. Instead of having humans guide customers and answer questions, a chatbot can do it 24/7.

Marketing

When it comes to marketing, chatbots not only offer businesses a way to invite new customers to check out your service or product but keeps them engaged as well. While something like a well-developed video improves customer engagement, this only lasts as long as the video plays. Chatbots, on the other hand, are continuously gathering data and analytics and learning about how to better interact with customers.

By learning your customers’ names and gathering information about their preferences, bots can provide customers with a more personalized user experience. Rather than sending out multiple emails for every product and promotion, chatbots can send targeted notifications to specific customers about products they like.

Customer support

Chatbots have revolutionized customer support options, and allow businesses to communicate with customers over phone calls, messages, and mobile apps. Some banks, for example, provide a significant amount of customer support through call-based chatbots, wherein users can authenticate themselves and learn about account details such as their current balance and transaction history.

Live chat

Chatbots can be integrated into your brand’s live chat support to quickly and efficiently resolve customer problems. While more sophisticated bots are designed to analyze user intent and respond accordingly, some brands use simpler chatbot technology with the help of fixed message templates, which are also quite effective.

This way, users can contact the chatbot and select the nature of their problem from a predetermined list. The chatbot will continue to provide the user more and more response options until the details of the issue, request, or question are nailed down. Now, thanks to automation, the software provides a specific response to the user’s query. If the chatbot is unable to resolve the problem, then human support is alerted and an agent takes over the live chat operations.

Lead generation

Another area where chatbots shine is in nurturing leads for your business, which is an otherwise time-consuming and resource-taxing process. Bots can gather large amounts of data effortlessly which can be used to generate personalized messages and notifications for guiding your customers through the buyer’s journey.

In the initial stages, split testing (or A/B testing) the messages on your brand’s website can be useful for determining what works and what doesn’t so your organization can determine the best way to personalize your customer’s experience, which makes for a better lead-nurturing campaign.

Four chatbot examples

The right chatbot can bring your business great success. But don’t just take our word for it. Here are examples of chatbots from leading businesses!

hideAWAY

hideAWAY is an Australia-based eCommerce brand that specializes in producing beautiful, handcrafted artisan soaps and other body products. As hideAWAY grew internationally, the brand looked for a means of streamlining customer support in order to increase customer engagement and enhance customer experience.

hideAWAY came up with a marketing campaign plan to drive sales by implementing a rewards-based system for their active customers. The brand used ManyChat’s Growth Tools and Coupon Campaigns for Shopify to develop and implement a plan that helped customers earn rewards through weekly giveaways in exchange for providing feedback and taking a quiz.

With ManyChat, hideAWAY successfully ran a three-phase chat marketing campaign across Instagram and Facebook, earning the brand an additional $100,000 in just one month.

The Crawfish Hole

Restaurant chatbots are a great way to grow your business. When COVID-19 hit the United States, The Crawfish Hole was one of the many dining venues that closed its doors to the public. Realizing that the company would have to revamp its ordering process to stay afloat, The Crawfish Hole team turned to ManyChat to implement an effective marketing campaign for curbside pickup. 

The eatery advertised buy-one-get-one-free and bulk order rewards through a social media ad campaign. Once a potential customer clicked on the ad a ManyChat chatbot guided them into Messenger where they were shown the menu and the restaurant’s contact information. After placing an order, customers were given location details as well as the buy-one-get-one-free voucher, which was redeemable upon pickup. 

The initiative proved to be exceptionally rewarding with The Crawfish Hole driving more sales than when they were open for regular dining, and making $23,000 in just one month.

The Dream Workshop

The Dream Workshop — a brick-and-mortar mattress store based in Costa Rica — used ManyChat to drive Facebook ad traffic to a bot flow and landing page. They used a combination of flows and live chat to guide customers to their eCommerce store where customers were shown products and deals. This tactic helped drive over $43,800 in sales during the shutdown and create a successful eCommerce marketplace for the business. 

Offset Solar

Offset Solar is one of the leaders in home solar installation across the United States. Although they were seeing new sales meetings booked through a contact form on their homepage, they wanted to test how Chat Marketing could help speed up their sales cycle.

Together, the team at Alice Digital Design and Offset Solar decided to use a ManyChat bot to start a conversation with site visitors and help book more meetings. Within six months, the company was able to close over $1.2 million in sales by funneling website leads through ManyChat.

Tracking and improving chatbot performance

Developing is only the first step, as businesses often need to continually track the chatbot’s performance and find new ways to improve it.

Revenue

When it comes to tracking revenue, it’s important to focus on marketing-oriented metrics such as the conversion rate for user-chatbot interactions, cart abandonment rate, and goal completion rate. These metrics offer insight into how well your chatbot is driving sales. Goal completion rate, in particular, is important because it reveals how successful the bot’s calls to action (CTAs) have been.

Customer questions answered

When a customer asks your chatbot a question, the AI software attempts to understand the buyer’s intent so that it can respond to the query with relevant information. The chatbot may answer with pre-programmed responses, or alert a human agent to take over if the task is too complex. Some chatbots, like Google Assistant, are synced with search engines and can pull up search results if they are unsure about how to answer a question.

Add common questions

Adding common questions to your chatbot software, with accompanying predetermined answers, can help your bot perform more efficiently. S when customers have a question that has already been asked, your chatbot can provide an automated response almost instantly.

Chatbot FAQs

People have many questions about chatbots, here are some of the most common ones.

Are chatbots only for Messenger from Facebook?

No! Chatbots can be used for any communication channel. Chatbots can be built for Messenger, Instagram, SMS, and more.

Is Siri a chatbot?

Siri is technically a chatbot designed to provide iPhone users with continual support and improving their user experience. Some people differentiate virtual assistants and chatbots by identifying the former as user-focused and the latter as server/business orientated. Under these definitions, Siri is considered to be a virtual assistant rather than a chatbot.

How much does it cost to build a chatbot?

Chatbots can start at $10 a month and go up to potentially thousands of dollars every month. It all depends on your needs and whether you chose to build it yourself or use a chatbot platform.

Build a chatbot in minutes with ManyChat

In the modern world, having a reliable chatbot is essential for any serious business or service. Not only can the artificial intelligence software improve your customers’ experience with minimal human interaction, but chatbots can also be used to execute effective marketing campaigns, drive sales, collect consumer data, and more.

With ManyChat, you can design custom SMS and Messenger chatbots in minutes.

The post What Are Chatbots Used For appeared first on Manychat Blog.

Sure, cashing in on emerging restaurant trends before they take off can be helpful, though most tend to be short-lived.

There is one tool, however, that can help you engage customers on a long-term, sustainable basis: a restaurant chatbot.

Here’s how you can use a restaurant chatbot to take your business to the next level.

What is a restaurant chatbot?

Before we dive in with the details, let’s iron out exactly what a restaurant chatbot is.

The  simple definition is it’s an automated messaging system that uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) to respond to customers in real time. Restaurant chatbots are most often used to take reservations, manage bookings, and request customer feedback.

You can use chatbots on various platforms, such as your Facebook Page, website, or mobile app. 

Restaurant chatbots can also be used alongside tools like QR codes and Facebook Ads; both of which direct people to your chatbot presenting it as an easier (and faster) way to receive a response from you — even if it is an automated one.

The benefits of having a restaurant chatbot

Wondering why your restaurant needs to have a chatbot?

Consider this: 40% of millennials say that they chat with chatbots daily. Chances are, your target audience is already engaging with this type of messaging feature, and you’re potentially missing out on a huge target market by failing to offer one for your restaurant.

Not only that, but chatbots have a huge impact on customer experience. As many as 70% of millennials say they have positive experiences with chatbots. It beats waiting for a restaurant to answer the phone, or, worse, being placed in a call queue. Chatbots provide customers with an immediate response. 

Related Post: Millennial Marketing Strategy: How to Meet Them Where They Are

Ready to scale your restaurant? Learn how ManyChat can help you succeed.

How to use a restaurant chatbot to engage with customers

1. Take reservations.

Handling table reservations is tricky business for most restaurant owners and its customers. The standard process is to call the restaurant and have one of its team members talk you through available dates and times, whereas a chatbot smoothes out the entire process.

Think of a chatbot as your restaurant’s new lead generation tool. It can handle booking reservations online — a functionality that 33% of consumers want to have access to — by simply using a pop-up that asks  visitors to type in a time that best suits them. The chatbot will pull data from your booking system and see whether the requested time is available before booking it for the customer. If the requested time  is unavailable, the bot will offer an alternative.

And if that wasn’t easy enough, chatbots can also manage the entire booking process, including reminding customers of their  upcoming reservation while also offering  a link to cancel if they can no longer make it. This handy feature prevents no-shows who otherwise would wreak havoc on your booking system.

2. Join virtual queues.

If your restaurant doesn’t take reservations, or even if you do, you likely still need a way to manage walk-ins, especially during busy periods. Having customers queue up along the street in all manner of weather, or packed into the waiting area isn’t exactly a great customer experience. 

Instead, use chatbots to manage your queuing system. Ask walk-ins to scan the QR code to join a virtual queue, which allows them to wait wherever they want. The chatbot will send them a message when they’re next in line for a table, and will ask them to make their way to the door.

Take this example from Nandos, for instance, which is using a chatbot queuing system as the only means to enter the restaurant.

Even if you don’t offer table service, you can still use this alternative queuing system. Food trucks, for example, can ask customers to scan the code and come back when you’ve fulfilled your backlog of orders. 

3. Handle in-house food orders.

Did you know that 54% of millennials say a self-ordering kiosk improves the guest experience? 

It’s why McDonalds started to introduce self-service machines in their restaurants. The fast food giant’s new system asks customers what they want to order, takes payment, and provides a receipt all without having customers wait in line to order at the counter.

A restaurant bot can automate the entire ordering process without the customer ever leaving their seat, too. For example, you can place a notice on your tables that asks customers to go to your website to place an order. Once there, a chat window will open listing your  menu. 

The customer will simply click on what they want, and it will be ordered through the app. Their order will be sent to your kitchen, and their payment is automatically processed using methods like Apple Pay or Google Pay. 

4. Handle takeout orders.

It’s not just diners in your restaurant who can use chatbots to order. Takeout orders can be managed through a restaurant chatbot, too.

To do this, allow customers to submit takeout orders through tools they’re already using, such as Facebook Messenger. You can create a custom Facebook Messenger bot that takes the information you need to process takeout orders and have the information sent to your kitchen. It cuts out the fees you’re paying for third-party services like GrubHub or Caviar to process your orders.

Take it a step further by engaging the potential customers who thought about doing a takeout order, but exited before completing the checkout process. Your Messenger chatbot can be configured to find those people before sending a message that nudges them to complete the order.

It’s a marketing strategy that Say2eat used to win back 16% of lost revenue from abandoned carts. 

5. Run social media competitions.

Competitions are an excellent restaurant promotion idea to get some attention for your restaurant, especially on social media. Competition-related content has a conversion rate of almost 34%, which is much higher than other content types.

Integrate your chatbot into your social media-based competition by automating how you ask people to enter. For example, create a Facebook Messenger bot that finds people in your area before sending each potential customer a message that says:

“Hey! Click the button below to get a free entry in our competition. Winner gets a free three-course meal for two.

BONUS: Get three extra entries by sharing a pic from a previous meal and posting to Instagram with the hashtag #ILoveRestaurant. Entries close 02/10. Good luck!”

Doubtful this actually works? This type of competition formed part of Rapid Fire Pizza’s chatbot strategy and netted them more than $16,000 from an ad spend of just $2,500. 

6. Answer FAQs.

Some restaurant chatbots have machine learning capabilities built into them. This means that your chatbot can learn to develop its “own mind” and make automated decisions about the type of responses it sends customers. 

Use your chatbot to give automated answers to FAQs, such as:

• Opening times.
• Directions to your restaurant. 
• How to make (or cancel) a reservation.

Take Senchu Sushi & Grill, for example. Its Messenger chatbot gives you a selection of questions to ask, and replies with an instant, automated response.

Perhaps the best part is that bots can streamline your restaurant and ultimately make it more efficient.  More than half of restaurant professionals claimed that high operating and food costs are one of the biggest challenges running their business.

But with chatbots, restaurants can significantly cut down on the amount of time your in-house staff spends answering phone calls, and is a great way for small businesses to answer repetitive customer queries.

7. Ask for customer feedback.

It’s no secret that customer reviews are important for restaurants to collect. As many as 35% of diners said they are influenced by online reviews when choosing a restaurant to visit.

Chatbots are the perfect tool to collect these all-important reviews on autopilot. At the end of your existing sequence (like taking their order or delivering takeout), ask customers to share their experience with you. This could be a simple message that says:

“Hey! We hope you loved your meal at [restaurant] tonight. How would you rate our food on a scale of 1-10?”

You can even collect your customers’ email addresses when they dine with you and use that information to create a Facebook Ads Custom Audience of people who’ve ordered from you. Run a retargeting campaign to deliver ads to their Facebook Messenger inbox, and ask them to leave a review on sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor (you can also offer an incentive if you’re finding that people don’t want to provide feedback). 

8. Encourage retention with exclusive offers.

Not every person visiting your restaurant needs to be a brand new customer. In fact, it costs five times more to acquire a new patron versus one who’s dined with you before. 

Instead, focus on customer retention and loyalty utilizing a  chatbot to manage the process.

Create custom marketing campaigns with ManyChat to retarget people who’ve already visited your restaurant. Simply grab their email address (either when making a booking or delivering a receipt) and upload it to Facebook Advertising. The newly created audience is then ready for you to run retargeting campaigns that direct potential customers towards your Messenger bot.

Take a look at how Fiesta Mexicana did this with its Facebook Ads campaign; it targeted existing customers (people who’d already visited the restaurant) and asked them to enter a chatbot-hosted competition. 

Focusing your attention on people who’ve already visited your restaurant helps build customer loyalty. Research shows that 56% of customers stay loyal to brands that “get them,” and giving previous customers exclusive entry to competitions and deals helps build that loyalty; which can help keep tables booked.

Final thoughts

There’s no doubt that chatbots help make managing your restaurant easier. Whether it helps diners book a table or ask a question, having a chatbot available improves the overall customer experience — something that might convince them to return time and time again. 

Ready to scale your restaurant? Learn how ManyChat can help you succeed.

The post How to Use a Restaurant Chatbot to Engage With Customers appeared first on Manychat Blog.

The best types of conversations are a two-way street: laughing with a friend, catching up with an old colleague, or even arguing with your family. All of these interactions are most interesting when there’s a healthy back-and-forth.  

Simply put, a healthy dialogue can help kickstart meaningful relationships. And when it comes to consumers and our interaction with businesses, “peer-to-business” conversations are no different.

In March 2020, Messenger by Facebook implemented its “24-hour rule,” and although it has some technical implications, its main purpose is to promote a world where brands and Facebook users have conversations, not a lengthy message from businesses you never signed up to receive. 

This post will help you understand how to avoid getting blocked, stay compliant, and most importantly, have great conversations with your customers, all while following the new 24-hour rule.

Understanding Messenger by Facebook’s 24-hour rule

Before we dive in, let’s talk about what’s changed. Facebook updated some of its platform policies to drive more personalized and relevant conversations between individuals and businesses, in an attempt to make Messenger a high-signal channel.

Any business that violates these policies will be given warnings, have their features limited, or be permanently blocked from using Messenger to send messages.

Note: If you have been violating policy, Facebook will give you multiple warnings. They appear in your Page Settings on Facebook, so make sure that you check your Page regularly and often. ManyChat will also give you warnings through your sign-up email.

If you do get blocked, make sure to appeal. After you appeal, you’ll speak with an actual human at Facebook who will review your potential violations, so do check your warnings and then appeal if you get blocked.

At the end of the post, we’ll look at fictional case studies of businesses using Message Tags and see where they might have gone wrong. But if you’re already familiar with the 24-hour rule, feel free to jump to the case studies; otherwise, if this is the first time you’re learning about the 24-hour rule, please take the time to read through this guide. 

Why did Facebook create the 24-hour rule?

ManyChat’s CEO Mike Yan wrote a full briefing on the 24-hour rule in a separate ManyChat blog post, but it’s best to directly quote Facebook. 

Simply put, the 24-hour rule is there to prevent businesses from spamming users.

What’s key to note here, however, is that by following these rules, businesses will ultimately help themselves. By keeping Messenger spam free, Facebook users are more likely to open messages, respond to them, and engage with brands. 

That’s what we at ManyChat want for your business, too; not just a superior alternative to email, but a method for creating a hyper-engaged channel to talk to your customers.

Let’s first analyze the rule’s basics and then cover how to avoid being blocked.

The 24-hour rule basics

The 24-hour rule is best explained as the following: After 24 hours have passed since a subscriber’s interaction with your business, you cannot send them a message, unless you’ve gotten their expressed permission to do so (OTN’s) or if the message falls under one  of four predefined use cases, or you pay to send it using Sponsored Messages.

To put it into plain English, if a subscriber hasn’t interacted with your business in a meaningful way in the past 24 hours, you are NOT allowed to message them — though there are three exceptions to this rule, which we’ll cover in a bit. 

(To better understand the rule, presented by a funny guy in a bow tie, check out the following video.)

Before we go over what the definition of a “subscriber’s interaction” is, let’s first look at this rule in a visual format.

Once again, and to be crystal clear, you are NOT allowed to message a subscriber outside of the 24-hour window, unless you:

If you’re part of the ManyChat community on Facebook, you can watch a video by Mackenzie Liberman that covers the basics of the 24-hour rule and Message Tags. If you’re not a member of the community, click here to join. We have very active members who post interesting questions, answers, quick tips, and more. 

What happens if you don’t follow the rules?

In general, if you violate Messenger’s 24-hour rule, you will receive a warning from Facebook,  with further infractions resulting in having your page blocked. The improper use of Message Tags is a common reason for policy violations. 

While the overall purpose of the 24-hour rule is to prevent spam and promotional content, you can only use Message Tags for their intended, and very specific, use cases.

Even if you think the content you’re sending while using Message Tags isn’t promotional or spammy, if it doesn’t adhere to the four, pre-defined Message Tag use cases, your page or Messenger functionality will be blocked. 

(Note: ManyChat will automatically protect you. If you have any subscribers that fall outside of the 24-hour window, and you have Messages scheduled for them, ManyChat will automatically stop those messages from being sent.)

Again,  you’ll receive multiple warnings about possible infractions on your Facebook page, so check it often to prevent any potential blocks. 

If you do get warnings from Facebook, go through your Flows and check any that are using Message Tags, ensure that they’re being used correctly, or use a different approach such as SMS, email, One-Time Notifications, or Sponsored Messages. 

Subscriber engagement: How to open the 24-hour window

In our definition of the 24-hour rule, we mentioned “subscriber engagement.” From Facebook’s point of view, subscriber engagement is the actions subscribers take when they want to interact with your business in some way. 

Remember, Facebook’s mission is to promote a Messenger environment that has a healthy back-and-forth between users and businesses. Facebook believes the best way to have communication between brands and customers be a “two-way street” is to have users make the first move and begin interacting with brands. 

Facebook users can “start” the conversation with you and your ManyChat account when they do one of the following:

These actions place responsibility on the subscriber, aka the Facebook user, to initiate engagement with a business. The last subscriber action (clicking a Messenger link inside an SMS or email step) is key. While we at ManyChat love Messenger, a great way to employ other channels is to send SMS/email messages with links that send a subscriber back to Messenger. 

You can see how to do this in Mike’s guide here; and if you haven’t already, consider going omnichannel. Here’s a guide on using SMS at every stage of the marketing funnel. Here’s a 2-min video on using email with ManyChat. Here’s a webinar on how to use all three channels, SMS, email, and Messenger, together for maximum customer acquisition and retention. 

Considering that getting subscriber actions is the only way to reopen the 24-hour window, you should come up with creative ways to incentivize and nudge your customers to interact with your business, and to receive email/SMS opt-ins. This can be in the form of promotions and discounts, but the best brands using ManyChat come up with creative solutions that add value to their subscribers, and offer that value in exchange for a subscriber action. 

That value can be in the form of a free e-book, a free consultation call, exclusive access to product drops, etc. These are common examples but the best kind of added value has to be unique to your brand or business. 

This is the larger, and arguably more important, game behind the 24-hour window. ManyChat has several resources for how to build a brand and establish a brand voice, as well as ways to ensure subscribers remember your brand. These are all great places to start, but remember: Building a brand is never done. As you grow your business and brand,  the user value you provide should grow and expand as well.

OTN and Sponsored Messages

Reopening the 24-hour window with a subscriber action is your best option to stay compliant with Facebook’s rules. Outside of that, you can send messages to Facebook users by using one of the following methods: Message Tags, One-Time Notification, or Sponsored Message. 

We’ll cover Message Tags in a second, but it’s worth covering OTN’s. 

In essence, a subscriber agrees to be sent a single message (sent at any time and reason of your choosing) as long as you receive their explicit permission. The OTN must be related to the topic that the customer opted in to receive. For example, if you set up an OTN for an eCommerce product drop, you can’t use the same OTN to send a message about a webinar.

And to clarify this further, if you use the OTN for the permissible reason the subscriber opted in for, you can’t add additional content in there. 

Let’s say you use an OTN to notify users about a sale on T-shirts. You can’t use the OTN for sales on shoes or sweaters. Using OTNs in this way can get you blocked by Facebook.

To safeguard yourself, read more about how to use OTNs and watch a YouTube video. Additionally, you can pay to send sponsored messages outside of the 24-hour window.

Analyzing Messaging Tag Policies 

We have two places for you to read about Message Tags: our CEO’s long-form guide and this short and sweet post. To understand use cases directly from Facebook, you can read them here. If you have not read anything on Message tags or don’t know what they are, we highly encourage you to drop everything and go read those posts to prevent potential blocks on your page and account. 

To summarize, Message Tags are “tags” that you can attach to certain messages inside ManyChat. When a message is Tagged, it will be sent to a user outside of the 24-hour window; however, your message must match the specified use case for the Message Tag.

It’s important to note that while you may think that your current or potential usage of Message Tags falls under one of the use cases because it follows the “spirit” of the 24-hour rule (i.e., preventing spam) that doesn’t matter to Facebook. Your use of Message Tags must strictly adhere to the written guidelines. Let’s actually look at some of Facebook’s wording to see what they’re trying to get at.

Facebook’s general description of Message Tags 

The keywords here are “personally relevant.” You should use Message Tags that are specific to a subscriber’s action, request, message, purchase, etc. 

For example, if a subscriber has purchased something, it’s OK to use a Post Purchase update tag since only that individual bought the item, and it’s therefore relevant to them. 

It’s NOT appropropriate, however, to use Event Reminder Tags if a subscriber hasn’t personally registered for that event. 

Facebook’s general description on Message Tags, con’t 

The keywords here are “but not limited to,” Facebook has provided some examples of promotional content, but anything promotional in nature cannot have a Message Tag. 

Promotional content includes a product drop announcement, an upcoming event that the user hasn’t registered for, cart abandonment, new content like a blog, and more.

Confirmed Event Update reminder

The keywords here are “they have registered for.” You cannot use Messenger Tags if a user has not explicitly registered for your event. This tag might be a little confusing, and you’re probably thinking, “Why can’t I remind someone of an event that’s confirmed?”

While your confusion is understandable, the tag is meant to remind subscribers of an event they have signed up for. A helpful rule of thumb is the “calendar accept” rule: Does your event send someone a calendar invite, or something similar like a Facebook event? If so, have they accepted the calendar invite?

A subscriber who accepts the calendar invite is a great example of an explicit registration, since they not only received the invite, but proactively confirmed that they’ll be attending.

See some of our tactical tips below on how to stay within policy using Confirmed Event Update. 

We’ll dive into examples and case studies of 24-hour rule violations later on in the post, but since the misuse of the Confirmed Event Update Tag is a common occurrence, let’s look at two messages that are an abuse of the tag. 

• “Hi [first name], you attended our concert yesterday. Buy tickets for our concert next week.” 
• “Get your merch for the conference you attended!”

These two messages contain several violations. First, it includes promotional content, asking users to buy more tickets or merchandise; and second, the messages are being sent after the event is over. The Confirmed Event Update Tag is for events that are upcoming or are in progress. 

What’s not allowed with Post-Purchase Update Tag

While it’s allowed to notify users of a recent purchase, like with receipts, shipping notifications, or payment related items like a return, it is not ok to cross-sell or upsell users in the same message that uses the Post-Purchase Update Tag. You can, however, use the tag to solicit information required to complete a purchase, such as an address, confirmation number, etc.

You are free to include a link to your website or to another flow with messages such as, “Your product has shipped. Here is your tracking code [XYZ123]. Click here for more information or go to our website.” But you are not allowed to showcase or reference specific products. 

The benefit of having a link that clicks out from the Post Purchase Update and into a different ManyChat Flow is that it reopens the 24 hour window, which allows you to create more interesting and complex flows that have greater promise of success when upselling or cross-selling users.

Description of Account Update Tag

The keyword here is “non-recurring.” You are allowed to use the Account Update Tag to notify a user of a change to their password, for example, but not to notify a user every time they’ve increased their loyalty points after shopping with you. 

These “changes” that Facebook refers to are changes to the account itself, not activity on the account. For example, let’s say you run a Shopify store and you have a feature that allows customers to add products to their “favorites” list. Let’s say that one of these items goes out of stock. You cannot use the Account Update Tag to update the user about it. 

But, a customer’s credit card being declined or an updated password are examples of changes to the account itself. 

What’s not allowed for all Tags

What this means is that you can’t ask a subscriber for a review, poll, rating, or survey while using any of the tags, unless it’s related to something you and the subscriber have talked about before in Messenger. For example, you shouldn’t message users out of the blue and say something like, “We are surveying users to understand what kinds of shoes they prefer. Please fill out the survey below.”

On the other hand, let’s say you’re engaged in conversation with a customer while helping them find the right color of shoes and are successful in converting to buy. Four days later, using the Post Purchase Update Tag, you can follow up and ask the customer for a review of the shoes, since there’s a preexisting, written and documented history of the customer purchasing the shoes.

What’s not allowed for all Tags, con’t

In essence, this means you shouldn’t try to sell or market anything using Message Tags. Facebook lists some examples of selling or marketing activities, like promotions, but do note that these are examples and Facebook might spot any other attempts to market or sell.  While it’s not possible to come up with an exhaustive list of other examples that will be flagged, use your best judgement. 

If you’re using Message Tags for its intended purpose and use case, but include promotional content within the message, you will likely get flagged. For example, if you use the Account Update Tag to notify users about a credit card being declined, but also include content about a new sale, this would be a violation of policy.

Some tactical suggestions for Event Reminder and Account Update Tags

As of September 2020, it seems like many of the policy violations and usage blocks have come from the improper use of Confirmed Event Reminder Tags or the Account Update Tag.

After ensuring that you’ve used these Tags properly, here are some tactical quick fixes that might prevent blockages or allow Facebook human reviewers to remove any account restrictions. 

As mentioned previously, your appeal of any potential policy violations will be reviewed by actual humans. These Facebook reviewers can only see the messages that you, as a business, have sent to your subscribers. They cannot see your ManyChat Flows, rules, and general set up. 

Put yourselves in the shoes of a reviewer. If they see a message with the Event Update Tag completely out of the blue with no prior history of an event registration, or any history of messaging at all, it definitely looks suspicious. 

Semi-strategic, it’s-easier-said-than-done, tactical tip no. 1

Get your subscribers to engage with your bot before, during, or after the registration process. 

For example, if you have an event, you typically would send an email confirmation to the user who registered for the event. In that confirmation email include a link to your bot that will send a message that says something like, “You’re confirmed for this event! Would you like to get notified on Messenger before we get started?” 

Or, perhaps you just have a landing page with your event. You can create a sign-up flow or form that uses Messenger (instead of an email) to send a registration confirmation. In that message, be sure to include words like, “You’re confirmed” or “Registered.” The clearer the better. 

Following this tip will clearly showcase to both automated and human reviewers a history of conversation about the event, so when you do use the Event Update Tag to remind event registrants, it won’t appear out of context.

Tactical tip no. 2

Reference the event in your message with specific language about the user’s registration or confirmation. 

Even if you can’t follow the first tip, you can at least use language inside your message that showcases the user has registered, and, even better, the date that they registered for! 

Include phrases like, “This is your reminder of the event you registered for,” or “Hi [first name], remember that event you signed up for? It’s happening in 30 minutes!”, or “This is a follow-up reminder for an event you registered for on [this date].” As much as possible, include when the happening is occurring, with specific references to time or date.

There should be some indication in the Messenger thread that the user indeed has signed up, registered, or RSVP’d for the event. If your event has some kind of order or confirmation number, try to include that in the message, too. 

Again, explicitly call out that the user has registered for the event. If it’s possible to include the date of the user’s registration, do it. You can dynamically include parameters like that with a Google Sheets integration. 

Tactical tip no. 3 

For the Account Update Tag, try to include as much information and context as possible. What Facebook doesn’t like to see is a message that appears out of the blue and says only, “Jim, your password has changed. Click here to learn more.” 

Add helpful context, like why the update is happening, when it happened, what change is happening, information about your business, and more specifics about next steps.  A better message would say something like, “Hi Jim, this is Acme Inc. You’ve changed your password yesterday. This message is to notify you about it. You can click the link below to reset your password or to let us know if you didn’t do this.” 

Summary of tactical tips

If there’s a general rule of thumb to think about Message Tags, it’s to add as much context within your message as possible. Context means information about the who, why, when, and where related to your message. While this might make your messages a bit longer than you’d like, it’s the best way to err on the side of caution.

Case studies

Mike provided a few case studies of the proper applications of Message Tags in his official guide to the 24-hour rules. These case studies are a useful tool to better understand which messages need to be tagged; and in such cases, if you don’t tag the message, they won’t send. 

Here we’ll look at case studies where a message is tagged, but might violate Facebook’s policy, resulting in a blocked account.. 

Case study no. 1

A business that’s focused on online courses has been sending sample lessons to users (who have opted in) every week using the Confirmed Event Update Tag. Users have opted in to receive these weekly sample lessons every week, and the business sends the courses using the Confirmed Event Update.

Is this a violation? Yes.

Why? Even though users have opted in to receive sample lessons every week, it doesn’t actually qualify as a Confirmed Event. 

First off, there is no “event” like a webinar, an in-person gathering, or a digital, live event. Even if the business sent  this message once, it would be an improper use of the Message Tag. 

Second, the business only got a user opt in once, which doesn’t cover the multiple, successive uses of the Confirmed Event Tag.  Let’s assume that the business actually held an event in July. You can remind me of it in June, but you can’t use the Confirmed Event Update Tag in August, September, etc.

Because users have opted in to receive a message every week, the business should have set up a Broadcast  instead, and use no Message Tags. This, of course, will only send the lessons to users who fall within the 24-hour window, but it will be compliant with Facebook’s policies.

If the business really wanted to continue to use Message Tags, they’d have to host an actual event, like a webinar, that talks about their new lesson, have users confirm their registration, and then send a reminder about that webinar.

In short, there is no appropriate Message Tag for what the business wants to do. Generally speaking, these are the kinds of messages that Facebook wants businesses to avoid. 

Other than using a Broadcast, the business could also use email or SMS for reminders, or use Sponsored Messages. We recommend using email, so the business could add more text and imagery to the body of the message and better showcase the lesson. The business could then include a Referral URL inside the email to a customized flow that nudges the user to sign up for another lesson.

Case study no. 2

A business hosts a webinar that users have explicitly registered for. They send replays or recordings of the webinar after it’s concluded using the Confirmed Event Update Tag. 

Is this a violation? Technically, yes. 

Why? By the letter of the law, an Event Update Tag can only be used “for upcoming events and events in progress,” according to Facebook. Since the event is over, this business cannot use the Event Tag to send the recording even if users have registered for the event. 

There are several ways to send recordings. The most obvious and easiest option is to send it via email or SMS. This business could also set up a One-Time Notification for the recording. 

Somewhere in the event registration process, or even during the event, the business can set up a flow to collect email, SMSs, or OTN opt-ins specifically for the recording. 

Similar to  case study no. 1, the business can set up a flow to send the replay/recording without using any tag, but that will only be sent to users who fall within the 24-hour window.

Case study no. 3

Let’s say a business sells a course that includes weekly Facebook Live events as part of the package. Users/subscribers have bought the course. The business sends out a notification that the Facebook Live event is happening using the Confirmed Event Update Tag. 

Is this a policy violation? Yes.

Why? Even though the Facebook Live events are related to the course, users haven’t explicitly registered for it or confirmed that they’re interested in each and every Live event. 

If a business wants to notify its users of a live event, outside of using email or SMS, it can create a post on its Facebook page about the event that includes a Comments Growth Tool, which would send users to a flow before collecting opt ins for an OTN.

Case study no. 3.5

Another related case is when a business has an ongoing event, and it uses Event Update Tags to notify users when their favorite speakers are about to speak, which happens multiple times during this event. In this example, let’s assume that the business has received explicit confirmation/registrations from their subscribers. 

Is this a policy violation? – No.

Why? Assuming that the business has received explicit registrations and provides plenty of context within the message itself, it is OK to message users about an ongoing event, using the Event Update Tag, multiple times. That being said, it would be advisable to continue to include contextual information about the event every time.

The safer option, if the business wanted to achieve this goal, would be to use the Event Update tag once, and within that message, give subscribers the option to reopen the 24-hour window, by clicking a button that says “Notify me when speakers go live today.” 

The business could also use a Comments Growth Tool to reopen the window, saying, “Comment ‘notify’ if you want to be notified when your favorite speakers go live” posted to users/registrants beforehand. Subscribers will still have to “start” the engagement by clicking a button within the Comments Growth Tool triggered message, but it’s alternative method 

Case study no. 4

A business hosts an event and receives explicit, registration confirmation from its subscribers. It records the event and, once it’s over, sends the recording to its subscribers using the Confirmed Event Update Tag. 

Is this a violation? Yes.

Why? The Confirmed Event Update Tag is only to be used for events that haven’t happened yet or are currently happening. You cannot use an Event Tag to send replays or recordings per Facebook’s written rule on Event Tags stating you can’t send “messages related to past events.” Since this event is in the past, that’s an improper use of the tag.

This is one use case where sending replays using other channels, like email, is a great alternative. The business can actually use the recording as a value-add for its customers, who, in exchange, will opt in to receiving emails. The business can also include the recorded event into other flows unrelated to the event. 

Per Tactical Tip no. 1, if you get subscribers to interact with your bot prior to the event, you can proactively collect emails during the registration process or even collect OTNs specifically for the recording. 

A lot of flows tend to end with language like, “Thank you for chatting with us. Have a nice day!” In end-of-flow messages like these, the business can include a link to the recording, saying something like, “One final thing. If you missed our event last week, you can check out the recording here.” 

Case study no. 5

A business hosts a job platform that allows employers to post jobs and potential candidates to find jobs. Candidates have to set up and register for an account with the business and opt in to receive notifications about new job openings and opportunities via Messenger. The business sends a large group of candidates job openings every week, outside of the 24-hour window, using the Account Update Tag. 

Is this a violation? Yes.

Why? While this might seem like the proper use of the Account Update Tag, given Facebook’s current guidelines, which includes “a change in application status (e.g., credit card, job),” there are three unique problems with using the Account Update Tag.

First off, this use case is explicitly banned by Facebook. Per the official developer docs (under the Account Update Tag) “job listings” are not allowed.

Second — and this applies to the Account Update Tag generally — activity on an account is not considered an Account Update, but changes to account itself counts. In this case, new job listings are classified as “activity” on an account, since nothing has changed on the user’s account itself. 

Now, let’s say a candidate changed their job preferences on the platform from “sales” to “marketing,” and the business sent out a confirmation for this change using the Account Update Tag. This is allowed because it’s a change to the user’s account itself. As per all other tag guidelines, you cannot add other, unrelated content to this tag. You can’t notify the user about the job preference or also sell an interview course in the same message.

Third, the Account Update Tag is meant for non recurring events, like a change in password or a notification that a credit card payment method has been approved. These are “one-time” events that won’t automatically happen again unless the user takes a specific action, like updating their credit card. In this case, the user or candidates do nothing, and the business continues to regularly send job notifications. In general, recurring content is not allowed with this tag, and this case is explicitly listed as not allowed under “new job listings.”

Finally, these job notifications are presumably sent to a large number of users, even if it’s a segment of the overall candidate database. In general, the spirit of Message Tags is that they should be used, as much as possible, in reaction to a specific user’s action and behavior. While each user opted in to receive job notifications, the job notification wasn’t created because of the user. 

In order to notify potential candidates of new job opportunities, the business should rely on channels like email or SMS. While other businesses might face some challenges getting email or SMS opt ins, the business offers a lot of value (in the form of potential jobs) to its users  and it might be easier to get opt ins in this scenario.

Conclusion and suggested next steps

Phew, that was a lot of text! And if you read this far, congrats and thanks! 

It’s important to remember that we’re all in this together. Messenger policy aims to keep Messenger as a healthy, vibrant channel devoid of spam. Ultimately, this results in a better customer experience for users , which leads to better open, click-through, and reply rates. 

Preventing page violations and blocks is in everyone’s best interest. Messenger wants businesses to use its platform, we want you to use ManyChat, and you want to use both for your business. 

So, now that you understand Message Tag policy a little bit better, let’s consider what to do next.

The first thing we recommend is to check your Facebook page for any warnings, which you can find in your page Settings. If you see one or multiple warnings then stop everything and immediately check your flows for compliance.

Remember, ManyChat will block any messages to subscribers who fall outside of the 24-hour window by default, so if you aren’t using Message Tags you won’t violate policy. 

More importantly, if you are using Message Tags make sure you’re using them compliantly. Feel free to refer back to this guide at any time. Your feedback will help us collect cases of potential false positives, refining the policy over time.

If you think that your usage of Message Tags is out of compliance, please delete them or achieve your desired goal in another way by using one of the following strategies: 

1. Reopen the 24-hour window. 
2. Use email or SMS.
3. Use a One-Time Notification or Sponsored Messages.

By using one of these strategies, most businesses can still achieve their desired outcomes and stay within Facebook’s 24-hour rule. Though it might take a little bit of work, you can keep your account active and continue building meaningful relationships with your customers. 

Again, thank you for reading and happy Flow Building! 

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