Meta’s business messaging offerings are hitting new highs, with its estimates suggesting that 1BN users now message companies through WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram each week.
Some of this is perhaps thanks to its click-to-messaging innovation, with 40 percent of advertisers now using the format for customer conversations.
In harnessing this, companies can increase conversion rates as they interact with customers across a single platform, streamlining the customer journey.
Moreover, it is simple to use, as businesses can build adverts that appear on Facebook and Instagram feeds, which open into a chat on the social channel.
Despite a disappointing Q2 period, in which Meta revenues dropped, CEO Mark Zuckerberg pinpointed this use case as a notable highlight. He said:
Click-to-message is already a multibillion-dollar business for us, and we continue to see strong double-digit year-over-year growth.
“These ads are proving particularly popular with SMBs in emerging markets like Brazil and Mexico, many of whom are new advertisers to Meta who come to us to advertise solely in this format.”
While this highlights the innovation’s potential in commerce, click-to-messaging also enables omnichannel customer experiences.
Indeed, businesses can harness click-to-messaging links on their websites, apps, and email newsletters. When clicking on this, customers can escalate conversations to messaging channels with a single click.
Take an example where a customer-bot interaction fails. By following such a link, the customer may escalate to a live agent via WhatsApp or Messenger.
Moreover, when the live agent takes over the call, companies could create a system where the failed bot transcript passes over to them, enabling the rep to carry on where the conversation left off.
Interestingly, Meta acquired Kustomer – a leading CRM platform – earlier this year. Harnessing this technology, it becomes much more practical to bring such use cases to life.
Of course, click-to-call and click-to-chat links offer a similar proposition. Nevertheless, many customers will enjoy the opportunity to interact over a channel they are comfortable with.
However, despite this possibility, Zuckerberg seems focused on the application of business messaging in advertising for now. He added: “Big brands are incorporating business messaging into their campaigns like Paramount Studios, who used click-to-Messenger to promote their blockbuster movie Top Gun Maverick and drive ticket sales.”
As more brands turn to messaging, paid messaging provides new ways to sell, support and market right on the chat thread.
To improve the advertiser experience, Meta will also invest in its Conversions API, alongside “privacy-enhancing technologies.” These aim to reduce the personal information Meta processes while allowing the company to still showcase relevant adverts to users.
One example of this is Private Lift, an innovation it has in beta testing. This helps advertisers see how their campaigns perform while limiting the information they and Meta learn.
These developments underline Meta’s commitment to privacy-safe personalized advertising.
However, from a CX perspective, many will have their eyes peeled for more proactive, automated messaging use cases for business messaging – perhaps harnessing the newer elements of Kustomer’s portfolio