Looking to generate more leads? Consider Click to Messenger ads, one of the most effective lead generation ads. This blog post explains what are Click to Messenger Ads and why use them for lead generation. Plus, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up a Click to Messenger Ad and taking your Facebook Messenger ads to the next level using respond.io. This includes sending automated surveys, overcoming Facebook’s messaging rate limit and sending messages to leads anytime you like.
Want to make the most out of your Facebook Messenger Ads? Get a free respond.io account and connect your Facebook page to respond.io now.
Facebook Messenger Ads: An Introduction
Facebook Messenger Ads: How to Set Up Click to Messenger Ads
Taking Facebook Messenger Ads to the Next Level With Respond.io
- Send Automated Surveys to Messenger Leads
- Send More Messages Without Rate Limits
- Message Leads Anytime With Message Tags
Facebook Messenger Ads: An Introduction
To prevent spam, Facebook Messenger doesn’t allow businesses to start a chat with customers. Facebook users have to send the first message to your Facebook Page to start conversations.
Fortunately, Facebook has features that encourage your existing and prospective customers to send a private message to your Page. This includes Click to Chat Links and Click to Messenger ads.
What Are Messenger Click to Chat Links
Messenger Click to Chat Links are shortened m.me links that take users to Messenger conversations. You can add Messenger Click to Chat links on your website or inside newsletters to direct people to chat with you.
Click to Chat links are great for connecting with your existing customers who frequent your website or have subscribed to your newsletter. However, if you are looking to generate leads, consider Click to Messenger Ads instead.
What Are Click to Messenger Ads
Like Click to Chat links, Click to Messenger ads send people to a conversation with your business on Messenger. They can be shown in various places on Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram.
When potential buyers click on the ad, they will be taken to a new conversation with you on Messenger. Messenger conversations opened through a Click to Messenger ad come with a declaration statement and a banner at the top.
In the conversation, leads will see your customized Greeting Message and Quick Reply buttons. They also have the option to message you. For privacy reasons, conversations are only visible to businesses after leads have opted in by clicking a Quick Reply button or sending a message.
Once leads have opted in, you can message them back with qualifying questions. You need someone there to answer messages unless you connect to a third party CRM that allows automatic lead qualification. More on that later.
Despite the need to have agents on standby, Click to Messenger Ads has a number of advantages over conventional lead generation campaigns. Read on to find out why you should use Click to Messenger Ads for lead generation.
Why Use Click to Messenger Ads
Click to Messenger ads help you start a conversation with more leads and allow faster interactions with leads, helping you to move them down the funnel faster.
We'll look at how typical B2B businesses advertise to understand how Click to Messenger Ads bring more leads. First, you show ads to target buyers. When clicked, the ad will take leads to a contact form. Once you get their email or phone number, you can start connecting with them.
However, the drop-off rate is high in conventional advertising. Many are unmotivated to fill in a long contact form or have privacy concerns. Plus, leads may inadvertently provide the wrong contact details, in which case you can’t get back to them.
Click to Messenger ads eliminate the need to fill in a contact form, thereby lowering the drop-off rate. Moreover, you don't have to worry about getting the wrong contact details.
Click to Messenger ads also push leads down the funnel faster because the interactions on Messenger are faster. You'll get an instant reply from leads most of the time. By contrast, it usually takes days to get an email reply in a conventional ad campaign.
Want to get started with Facebook Messenger Ads? We’ll guide you through the process in the following section.
Facebook Messenger Ads: How to Set Up Click to Messenger Ads
Before setting up Click to Messenger ads, make sure you have admin access to the Facebook Page. Then, go to Facebook Ads Manager.
1. Click on the green Create button.
2. Create a campaign with the Messages objective.
3. Edit the Campaign Name and Campaign Details.
Where appropriate, declare your Facebook Messenger ad as a Special Ad. You may also set up an A/B test to understand which ad strategies give you the best result. Click Next to continue.
4. Select Click to Message as the Ad Type and Messenger as the Messaging App. If you are managing multiple Facebook Pages, choose the Page you want to create the ad for.
5. Edit Budget, Schedule, Audience, Placements, Optimization and Delivery on the same page. Then, click Next.
6. Choose your ad format under Ad Setup. You can opt for a single image or video. Alternatively, create a carousel ad with 2 or more scrollable images.
7. Add media from Ad Creative. Images will be automatically cropped but you can manually edit them.
8. Write the Primary Text and add an optional description. The headline will be Chat in Messenger by default, but you may edit it.
9. Select Start Conversations under Message Template. Then, click Create.
10. Create a Template. Write a Greeting Message and create a Quick Reply button.
Remember, leads must tap on the Quick Reply button or send a message for you to capture them. The best way to achieve this is to set up a custom Greeting message for the Facebook Messenger campaign & include a strong call-to-action in the button.
11. Add a reference to track where your leads are coming from. Use the format ref=yourreference.
You should use a unique reference for each Click to Messenger campaign. When done, click Publish to launch the Click to Messenger ad. And that's how you create a Click to Messenger ad.
After your leads tap on the Quick Reply, you can respond with qualifying questions to decide if you should pursue them. Want to qualify leads automatically? Create an automated survey on respond.io to qualify a large number of leads faster. Connect Facebook Messenger to respond.io to get started.
Taking Facebook Messenger Ads to the Next Level With Respond.io
Respond.io helps you qualify Messenger leads faster through automated surveys. Plus, we make it possible to send a higher volume of Facebook messages to leads and connect with them anytime you want.
Send Automated Surveys to Messenger Leads
Most companies don’t have the resources to qualify a large number of leads from Click to Messenger ads. This is where automated surveys come in. You can qualify leads automatically by creating surveys and automation rules on respond.io.
To set up a survey on respond.io, navigate to the Surveys module.
1. Press Add Survey.
2. Fill in the survey name, description and qualifying questions. You may also create survey success and failure messages.
Once the survey is ready, it's time to create an automation rule.
3. Go to the Automation module and click Add Rule.
4. Add a rule name and an optional description. Then, select Event Reference Equals as the Set Up Trigger. Remember in step 11 of the Click to Messenger ad creation process, you've created a reference. Now, we will create an automation rule that’s triggered by the reference.
Then, set up your Action. For a smooth qualification process, we recommend using an automation rule with multiple Actions. For instance, an automation rule that sends an explainer message and Survey, and adds a Tag to qualified leads.
Two things to keep in mind - the automated survey will only be sent after leads click on the Quick Reply button. And in rare cases, automation rules that use an Event Reference as a trigger may not work for some Contacts as expected.
After qualifying, it’s time to message your leads to turn them into customers. You may message leads directly from Facebook built-in response platform, Page Inbox. However, Page Inbox has a restriction that’s potentially problematic for large businesses.
Send More Messages Without Rate Limits
Page Inbox doesn’t allow sending too many messages in a short time period. If you exceed the rate limit, your Page Inbox will be disabled.
Large businesses that handle a high volume of messages should connect to a third-party CRM platform like respond.io to manage messages through APIs. This way, you can send more messages to your leads.
Message Leads Anytime With Message Tags
To prevent companies from spamming users, Facebook has implemented a 24-hour Messaging Window. After 24 hours, the only way to message leads is to use a Facebook Message Tag.
To use Message Tags, you need to connect Messenger to respond.io. Respond.io automatically appends a Human Agent Tag to your messages, extending the Messaging Window from 24 hours to 7 days.
After 7 days of receiving a message, you can reply by appending a Confirmed Event Update, Post-Purchase Update or Account Update tag. Facebook doesn’t let businesses use Message Tags outside their intended purposes. So make sure to review the Message Tag rules before you start using Message Tags.
Further Reading
If you're getting started with Facebook Messenger for Business, we recommend you read these three articles.
- The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Messenger for Business
- 12 Ways Companies Are Using Facebook Messenger for Business
- How To Set Up Facebook Comment Auto Reply
