Social Media Marketing World 2017: Facebook Messenger Ads for Real Estate
Last month, I attended Social Media Marketing World, one of the largest social media conferences around. Over 3,000 social media fanatics attended to learn about Facebook ads, live video and all things social.
The largest section of classes centered around using Facebook Messenger ads to build a viable pipeline of leads. With over 1 Billion people using Messenger, it’s adoption rates should continue to grow.
Hot Topic at #SMMW17: Facebook Messenger Ads
One of the most discussed topics was Facebook Messenger and how this app will evolve in the coming years as a major player in consumer communication and eCommerce. Facebook describes their Messenger app as a platform that gives your business a fast and convenient way for people to get in touch to schedule appointments, ask questions about your products and services and more. And it allows you to build personal connections with your customers. Now, you can create a Facebook News Feed ad that opens a Messenger conversation between your business and your prospective customer.
There are two types of Facebook Messenger Ads that you can choose to place:
- Destination ads: When you set up your ad, you select “Messenger” as the destination versus your website or landing page. When the consumer clicks on your ad, it will take them from the News Feed into a Messenger chat. From here, you, a team member or a bot can chat with the prospective customer.
- Sponsored Messages: These are ads within the Messenger app that act like an email. The message will appear within a user’s Messenger inbox. Only people who have have actually messaged your business Page previously can receive your sponsored message and they can opt out at any time like an email unsubscribe.
Use cases for Real Estate are plentiful, here’s one idea to noodle:
- You have a listing that’s not yet on the market. You place a Facebook Messenger ad that shows the home and the call to action is to click the ad to receive more photos and information before the listing goes public. The consumer clicks the add, ends up in the Messenger chat and you send them a link within Messenger to the photos and engage them in conversation from there. #viola
Here is a quick overview of how to get started with placing your Facebook Messenger Ads:
- Go to ads creation in Ads Manager or Power Editor
- Choose the Traffic objective (Note: This may appear as Send people to your website for some advertisers)
- Choose your campaign name and click Continue
- Choose your audience, budget and placement.
- At the ad level, choose your format. You can choose Carousel, Single Image, Single Video or Slideshow format
- Choose the Page you want to connect
- Choose Messenger as your destination
- Choose a welcome message. When people click on your ad, they will automatically be directed to Messenger and receive a copy of your ad and the welcome message.
- After you’ve reviewed your ad, click Place Order
Keep in mind: Your ad to open conversations in Messenger won’t appear to people on mobile who don’t have the Messenger app.