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As consumers expect ever-more personalised, accurate, and efficient online experiences, brands of all sizes are increasingly turning to business messaging to meet their promotional and customer service needs.
Business messaging has seen a high uptake in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. However, it is “probably the most advanced in APAC because we are mobile-first,” said Kishore Parthasarathy, director of marketing science for India, Southeast Asia, and emerging markets at Meta.
Besides the popularity of messaging for personal and work-related purposes, APAC consumers are more comfortable shopping from their phones than their counterparts in other markets. By incorporating messaging into their marketing plan, businesses can provide “one-to-one interaction and frictionless service while meeting consumers where they are,” said Parthasarathy.
As with any emerging channel, there are a few concerns to iron out. For instance, how to optimise execution; and whether adoption translates to real business value. How then does one measure the impact of business messaging, and what are the challenges in doing so accurately?
Turning talk into action
When it comes to gauging the impact of messaging campaigns, the key challenges include a lack of standardisation in measurement, limited access to necessary data, and difficulty attributing outcomes such as sales or conversions to a specific messaging campaign or channel.
With an ecosystem comprising some of the world’s most popular messaging platforms, Meta is “constantly innovating” to address these issues. Besides leveraging AI to help advertisers optimise campaigns, Meta has invested in building new tools and resources to help businesses make more informed decisions about their marketing strategies:
- Conversions API for Business Messaging provides valuable data and insights on messaging campaigns, such as message delivery rates, response times, and customer engagement metrics
- Ads Manager platform allows businesses to track the performance of their messaging campaigns and attribute outcomes to specific ads or campaigns
The proof is in the conversations
Let’s explore some examples of how solutions from Meta platforms helped APAC advertisers achieve real-life results.
Vietnam’s largest ophthalmology hospital chain, Saigon Eye Hospital, utilised click-to-Messenger (CTM) ads to complement its existing lead generation solutions on Meta. Recognising business messaging as a preferred method of communication for Vietnamese consumers, Saigon Eye Hospital and its media agency, Omnicom, introduced CTM as an additional lead generation channel alongside onsite lead forms. Without requiring any investment in chat agents or external chatbots, this strategic move successfully led to 2.5x more leads and 6x increase in reach, at a 61.4% decrease in cost per lead — demonstrating business messaging’s ability to deliver on upper-funnel objectives efficiently and effectively.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s largest branded coffee chain, Kopi Kenangan, turned to WhatsApp to boost its conversion rate and engagement with existing customers. In collaboration with its cloud communication partner NXCLOUD, Kopi Kenangan integrated its membership management system into WhatsApp, enabling customers to receive direct access to promotions and Kopi Kenangan’s WhatsApp community on the app. Using click-to-WhatsApp (CTWA) ads, automated WhatsApp replies, and special community promotions, Kopi Kenangan drove a 3x lift in conversions for coffee orders from promotional notifications as well as a 2x increase in customer retention versus traditional channels.
Fengping Zeng, CTO of Kopi Kenangan, noted WhatsApp’s efficacy in boosting the brand’s conversion and called the WhatsApp community “instrumental in effectively retaining our loyal customer base.”
In Indonesia, online property platform Lamudi sought to enhance its typical Meta lead ads with business messaging. Leveraging WhatsApp’s popularity in Indonesia, the brand incorporated click-to-WhatsApp buttons into a series of Feed, Stories, and Reels ads on Instagram and Facebook showcasing four different properties. Customers who clicked the button were led to an automated experience that prompted them to begin a conversation and provide their details, which Lamudi’s in-house sales team would follow up on.
An A/B test comparing Lamudi’s usual lead campaign to the campaign with CTWA ads showed that WhatsApp was highly effective in efficiently drawing more potential buyers, with a 53% lower cost per lead and 8% higher conversion rate from the lead campaign that added click-to-Whatsapp ads, compared to their business-as-usual campaign.
But business messaging isn’t just for large businesses — Parthasarathy observed that small to medium businesses (SMBs) are the “long tail” that use the channel most.
Vietnam-based skincare brand Yobe worked with Yoday Media, an agency and Facebook partner, to reach high-purchase-intent audiences, encouraging these consumers to message the business to learn more about the products, and ultimately make purchases through Messenger.
The campaign leveraged livestream posts as creative assets, driving the audience to Messenger. Besides opting for CTM ads, Yoday selected ‘maximise the number of conversations’ as an optimisation goal. Running alongside a business-as-usual campaign, the work from Yoday registered five times more purchases, 43% lower cost per purchase, and 58% higher average order value.
Pleased with the results, Nguyen Thuy Huong, CEO at Yobe said, “We continuously seek innovative ways to forge meaningful connections with our target audience and enhance their overall brand experience. The introduction of CTM live boosting has brought about a significant transformation in how our clients engage with our brand, bringing us closer to achieving our business sales objectives.”
The role of partners in business messaging
Campaigns like Yobe’s highlight not just the test-and-learn mindset from participating businesses, but the guidance and collaboration provided by Meta’s business partners. With each of Meta’s messaging platforms being a multi-billion user product, the business partner ecosystem plays an integral role in driving adoption at scale.
Depending on each partner’s expertise and capabilities, they can work closely with clients to develop marketing strategies for messaging over the user journey. For example, they can assist in ad creation and set up best practices for creatives, develop post-ad-click messaging experiences geared for business outcomes, and help businesses understand the ROI through reporting and measurement.
“As we build technology faster, businesses often cannot catch up as quickly. We can’t expect every business to have an army of tech people testing new developments — so we’re enabling and equipping our partners to serve that function,” said Parthasarathy. “They help our clients build APIs, tools, and dashboards which help them get the most out of their business messaging campaigns.”
With the continued development of business messaging and its supporting technologies — such as “fast, accurate, and to the point” AI chatbots — he envisions an “exceptionally bright future” in terms of revenue and growth. “We see it as a big bet for us at Meta,” Parthasarathy concluded.
As more consumers and companies adopt business messaging, it’s clear that talk isn’t cheap — rather, it can translate into a wealth of business opportunities when you know what signals to leverage and metrics to measure success with.
To learn more about driving true business outcomes with messaging, reach out to a Meta Business Partner to identify the right strategy for your brand.
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