Facebook announced in July 2017 that it was testing advertising on its Messenger app globally.
Facebook’s chat service has 1.2 billion monthly users and is an obvious platform for the social media giant to grow its advertising revenues. So what does this mean for your business?
The 2 types of Facebook Messenger Ads
Facebook currently gets about 85% of its ad revenue from ad placements on mobile devices. This percentage may be due to rise as Facebook messenger provide two different advertising opportunities to businesses: adverts on the ‘home tab’ of the messenger app and ‘sponsored chat’.
Facebook Messenger Ads: A User’s Perspective
Looking at this from the perspective of someone who uses messenger on a daily basis, I have to say that the idea of a few targeted ads on the home tab is fine by me. It is not really that different to seeing sponsored content in my main Facebook newsfeed and let’s face it, I can easily ignore the content if I want to.
The area I am more interested in is the sponsored chat.
I’m already getting messages sent to me on Messenger from brands I’m connected with and I have to say, I don’t like it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to people I do business with messaging me through Facebook. In fact, I regularly conduct business using Facebook Messenger. The thing is, these interactions are with people NOT bots.
The marketing that I’ve been receiving if different… it is robot driven. This is the Messenger equivalent of an automated phone system.
‘to speak to an operator please hold’
You know how it is when you phone a lot of businesses, you get the whole ‘for department A press 1’ thing going on…
This can result in lots of confusing or unclear options and more than anything, it always leaves me feeling like I’m a statistic more than a valued customer.
Automated bots on Messenger leave me with the same feeling. They may sound like a great idea from a marketer’s perspective, and there may be some appropriate applications, but for growing brand engagement I fear they may actually create a negative experience.
