The world of ecommerce is fiercely competitive, and as a business owner, you’re always looking for ways to stand out from the crowd. Engaging with your customers on a personal level can make a huge difference in not only driving sales but also in building loyalty. That’s where Manychat Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads come into play. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into the power of connecting Manychat to your Facebook and Instagram ads, helping you streamline your chat marketing and boost your ecommerce business’s performance.
What are ads that click to Facebook Messenger?
Ads that click to Facebook Messenger are a type of sponsored content that, when clicked, opens up a conversation with your business in Facebook Messenger. This allows customers to engage with your brand directly, providing them with a personalized experience that can help increase conversions and build loyalty.
By connecting these ads using Manychat, you can create automated chat sequences that answer questions, provide product recommendations, and even guide users through the purchasing process, all within Facebook Messenger.
There are two types of ads that click direct to Messenger:
- Click to Message
- Click to Subscribe
Click to Message Ads
These ads look and behave exactly the same as any other sponsored content you would see on your Facebook newsfeed. But instead, when you click on them they open directly in Messenger and start a conversation with your Facebook page.
The initial message in the conversation is limited by Meta policies to:
- 1 Image
- 1 Text Block
- 1 Button or Quick-Reply Button (we recommend a quick-reply button)
The button MUST link to another message where you can then send an additional message using the variety of rich media options that ManyChat provide.
Once the user clicks the button in the first message, they are then (and only then) subscribed to your ManyChat account.
Click to Subscribe Ads
These ads behave in the same way as the Click to Message ads, however the message that is first presented to a user is linked directly to an existing ManyChat Subscription List.
When users click on the ‘Get Messages’ button, they are subscribed to your subscription list which gives you the opportunity to send ongoing messages every 24 hours directly to their messenger inbox.
Subscription Lists are an amazing opportunity for businesses to maintain a connection with their customers, we’ve got the complete guide on how to set them up here.
What are ads that click to Instagram Direct Messages?
Similar to Facebook Messenger ads, ads that click to Instagram Direct Messages are sponsored content that, when clicked, initiate a conversation between your business and the user in Instagram Direct Messages.
The difference between Messenger and Instagram ads is that they require behave differently and require different setups if you’re linking them to an automated chat system such as Manychat.
However, given the engagement and interaction rates on Instagram Business Profiles are often much higher than Facebook Business Pages, you can utilise this automated messages feature to drive conversions and sales, just like in Facebook Messenger.
Join Our Upcoming Workshop
Learn how to set click-to-message Facebook Ads in real-time in an online hands-on workshop.
📆 Thursday, May 25
⌚️ 9:00AM
📍 Online (via Zoom)
How to set up Click-To-Message Facebook Ads that link with Manychat
STEP 1: Setup a Manychat Account
For the examples below, we’re setting up our ads so they can link to Manychat and the user is subscribed to the account. Using the in-built options in Facebook Ads manager only allows you to use the features that the pages have and none of the advanced elements that Manychat provide.
- To link your Facebook Ads directly to Manychat so that you can capture user information and have the ability to follow up with them automatically, you need to create a Manychat account.
- Connect your Manychat account to your Facebook and Instagram accounts
STEP 2: Create your Manychat flow/s to send the information
In your Manychat account, you need to setup an existing flow so Facebook Ads manager sends the right messages you have created.
The flow setup differs, depending on whether you’re using Messenger or Instagram.
Setting up a Manychat flow for Messenger ads
- Create the first message of your flow that will be the first thing that greets people that click on your Facebook Ad. Keep in mind that the initial message in the conversation is limited by Meta policies to:
- 1 Image (optional)
- 1 Text Block
- 1 Button or Quick-Reply Button (we recommend a quick-reply button)
- Connect the button to another message, action item and/or flow that confirms the subscription and offer to your new potential customer.
- In the Starting Step of the Manychat flow, choose ‘New Trigger’ and find the ‘Facebook Ads JSON’ option.
- Rename the Growth Tool to track your ad performance
- Save the JSON code using the ‘Copy Code to Clipboard’ prompt underneath the JSON code section.
- Hit ‘Publish’ to save your flow and JSON code growth tool
Setting up a Manychat flow for Instagram ads
**Pro tip to save time: If you’re using both Facebook and Instagram ads, create the flow and then convert to the other platform using the ‘Convert Content’ prompt in the flow options
- Create the first message of your flow that will be the first thing that greets people that click on your Instagram Ad.
- As this flow will be using the ‘Keyword Growth Tool’ and users will be actively messaging you, you can use the variety of rich media options that Manychat makes available to you.
- In the Starting Step of the Manychat flow, choose ‘New Trigger’ and find the ‘Instagram Keyword’ option.
- Change the ‘If’ option to ‘Message Is’ and in the ‘Add Text’ field enter the message you will setup in your Instagram ad message template (more on this shortly)
- Hit ‘Publish’ to save your flow and Keyword Growth Tool.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You can only set ONE destination per ad.
So an ad that uses Messenger as a destination but appears on Instagram, will attempt to exit Instagram and open Messenger once a user clicks it (and vice versa). For this reason, we recommend setting up SEPARATE ad sets with manual placements that show your ad only Facebook or Instagram. This will take the user to the same inbox of the platform that the ad is being shown on.
STEP 3: Create your campaign in Facebook Ads Manager
Create a new Campaign
- Choose the Campaign Objective that suits best. If you’d like to have both ad sets and all ads under the one campaign, we recommend using the Engagement objective. See the table below to see which Campaign Objective offers advanced options for each platform.
- If you’re using both Facebook and Instagram platforms in one campaign, we recommend switching Advantage Campaign Budget ON so the budget can be optimised for each platform.
Campaign Objective | Facebook | Instagram |
|---|---|---|
TRAFFIC | ||
ENGAGEMENT | ||
LEADS | ||
SALES | ||
AWARENESS |
Create a new Adset
- Create a new adset and choose the destination you want to use, this will most likely be ‘Messaging Apps’ (for an Engagement campaign) or Messenger/Instagram Messages.
- Select ‘Click to Message’ as the Ad Type
- Choose your Facebook Business Page (FYI your Facebook Business Page and Instagram Business Profile MUST be linked) and select ONLY ONE of the Messaging Apps.
- Set your budget and target audience
- Under Placements, choose ‘Manual Placements’ and choose the platform that is the same as the Messaging App you chose in Step 3. Untick all other Platforms.
Create a new Ad
- Design your Ad with the goal to encourage people to engage with it by either leaving a comment or clicking on the ‘Message’ button
- Create a Message template for your chosen platform:
- For Messenger – Use the Advanced Setup and copy and paste the JSON code from the Manychat flow you have already created
- For Instagram – Create a new Message Template and use the editor to remove all suggested questions except the first one.
- In the ‘Text’ section, use language that tells the user to hit the ‘SEND’ button below to receive what you offered.
- In the ‘Question #1’ section, use language that also encourages them to hit the ‘SEND’ button to receive the offer. The text in ‘Question #1’ will be the keyword prompt you setup for your flow in Manychat.
- Check the customer experience for each ad by using the ‘Preview’ option in the ads editor.
- Once you have completed all elements of your ad, hit PUBLISH to submit your campaign to Meta Ads Manager for approval.
Click-to-Message Ads FAQs
This happens because Facebook will report on each click on the ad, but they cannot determine if the user took the first step in the flow they received. i.e if they received the first message and clicked the button to confirm they would like to discover more.
ManyChat will only report on the users that clicked on the first button to confirm they are then a subscriber.
There is always a slight difference in numbers reported in ads manager compared to clicks reported in ManyChat and can happen for any number of reasons, from accidental clicks to users not logging in to or confirming they would like to use Messenger.
Metrics that can quickly give an indication on initial conversations that a campaign is generating are:
- Messaging conversations started: This indicates if the user has taken the first step (click) in the conversation in ManyChat
- New messaging connections: This measures the number of new contacts that have subscribed to your chatbot but doesn’t account for previous contacts that click on your ad
- Cost per messaging conversations started: The average conversion rate we find for lead-based flows that are offering something for free/of value, is approximately 80%. This cost can give you a guide to the approximate cost per lead to compare with other ads and campaign objectives.
Ads Manager can’t provide complete transparency on the overall ad performance as it is limited to key conversions that occur when a conversation starts or if the conversion happens on a website.
This is why we implement tracking and measurements on all key actions that users take within our ManyChat chatbot. This is the only ‘true’ measure of your overall campaign performance.
Because ManyChat make it easy to duplicate growth tools (JSON/Keywords) that you connect to your Facebook and Instagram ads, we suggest to setup the initial growth tool and step in separate flows that funnel the traffic to one mainsuch as Dataquantics flow that captures the lead and contact information.
When users enter each of the separate flows, add a tag, conversion event or custom field that identifies each variation of your ad or adset. You can access the results by filtering contacts, using ManyChat’s insights or by utilising a reporting dashboard to easily visualise results.
ManyChat Facebook Ads and Instagram Click-to-Mesage Ads offer a powerful way to engage with your customers and drive sales.
By leveraging chatbot technology and integrating it with your advertising efforts, you can create personalized, interactive experiences that build loyalty and generate results. With this comprehensive guide, you’re now equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to create and optimise Facebook Manychat ads that will supercharge your business.
Now that you know how to make the most of these type of ads and set them up properly, it’s time to take that learning to the next level.
Join a ManyChat expert to discover:
- How we created a 66% higher conversion rate using Messenger ads for The Masque Co. to drive
- Get our ads setup checklist to create profitable and measurable campaigns
- Easily get started with these type of campaigns with our Facebook Ads ManyChat template. Just install, edit and publish!
