Facebook trials ad placements on Messenger home screen
Facebook is expanding its ad platform to accommodate promotional placements on the Messenger home screen for a trial period among a ‘very small’ number of users in Australia and Thailand.
The roll out will see a limited number of users receive highly prominent ads below recent conversations but they will not appear embedded within conversations unless they specifically click on them and engage the brand in conversation.
Facebook product manager Eddie Zhang remarked: “Businesses have long been telling us that they are very excited about the potential of the Messenger platform to reach their customers and help them to drive sales, build brand awareness and increase customer satisfaction.“
Facebook hopes that the ads will provide a means for people to readily locate relevant businesses and benefit from promotional offers but is testing the waters first to see if it might be perceived as an intrusion too far.
The social media platform has been investing heavily in direct messaging for brands, including giving marketers the green light to advertise Messenger bots via targetted ads in peoples news feeds.