Messaging App Campaigns

12 Ways Companies Are Using Facebook Messenger for Business (May 2019)

Iaroslav Kudritskiy
December 14, 2018

If you're reading this you're probably curious about building your own Facebook Messenger marketing campaign. We've got several great examples for you to emulate, but to fully understand what you see below we recommend you to read our Ultimate Guide to Facebook Messenger for Business. The guide will explain the eccentricities of running a Facebook Messenger marketing campaign as well as the strategies and tools you have available.

Here are the messenger marketing campaigns we've covered below:

  1. The Uber Messenger Marketing Campaign
  2. The SnapTravel Messenger Marketing Campaign
  3. The HealthTap Messenger Marketing Campaign
  4. The Whole Foods Messenger Marketing Campaign
  5. Golden State Warriors Engagement & Notifications Campaign
  6. The Sephora Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
  7. The Wall Street Journal Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
  8. Nike's Jordan Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
  9. Boundary Brighton's Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
  10. Lego's Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
  11. The HiSmile Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
  12. The Pizza Hut Facebook Messenger Pizza Bot

1. The Uber Messenger Marketing Campaign

Uber on Facebook Messenger
The Uber Facebook Messenger Interface

Yes. What you heard is true. One tap and you can hail an Uber.

We're not kidding.

Partnering with Facebook Messenger, now Uber allows millions of users to request a ride with just a simple text on Messenger. You don't even need to download the Uber app itself or leave the Facebook Messenger tab. It's all done for you in one clean flow. Ride status updates or ride receipts are all sent to you through your private conversation on Messenger, making it easier for you to manage it all in one central location.

In order to request an Uber on your Facebook Messenger, make sure you have the latest version of Facebook Messenger installed on your phone so you can use the service on the platform.

There are different ways Uber allows you to order a ride on the app. You can tap on the address being sent to you on the map and put it on the request for an Uber; or, you can start a conversation with the Uber, then tap the car button on the menu section, and select the "More" icon.

And, that doesn't only work in your private inbox, but also in group chat. (Yep, shocker) Now, Uber introduced the new Share ETA feature where you can share your map location that you're currently at right now and let your friends hail an Uber to get there. So, for all of us who text our friends to say we're "on my way" when you're still watching Netflix in bed, Uber still got your back. Your friends can't possibly track where you are unless you share that information with them. (Pheww, almost destroyed a friendship.)

Uber is not only looking at the car-hailing service industry, but it's also aiming at the bigger picture - becoming the "all-in-one" app that users need. They want to involve in every aspect in user's daily lives to optimize the lifetime value of a customer - starting from getting movie tickets, booking hotel rooms to getting a plane ticket. They're trying to keep the users inside the app so as to reduce the customer's churn as much as possible.

2. The SnapTravel Messenger Marketing Campaign

Let's be real in here: we're all tired going from one hotel website to another finding the best deal you get on the table. The online travel startup delivers hotel-booking service over Facebook Messenger or SMS.

Whatever requests you want from the hotel - free Wifi, free breakfast, or any other service, all you need to do is to type it out on the chatbot and the bot can automatically suggest a bunch of recommendations for you like those on your Netflix watchlist. There's absolutely no need to calling the receptionist and have it "hold please" and "let me transfer to another line" ten times until you get what you want. It made the traveling experience easy for all the users out there.

SnapTravel Conversations on Facebook Messenger
Conversations with SnapTravel on Facebook Messenger

And the bot doesn't just end there. It goes from searching for the right hotel, purchasing the hotel rooms, and post-checkout, making your traveling experience absolutely hassle-free.

Since they're acquiring the users through a conversational channel like Facebook Messenger, its' users are more likely to be engaged throughout the entire journey. Users are being advertised through the in-app Sponsored Messages. If users didn't complete the entire transaction process, they reabsorb these batch of potential users by retargeting them on their messaging inbox directly.

This tactic successfully received a booming 30% increase in user acquisition, making Facebook Messenger one of the most effective channels to grow your users substantially.

3. The HealthTap Messenger Marketing Campaign

I think we've all been to the same place: we have a really bad migraine, then we go to look up symptoms online and suspecting you have some rare diseases. Well, maybe it's smarter to consult a real doctor. HealthTap is the first medical platform on Facebook Messenger. It offers a range of health tech tools, online healthy educational content, and services for customers to choose whether they want to do it in the self-help way or by a specialized doctor.

Users can submit medical questions by typing out their symptoms and conditions on the chatbot. On the platform, there are 100,000 physicians across 141 specialties that help users to answer their medical queries. At a channel of the customers choosing - be it video visits, chat, or audio visits, paying customers can have unlimited medical advice or live consultation from doctors on either their mobile device or website browser.

HealthTap on Facebook Messenger

Since the Healthtap Facebook Messenger is using a chatbot that runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week, medical questions can be asked at any time of day. This makes it so that users can receive answers to simple questions instantly and complex questions can be answered by doctors at their convenience, making it flexible and convenient for both sides.

HealthTap was quite a huge success and was able to acquire a large user base simply by using send to messenger ads.

4. The Whole Foods Messenger Marketing Campaign

Just like any other app that we've mentioned earlier, you can keep texting your friends plus ordering food and groceries at the same time without the trouble of swapping between apps. Instead, you can now do it all on Facebook Messenger.

In 2016 MobileBeat, Whole Foods' launched a Whole Foods Messenger bot, allowing users to look up for recipes, ingredients, and inspiration all within the Messenger app itself.

Whole Foods on Facebook Messenger
Whole Foods on Facebook Messenger

If you're unsure about the amount of ingredients you need to make a 4-person serving of casserole, that's okay too. There's a recipe database connected to the Whole Foods chatbot on Messenger. Users can tap into that database conversationally and search for any culinary information that they may need. This is perfect if you want to save the trouble or flipping through web pages. You can converse with the AI-powered chef directly by typing in the queries or even emojis in the chat box and within 3 seconds, you'll get your answers, making cooking easier than ever.

Since Facebook is pushing Facebook Messenger by making Send to Messenger ads cheaper, Whole Foods used this opportunity to acquire users and engage with them in a fun way.

5. Golden State Warriors Engagement & Notifications Campaign

If you’re a die-hard basketball fan, the Golden State Warriors have a Facebook Messenger campaign for you. In 2017, the Golden State Warriors rolled out a messenger bot AI-powered virtual assistant that makes it easier for fans to keep up with the team, even if they are not watching.

With the campaign, the Golden State Warriors is giving fans a way to interact with the brand in a new way. If you’ve been using Siri or Alexa and you enjoy it, you'll probably enjoy this too. The bot allows fans to check the stats for current and past games, keep up with player stats and helps you to purchase your favorite Golden State Warriors merchandise.

The page which allows you to connect with the Golden State Warriors Bot.
Golden State Warriors Facebook Messenger Start Page

How Does The Golden State Warriors Facebook Messenger Campaign Work?

We weren't able to find the exact ad used by the Golden State Warriors to attract people to the chat. But based on the ad history associated with their Facebook page we are fairly confident that they used a Send to Messenger Facebook ad to acquire people in the chat.

With this type of ad, once the user clicks the call to action it sends them directly to the Messenger.com on the desktop or to the Messenger app if they are on mobile. Then all users have to do is press get started and the campaign has acquired the user.

As soon as you click get started, the chatbot welcomes you to the chat and prompts you to choose which types of notifications you would like to receive. You can choose to receive updates about the current live score when the game is on, video highlights of the games, reminders for upcoming games and even directions to the arena itself. There is also a game called, What Will The Dubs Do. If you select to receive this notification the Warriors assistant will occasionally quiz you with questions that allow you to win prizes.

Getting Started With The Golden State Warriors Facebook Messenger Campaign
Getting Started With The Golden State Warriors Facebook Messenger Campaign

Once you're all set up with your notification preferences you'll be shown the main menu. In the main menu, you'll be able to request information about the next game, previous games, the live score, player stats, and available merchandise. Although you cannot buy merchandise directly through messenger you can browse for the item you like and a link will take you directly to that page on the Warriors website.

The Golden State Warriors Merchandise Web Store
The Golden State Warriors Merchandise Web Store

We did notice that the Warriors assistant may no longer be being updated. As the player stats function is currently no longer working. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Was Golden State Warriors Facebook Messenger Campaign A Success?

Although the app isn’t directly bringing profits to the Golden State Warriors per se, it is still important to the client experience and ads another element to brand building. As with many brand campaigns, especially experimental ones, it's hard to definitively say if the campaign was a success or not. We do have two indicators though.

The Golden State Warriors are still using the Warriors assistant for their Messenger channel. If it was really a flop we assume they would have taken it down. Yet, the player stats function is not working so we presume they have reduced the amount of resources that have placed into the campaign.

6. The Sephora Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

Great news to all the girls out there -- Sephora is here to make your shopping experience. In 2016, Sephora launched a messenger bot Sephora Assistant by partnering with Assi.st and Facebook. The assistant is primarily designed to allow you to shop in a conversational way.

You can also use it to book an appointment in any Sephora store in the United States. The assistant even understands natural language queries so you can just type what you’re looking for - makeup, makeover or tips and it will automatically show you all the relevant and available options.

How Did The Sephora Facebook Messenger Campaign Work?

To acquire users for its new Messenger assistant Sephora used posts on it’s Facebook page as well as click to messenger ads. This meant that users would be pushed directly into Facebook Messenger once they chose to interact with the ad.

Once you click on Get Started, the Sephora Assistant welcomes you and gives you a series of options to choose from - you can try on looks, book a makeup and skincare service and give store feedback. If the chat goes to a place where the assistant is at a loss you can always type chat with an agent to talk to a human.

Getting Started With Sephora Assistant

When you’re shopping for makeup, you’ll want to know what it looks like on your face. So Sephora created a function that allows you to scan a face with in order to let you view that product on yourself before you choose to buy.

Once you click Buy Now you are automatically redirected to the product page on the Sephora website. If you’re looking to book an appointment you can select the location, time and date all from within Facebook Messenger, no need to go to an outside website.

Picking a Look to try on with Sephora Assistant
Picking a Look to try on with Sephora Assistant

Was Sephora Facebook Messenger Campaign A Success?

“Upon the bot going live in 2016, it has brought a big 11% increase in terms of booking rates compare to other digital channels. The average spending of users who book the appointments through the messenger bot is over $50.”

It’s safe to say that the Facebook Messenger marketing campaign is a huge success for Sephora. It does not only drive substantial traffic to the stores, but it also makes the customer experience faster and more convenient.

7. The Wall Street Journal Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

We've discussed how news agencies in countries with slow internet use WhatsApp marketing in order to proliferate the news. Now let's discuss how one of the worlds most well known newspapers uses messenger marketing to re-activate their users.

Because The Wall Street Journal is such a well-known brand and because we were not able to find any Send to Messenger Ads that are being served on Facebook by WSJ we are going to assume that WSJ is not using their messenger marketing for lead generation. So what are they using it for? Based on the functionality it seems that they're using it to reactivate their users.

These are the onboarding messages for the Wall Street Journal Messenger Marketing Chatbot
Wall Street Journal Messenger Marketing - Onboarding

How Does The WSJ Messenger Marketing Campaign Work?

The WSJ chatbot is not very chatty. We tried various phrases, and we encountered three scenarios:

  1. Sends the onboarding message to us again
  2. Tries to look up stock information
  3. Let's us know a series of possible commands

Now that may sound bad, but compared to our experience with other messenger marketing campaigns we think this one works quite well. Although it's functionality is limited, that functionality works quite well.

After you've joined the messenger channel you'll find the key functions to be:

  • Breaking News Alerts
  • Daily News Digest
  • Company News Alerts
  • Portfolio Alerts
  • Links to Subscribe to WSJ Podcasts
An R.Kelly breaking news notification from the Wall Street Journal messenger marketing campaign
WSJ Messenger Marketing - Breaking News Alerts

Breaking news alerts arrive a couple of times per day. The daily news digest comes once per day. Company news & portfolio alerts arrive as necessary, but we have never been notified more than four times per day.

In all these scenarios WSJ encourages you to either share the article with your friends or get on the WSJ website to read the full story.

Adding a company to your news alerts and portfolio is not that easy as you will need to know the company stock ticker symbol to look it up. However, we suppose that is not so difficult for WSJ readers.

The boeing stock ticker is displayed in the portfolio view of the Wall Street Journal Messenger Marketing Campaign
WSJ Messenger Marketing - Portfolio

Once you've followed some companies, it's quite easy to review your portfolio in a carousel. You'll be able to unfollow them or look for more news quite quickly too.

Is The WSJ Messenger Marketing Campaign a Success?

It's difficult to say as we have no way to estimate how much traffic The Wall Street Journal is generating back to their site. We weren't able to find any commentary from their staff regarding this service.

We can say that for a messenger marketing campaign, the performance is quite smooth and bug-free.

8. Nike's Jordan Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

In 2018, Nike's Jordan brand thrilled the messenger marketing community with the Nike Air Jordan Facebook Messenger bot. This isn't Nike's first foray in messenger marketing, and it's not even the first for Air Jordan. Their first messenger marketing campaign, Jordan Breakfast Club encouraged users to keep up with Michael Jordan's workout regime.

A 3 part image that shows bot interactions on the Air Jordan Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
Air Jordan Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

Dan Harbison, the global senior director for digital at Air Jordan believes messenger bots to be a massive opportunity because "people will connect with people much more than they will with a large entity."

How Does Nike's Jordan Marketing Campaign Work?

The Air Jordan Messenger marketing campaign is designed to appeal to the hardcore fans of Jumpman. Having such a large following already means that Air Jordan doesn't need to drive traffic to its campaign using ads. With over 9 million followers on its Facebook page this messenger marketing campaign has set the chat window on the Air Jordan Facebook page to open automatically whenever a user accesses it.

The subscriber onboarding process for the Nike Air Jordan Messenger Marketing Campaign
Air Jordan Messenger Marketing Campaign - Subscriber Onboarding

While researching this story, we hit Get Started and left it for a while. To our surprise, the Facebook bot sent us another message in about 10 minutes asking us to opt-in to weekly notifications. We could tell this campaign was all about chat marketing because we got to choose to receive our notifications based on the time of day and we even got to pick the exact hour as well.

Once we choose our notification settings, we were able to see all the latest limited edition Jordans. What else? This is a campaign for hardcore sneakerheads after all.

Was Nikes Jordan Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign a Success?

One of the messenger marketing campaigns where we can give a resounding yes! After the campaign was launched Nike came out and announced that their messenger marketing campaign is generating an 87% open rate. This is extremely favorable as it is about 4x better than what Nike typically sees from its email marketing campaigns.

If you'd like to generate open rates like that for your company, don't forget to check out our article that explains how we achieved a 92% open rate on our email newsletter.

9. Boundary Brighton's Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

Boundary Bright is a festival that has been held in the United Kingdom for the last four years. For 2019 SuperCharged, the events company that runs the festival decided to use messenger marketing to accelerate ticket sales ahead of the event.

This image was used in a blog post to discuss the Boundary Brighton Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign
Boundary Brighton Festival

How Does Boundary Brighton's Messenger Marketing Campaign Work?

Since the Boundary Brighton festival has already existed for four years, the first step was to convert the Facebook page audience into a messenger audience. Boundary Brighton achieved this by announcing a pre-sales sign up with very cheap ticket prices. To gain access to those you had to sign up to their Facebook Messenger channel.

Then SuperCharged proceeded to send information through the Facebook Messenger channel. Along with announcements about how many tickets were available the company also used the direct messaging channel to announce headliners and additional to the line up throughout the campaign.

This is the image displayed when you enter the boundary brighton messenger marketing campaign.
Boundary Brighton Festival

When entering the channel for the first time, everything is quite simple. You're sent three messages, one to let you know where to buy tickets, one with this groovy picture above and a place where you can sign up to win tickets.

That's it, a straightforward messenger marketing campaign. Now, how well did it work?

Was Boundary Brighton's Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign a Success?

According to Luke Ralph, the head of SuperCharged, the first direct message he sent to the messenger marketing audience had a 96% open rate. With 70% of those users converting into a purchase within the first 24 hours. This allowed 1,500+ ticket sales on the first day of tickets landing for purchase. With 500 tickets selling within 3 minutes.

If you'd like to try something like this with Rocketbots, this post will show you how.

10. The Lego Gift Bot Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

Lego has been around for 100 years or more, and they're not exactly known for reinventing the wheel. They've been using the same style of brick for eternity. So what are they doing launching a messenger marketing campaign?

We see so many messenger marketing campaigns at our office, and almost all have the same flaw - too complicated! It's obvious that the team has used a chat automation tool and gone crazy with it. They want to try every style of button, every feature that it has available.

This campaign hasn't made any of those mistakes. It's simple, elegant & successful. It has only one goal in mind, to choose a lego gift for a child.

How Does Lego's Messenger Marketing Campaign Work?

This messenger marketing campaign is refreshingly simple. It's designed to help you buy a gift for a child. All Ralph, the Lego gift bot, does is ask you the questions he needs to help recommend a gift.

This image shows the questions asked in a lego messenger marketing campaign to be able to recommend a gift.
Lego Messenger Marketing Campaign Questions

Ralph asks questions about your country, your desired spend and info about the person who will receive the gift. It seems this campaign is currently only available in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada as those are the only countries to choose from. We like how Lego used flags, instead of country names.

Next Lego asks you about the age of the person who will receive the gift and the price point of your purchase. Again, friendly and straightforward and a fantastic way for Lego to extract the critical data needed to build a buyer profile for this Facebook Messenger user. Later this information can be used to send targeted marketing messages that push for sales around Christmas time.

This image shows the questions asked in a lego messenger marketing campaign to be able to recommend a gift.
Lego Messenger Marketing Campaign Questions

Once you've received the recommendations, Lego gives you the options to easily change your choices. They only give the option to change the price range and category directly, because who is going to change their country or age of their child. And the ability to start again. Good job Lego!

Was Lego's Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign a Success?

According to Facebook success stories this messenger marketing campaign was an incredible success. The goal of the campaign was to increase the number of online sales Lego was able to generate. As a result of the campaign, Lego saw a 3.4x higher return on Click to Messenger ads compared to regular Facebook ads, a 71% lower cost per purchase & increased the value of purchased made 1.9x.

If you ask me, this campaign was a resounding success.

11. The HiSmile Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

If you're looking to generate dentist leads or market dental lead generation services to your clients, this is a unique & powerful campaign to emulate. In this campaign, HiSmile used Facebook sponsored messages to re-engage users who had already interacted with them on Facebook in some way and encourage them to try HiSmile Products.

Shows a woman using a HiSmile product on the context of the HiSmile Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign.
The HiSmile Facebook Messenger Marketing Campaign

HiSmile makes teeth whitening products that can be used at home to make teeth whiter by using it just 10 minutes a day. To re-engage their 1.7 million fans on Facebook, HiSmile used Facebook sponsored messages to drive engagement and loyalty, especially with their younger audience.

How Did The HiSmile Messenger Marketing Campaign Work?

The HiSmile messenger marketing effort was a series of campaigns that ran in September and October 2017. Sponsored messages were used to retarget users that had already like or been on the HiSmile Facebook. This gave HiSmile a vast audience to work with.

This image displays a HiSmile Sponsored Message that was delivered during the HiSmile Messenger Marketing Campaign
HiSmile Sponsored Message

To ensure the messenger marketing campaign was a success, HiSmile created messages that were personalized with the customer's names, with beautiful images and a limited time discount code to create a sense of urgency. The messages were sent in batched around critical shopping times like the weekend or near special events. HiSmile also sent a reminder message just before the discount code expired.

Was The HiSmile Messenger Marketing Campaign A Success?

HiSmile's Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic are no stranger to using next-generation marketing methods and experiments to move products. Nik Mirkovic decided to use sponsored messages because, "it put us at the forefront of our customers' attention with an ad that you couldn't simply scroll past, as it would notify you of the message."

HiSmile's Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic
HiSmile's Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic

The reason we recommend those involved in dentist lead generation and those involved in getting dental leads for clients is because of the fantastic ROI reported for this campaign. As dental lead generation is quite a crowded field, using a relatively new product like sponsored messages enabled this campaign to attain:

  • an 11x lower cost per purchase compared to other channels
  • a 9.92x return on ad spend
  • a 21x higher Click Through Rate compared to other platforms

If you're looking to implement this type of campaign for yourself or for your customers, be use to shoot us a message.

12. The Pizza Hut Facebook Messenger Pizza Bot

Following in the steps of companies like 1-800 Flowers, Pizza Hut Australia has created a Pizza Bot that allows you to order Pizza in a few easy steps. If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can do so on the Pizza Hut Au Instant Ordering Facebook page.

Pizza Hut Instant Ordering Messenger Campaign
Pizza Hut Instant Ordering Messenger Campaign

This isn't even the worlds first Pizza Bot. Dominoes has a wide array of Pizza Bots available across several platforms. However, this is the first Pizza Bot in Australia, and it works pretty well to boot.

How Does The Pizza Hut Bot Work?

The ordering process is super streamlined. When you first join that chat, you're asked to choose between placing a new order or reviewing older orders. Once you hit order now, you're only a few steps away from a hot and fresh Pizza Hut pizza.

This image displays the ordering flow of the Pizza Hut Instant Ordering Messenger Campaign
Pizza Hut Instant Ordering Process

First, you'll need to choose between delivery or pick up, then let Pizza Hut know your location. If you're ordering a pizza for pick up like we did, it will list the stores closest to you, for you to choose from.

One of the great things about this Facebook Messenger campaign is even though you think you'll need to leave the Facebook Messenger app for some parts of ordering you don't need to. When it comes time to chose your location, a map will pop up in Facebook Messenger web view, so you never leave the app.

After finalizing the location, you'll need to choose the items you'd like to order. The Instant Ordering Facebook Messenger channel makes it relatively easy to browse around different categories of items by using carousels and quick replies.

Once you've added everything to your cart you'll need to agree to the terms and conditions, give your phone number & your email. If you choose cash as the payment method as we did, you're done. We were surprised that there was not final confirmation button and we ordered a Pizza by accident. At least it was a happy accident.

Is the Pizza Hut Pizza Bot A Success?

You might think this isn't really a Facebook Messenger marketing campaign and doubt the value that Pizza Hut receives from this effort. All they're getting is a few extra Pizza orders, right? Wrong.

Things have changed. People don't just call up their local pizza place anymore and order a pizza, they log in to Deliveroo, UberEats or MenyLog and check out the options they have available. This put's brands in a position where they don't have direct access to their customer.

Creating a Facebook Messenger bot like this can help brands fix that issue. Even though you'll still need to use Facebook Messenger to order, you'll be sending messages directly to Pizza Hut. This allows Pizza Hut to contact you back through Facebook Messenger sometime in the future.

Further Reading

If you're looking to generate similar results for your company, don't hesitate to check out our Ultimate Guide to Facebook Messenger for Business.

We'll keep updating this article with even more Facebook Messenger campaigns, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out.

Iaroslav Kudritskiy
Chief Operating Officer
Iaroslav Kudritskiy is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of respond.io. He is a graduate of the MBA program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his previous roles include positions at Kodak Alaris, Xaxis and Light Reaction.
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