Facebook expands test to show News Feed-like ads in Messenger globally

Facebook announced its beta for ads in Messenger is expanding to all markets, meaning the big ads can pop in the message feeds of the app’s 1.2 billion monthly users as of Wednesday.

The test, which first launched in Australia and Thailand, features ads that can link to the advertiser’s website or open up a Messenger conversation.

The ads look like a typical News Feed ads with a headline, description copy, image and calls to action. They appear on the Messenger home tab feed and are labeled “Sponsored.” The example below from Original Coast Clothing links straight to its website.

Ads that link to Messenger conversations can connect to advertisers’ chatbots.

This format can also be used to complement click to Messenger ad campaigns, which link to Messenger from Facebook and Instagram. Advertisers can also use the original in-Messenger ad format, sponsored messages, to reach users who previously connected with a company on Messenger.

A few things to note

Facebook Messenger ads are:

• accessible via Ads Manager and Power Editor.
• included by default as an inventory source with automatic placements for supported campaign objectives.
• available for Traffic and Conversion campaign objectives. App Installs and other campaign objectives will be supported “soon.”

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin was formerly Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.