Sunday, February 21, 2016

No Sacred Place: Ads Coming to Facebook Messenger

There are certainly mixed feelings when it comes to consumers and ads, especially as they’ve become more personalized.  Some view this as relevance while others fear big brother is watching.

Via a leaked document, TechCrunch reports that Facebook will be launching ads within its Messenger capability by Q2.  With 800 million monthly active users, Facebook will be seizing the opportunity to highly monetize another of its platforms. 


From a privacy perspective, Facebook will not let ads be sent blanketed or even to users who merely liked a company’s page in the past.  Specifically, ads will be sent to customers who had a message thread with an advertising company.  Interestingly, though, this strategy is in contradiction to a statement by Zuckerberg in 2014, questioning ads and messaging (voiced at the time of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp). 

Possibly in preparation for this strategy, Facebook integrated “Click to Message” News Feed ads recently to get consumers to chat with companies.  Although details on what the ads can contain are not available yet, some options could include promotional messages, video content, or announcements on price drops.


Twitter has also recently stated it will be offering companies opportunities to engage with customers through direct messages. TechCrunch also goes on to acknowledge that if early tests lead to criticism by Facebook users, the whole thing could get kiboshed. 

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