All Advertisers Will Soon Have Access To Sponsored Messages On Messenger

Facebook has announced that sponsored messages on Messenger are becoming available to more advertisers and should be available to all within the next few months.

When vice president of messaging products David Marcus announced sponsored messages a year ago, he described them as a way to re-engage customers with whom they are already having conversations with, thus being able to manage “the entire life cycle of their customers.” But sponsored messages weren’t built so that businesses could spam people. Advertisers can only send sponsored messages to the people who initially started the conversations.

Users themselves actually have full control over who sends them messages, and are given the opportunity to mute, block, etc. But they do give businesses the opportunity to effectively re-engage people. And that’s why they are such an interesting tool.

Advertisers will be happy to know, that sponsored messages are finally opening up to more businesses, and in the next few months all should be able to use them. Sponsored messages will be available within the messages objective, and will only be available to businesses that have “previously communicated with customers in Messenger,” and “enough open conversations to create a custom audience.” Additionally, sponsored messages will not be delivered to a person “within 24 hours of the person’s last interaction with the business in Messenger.”

To show the effectiveness of sponsored messages campaigns, Facebook shared two case studies. The first, from Australian airline Qantas, received a 4.5x higher CTR than Facebook link ads in a five-day campaign. The second, by Love Your Melon – an aparel brand – received a 14x ROAS with its campaign.