Facebook has billions of users around the world, and knows a great deal about their likes and interests. This makes the platform incredibly useful for business owners and marketers. Facebook advertising is becoming even more diverse as the company will now allow business to advertise on Facebook’s popular Messenger app.
Users will see the new Messenger ads in the home tab of their Messenger mobile app. When they tap on an ad, they will be sent to the destination chosen during ads creation, such as a website or a even start a Messenger conversation with a business. This means the Messenger ads will work as traditional ads to links on mobile devices as well as lead generation tools.
This decision will probably be unpopular with users at first, as a formerly ad-free app will suddenly have ads. However, it’s a big win Facebook and business owners. Messenger is one of the most popular apps in the world. According to Facebook, more than 1.2 billion people use Messenger every month. It makes sense for Facebook to monetize the platform and for business owners to want to reach that audience.
Ads on Messenger were tested in countries like Australia and Thailand before this global roll out. The tests went well, not hurting the user base too much and providing a strong value to the business owner who ran ads on the platform.
“Messenger ads have been a powerful addition to our digital advertising campaigns, helping us reach our customers where they are already active and engaged,” said Michiel Tops, General Manager of Marketing and Communications, of the Australian department store David Jones. “And thanks to placement optimization across Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network and now Messenger, we’re able to continue to optimize our advertising spend and further drive business results.”
Business owners and marketers who are already using automatic placements for their Facebook ads, Messenger is included for all supported campaign objectives. And like Audience Network, Messenger ads are an additional placement option when businesses run ads on Facebook that are more finely tuned.
Facebook also plans to create new ad campaign types that are focused on the Messenger interactions. This means we’ll soon see tailored ad types for getting Messenger responses or getting people specifically in Messenger to click on links.
Many people who don’t use Facebook daily for social media will use Messenger to communicate with friends and family. Allowing ads on Messenger is a way to reach people who may otherwise be hard to reach through traditional social media advertising methods.
For more recent news about changes to Facebook, read this article on recently announced new metrics for Facebook.