Facebook™ has a constant strategy of acquiring various competitors or complementary social media properties and then monetising them. This is what they did with Instagram and this is what they are doing with WhatsApp. While the private messaging platform was in the portfolio of Facebook™ for some time now, so far it was ad free. But this is about to change.
Why Should You Consider WhatsApp as an Advertising Platform?
At first glance, WhatsApp does not appear an ideal place for marketers. It is an end-to-end encrypted network for a direct chat that promises maximum privacy to its users. That is a desired feature for individuals, but not really helpful for brands.
However, there are other networks that have similar features and yet are attractive for advertising and marketing purposes. Take Snapchat and Facebook™ Messenger, for example. While the content in Snapchat is temporary and disappears after being viewed, Messenger is also a private messaging platform. Yet, we encourage you to add them to your online marketing strategy.
Let’s look at WhatsApp. It has 1.5 billion registered users and 450 million of them use it every day to chat with friends. This is a significant audience and it is worth tackling. Let us see now how you can do it.
How Can You Use Facebook™ Ads for WhatsApp
The Facebook™ ads you can use for the private chat platform are not exactly ads per se. They appear as ads in the users’ Facebook™ News Feed. The ad invites them to start chatting with your brand on WhatsApp.
This feature has been available to marketers for some months now, but it was not openly promoted until it started gaining traction. However, for 2019, Facebook™ plans to launch targeted ads that will appear in the Status feature. At the moment, there are no further details on when this type of Facebook™ ads will be rolled out, we can focus on what you can do right now.
Creating Click-to-WhatsApp Facebook™ Ads
You can create ads that invite Facebook™ users to chat with you on WhatsApp from the same place where you create all the other Facebook™ campaigns: the Ad Creator panel.
When you reach the “Message destination” section, select WhatsApp. However, you must know that you need to have a WhatsApp Business account in order to use this type of ad.
Why Should You Use This Type of Ad?
Consumers are interested in direct, one-on-one communication with brands. They want a personalised approach in every aspect of following a company’s social media pages, being a subscriber to its content and, finally, becoming a client.
With a WhatsApp Business account and Facebook™ ads, you can offer them exactly this type of personal touch: private chats in which they can learn more about your products and even place an order with no hassle at all.
The WhatsApp Business account allows you to offer your followers:
Multimedia messages
Free calls
Free international messages
Group chat
Customisable quick reply.
What Benefits Do You Get?
The most important benefit is getting to know your clients better. But, speaking of data and marketing strategies, Click-to-WhatsApp Facebook™ ads offer you user statistics and engagement data in the Ad Manager panel.
As a recent development, Facebook™ introduced three new objectives for this type of ads:
Traffic
Conversions for your website
Post engagement
This means that you can integrate Click-to-WhatsApp ads in your social media marketing strategy in a way that supports your lead generation efforts. You can bring people to your website from WhatsApp, just as you do it with Facebook™ ads.
Remember that soon enough you can place ads on WhatsApp, and it makes sense to familiarise yourself with this platform and learn the specific ways in which you can interact with your followers before you start serving them ads.