Facebook Messenger To Get Ads From Second Quarter of 2016

A leaked document sent by Facebook to its major advertisers suggests that the company is planning to launch ads on the messaging service, Messenger from the second quarter of 2016. The ads on Facebook Messenger work in the following manner. If you have chatted with a business voluntarily in the past then only you can be sent the ads. This means businesses won’t be able to send the ads willy-nilly to anyone. Even if have liked a particular page, they won’t be able to send ads. This will make sure that advertisers do not unnecessarily spam in the Messenger. The document that landed with TechCrunch states that to prepare for ads on Messenger, businesses should encourage customers to start message threads with them so that they can send ads when the service goes live.


The leaked document also shows that Facebook has very quietly launched a URL short link [fb.com/msg/] that can be used by business to begin a chat thread with customers. Customers can be sent the chat link which opens up in the Messenger app. The source confirms that the short link works on Messenger app, mobile web and desktop site. The folks at TechCrunch suggest this could be a useful alternative to the toll free number based customer service. So how will companies use ads on this platform? They can inform people about sales and promotion, they can use it announce product launches and since Messenger supports video they can also send promotional videos to users.

How exactly will it impact you as a Messenger user? For starters, Facebook will be extremely cautious about implementing it because if they do it wrong then the service gets flooded with ads and people chose to move away. Industry experts are predicting that Facebook will begin this as a pilot program with the partners it trusts and then if it is acceptable to most of its users launch the ad service globally.

Source: Facebook Plans To Put Ads In Messenger • TechCrunch