【2013 Archives】

Facebook013 Archivesmaking it easier than ever for brands to lure you into chatting with them.

The social network rolled out a new type of ad on Tuesday that lets advertisers with or without Messenger bots solicit messages through sponsored News Feed posts.

The posts look like any other ad on the site, but have a "send message" button in place of a link to an outside site.

Another iteration of the format lets brands run ads within a particular open conversation on the Messenger platform in an attempt to reconnect with users with whom they've talked before.

Facebook tries to prevent the product from leading to spamming by limiting ads to users with which a brand has an existing chat and still letting users reserve the ability to block messages at any time.

When Facebook first launched its branded bot availability on the Messenger platform this spring, one of the most pressing concerns from advertisers was how to make their automated programs easy for users to find.

Starting a conversation with a bot is as easy as sending an opening message through a brand's page or user handle. But even now, it can be difficult to immediately tell which businesses offer them.

Coming six months after the debut of branded bots, these ads seem to be Facebook's attempt to help address that discoverability issue and at the same time advance its inevitable march toward monetizing all those bots.

Until now, Facebook hasn't made any money from the customer service transactions that happen within them.

The rollout follows Facebook's addition of a suite of tools last month aimed at roping more of your social and real world consumer life into its platform, including tailored appointment cards within Messenger that let businesses better schedule things like salon visits or auto repairs.

Those changes, as with these new ads, seem to have also been made in service of one of Facebook's overarching goals: Drawing as much of the web at large as possible into the self-contained microcosm of its walled garden, where it can be more easily tracked and better monetized.

It's a quest that can be traced through many of the moves the company makes from Instant Articles, which hosts news stories directly on the platform, to its Canvas ads, which essentially allow advertisers to create a flashy, miniaturized version of their site within a single post.

In this case, Facebook wants to ensure that all the various functions of companies serving their customers' needs stay within its closely watched orbit.

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