It’s no secret that chatbot and AI technology has integrated itself into almost every aspect of business. This trend is changing the way businesses do customer service, finance, operations and marketing. Many brands, big and small, have begun implementing bots into their marketing strategy to facilitate lead generation.

In the recent years, Facebook Messenger has made it possible for marketers to foster quality leads directly through their “Click to Message” feature. This feature allows users to start a conversation on the Messenger app directly from the app they are delivered in their news feed. This is different than their “Sponsored Messages”, which allows businesses to send messages directly into users’ Messenger inbox.

Why use Facebook’s Click to Message feature?

According to an article by WhatsHelp, the average conversion rate of ads that are delivered to a landing page is between 5-10%, which amounts to a loss of 90-95% of potential leads that were paid for. Many users tend to bounce or lose interest by the time the landing page is fully loaded.

With the “Click to Message” feature, users can directly message the brand from the news feed ad itself. This immediately opens up a conversation with the user and therefore automatically converts them into a lead.

The “Click to Message” feature is even more valuable when it comes to mobile users. A Nielsen study suggests that the average smartphone user spends 85% of their time on the device using apps. The number of ad impressions on mobile devices has increasingly grown in the past years as more and more Facebook users visit the platform through the mobile app.

With the increase of app users, it has become increasingly important to optimize ads for mobile devices. That means making sure landing pages are easy to access and navigate via mobile. Using the “Click to Message” feature cuts down on the workload by allowing the lead to convert directly within the app.

How to utilize Facebook’s Click to Message feature?

We’ve answered the question regarding how the “Click to Message” feature can help you acquire a higher percentage of leads, but the real question is how to use this feature to increase your ROI. In comes the chatbot revolution. Using tools like Motion.ai, Chatfuel, and ManyChat, you can create custom chatbots to integrate into Facebook Messenger.

Here are some ways in which chatbots and help step-up your lead generation campaign:

Qualify Leads
One great feature about integrating bots into your Facebook Messenger is you have the unique opportunity to qualify leads during your conversation. Many brands are programing their chatbots to ask qualifying questions before answering questions or throughout the initial conversation. Softwares like Botsify allow you program conversational forms into your bot. This ensures that you gather all the necessary information you need to qualify the lead while adding the personal touch of a conversation.

Nurture Leads
Another awesome perk of integrating bots into your Facebook Messenger campaigns, is the ability to effectively and efficiently nurture your leads. For most companies, the amount of leads they need to follow up with and the available man power is not proportional. This makes it difficult to nurture their leads down the sales funnel. With the use of bots, brands can customize their bots to reply in a timely manner in order to warm their leads down the sales funnel before they lose interest.

How to create effective Click to Message Campaigns?

Now that we’ve covered why the feature is an effective way to gather and nurture leads, let’s discuss how to actually get users to want to message you. “Click to Message” ads are unique in that you must prompt users to message you in order to get the desired outcome.

Here are some great ways to encourage users to message your brand:
● Offer a unique discount code
● Provide a link to a downloadable eBook
● Host a giveaway
● Offer a free trial
● Create a quiz
● Offer free consulting

All of these are great ways to encourage users to engage with your ad. The beauty of “Click to Message” ads is once the user engages with your ad they become a lead.

If you want to learn more about AI technology can fit into your marketing strategy, check our session on The Future of AI and Voice Assistants in Marketing at Social Media Strategies Summit – Chicago. Nick Myers, Owner and Creative Director of RedFox Creative, will be discussing the significance of AI and Voice Assistants in marketing, what brands have leveraged the technology so far to create engagement, and how you can begin leveraging AI with Voice Assistant technology to create new experiences for customers.