• by Colin Kirkland , 5 hours ago

Meta is doubling down on the uptick in direct messaging across its family of social apps. After announcing new messaging ad options in WhatsApp last week, the tech giant is bringing new marketing functionality to DMs in its Messenger app. 

“Today people often chat with businesses to make purchases or get support,” Meta explains. “But once their questions are answered or their orders are placed, the conversation often stops there.”

In an attempt to help brands engage and retain customers continuously through in-app messaging, Meta is launching an updated version of marketing messages on Messenger.

Now, brands can send promotional messages to users who have subscribed to receive them, and then “re-engage” those users “anytime.”

Meta says marketers can do this by leveraging existing CRM lists, custom audience lists, or ads that click to Messenger, with the added ability to “write freeform messages for each customer, or broadcast one message to everyone for scale.”

Brands can also check Meta’s newly added tracking metrics to help them measure the impact of their DMs and plan for future promotional messaging. These include cost-per-click delivered message and cost-per-message link click, with more metrics to come. 

Following rules imparted by the original version of this feature, Meta has limits in place to avoid the proliferation of spam messages. The company says each Page utilizing the updated feature can send up to one marketing message per day to a unique user.

Overwhelming customers with direct promotional messages in a short time frame could result in users rejecting a brand’s DMs entirely, and cluttering the platform with unwanted ads.

Meta says Nestle’s Philippines branch is currently experimenting with the updated DM feature, as well as Pancake and Smartly, which are both interested in offering the feature on their platforms.