Messenger v1.3

Today, we're announcing new features and improvements to the Messenger Platform including two ads experiences: Messenger as a Destination for News Feed Ads and Sponsored Messages.

With Messenger Platform v1.3 you have more opportunities to effectively reach and engage over 1 billion people who use Messenger every month.

Open Conversations and Re-Engage in Messenger

All advertisers on Facebook can now reach people in News Feed and then send them to Messenger from an ad. We began testing Messenger as a destination for ads a few months ago and we are happy to announce that this is available to all Facebook advertisers.

Integration

You can now set an app_destination field in your Ad creative to MESSENGER and then provide a welcoming experience in the first thread that opens in Messenger.

For example, you can provide video ad creative with a quick template reply in Messenger:

curl \
  -F 'name=Sample Creative' \
  -F 'object_story_spec={ 
    "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>", 
    "video_data": { 
      "call_to_action": {
        "type": "LEARN_MORE",
        "value": {
          "app_destination": "MESSENGER",
        }
      },
      "description": "Try it out",
      "image_url": "<THUMBNAIL_URL>", 
      "page_welcome_message": "{
        'message':
        {
          'text':'Pick a color:',
          'quick_replies':
          [
            {
              'content_type':'text',
              'title':'Red',
              'payload':'Red'
            },
            {
              'content_type':'text',
              'title':'Blue',
              'payload':'Blue'
            }
          ]
        }
      }",
      "video_id": "<VIDEO_ID>"
    } 
  }' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adcreatives

Sponsored Messages

Launched in April 2016 in beta, a sponsored message is a highly targeted, in-context ad where businesses can re-engage people who have an open, existing conversation with the business. With sponsored messages you can send targeted updates, information about promotions, reminders and other relevant messages.

Sponsored messages are now available to businesses and developers who already engage with people with the Send/Receive API. You can only send sponsored messages to people who already have an open, existing conversation with your business.

Requirements

• You must target either a Messenger Open Thread Custom Audience or Page Scoped ID CA. You can also include other targeting, such as demographics, geographic, or interests.
• Specify messenger as a publisher_platforms in your targeting. Mixed placements are not allowed; you can only target messenger alone.

First, create an audience for sponsored messages:

curl \
-F 'name=open_thread_audience' \
-F 'subtype=ENGAGEMENT' \
-F 'retention_days=90' \
-F 'prefill=1' \
-F 'rule=[{"page_messaged":<PAGE_ID>}]' \
-F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
"https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences"

You can now create an ad set for this audience:

curl \
-F 'name=Sponsored Messanges Ad Set' \
-F 'optimization_goal=IMPRESSIONS' \
-F 'billing_event=IMPRESSIONS' \
-F 'bid_amount=2400' \
-F 'daily_budget=10000' \
-F 'campaign_id=<CAMPAIGN_ID>' \
-F 'targeting=
 {"geo_locations":{"countries":["US"]}, 
  "publisher_platforms":["messenger"], 
  "device_platforms":["mobile"], 
  "custom_audiences":[{"id":<CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID>}]}' \
-F 'status=PAUSED' \
-F 'promoted_object={"page_id":<PAGE_ID>}' \
-F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/adsets

Resources

• Messenger Blog v1.3 Announcement
• Messenger Ads Experiences Guide