How Facebook Messenger Chatbots are Solving the iOS Privacy Puzzle
How Facebook Messenger Chatbots are Solving the iOS Privacy Puzzle
Lately Facebook marketers have noticed a significant decrease in reported conversions, landing page views, and click-through-rates as a result of the iOS updates. Essentially, if someone opted out of tracking they are a ghost once they leave the Facebook Platform. With about 60 to 70% of users on average opting out of tracking, this is a huge issue for Facebook marketers.
The Conversions API can help, but only marginally. You can also run Objectives that keep your ads on the Facebook platform such as Lead Forms or Video Views. But this doesn’t fit everything in the marketing funnel.
Enter Smart E Bots and our Intelligent Facebook Messenger Chatbots!
There are several ways our bots are working around the iOS Privacy issue with astounding success. Keep in mind some of these strategies are built into our bots specifically, and are not always available with every chatbot on the market.
Drastically Improved Data Flow
There are multiple ways our bots can get your contact information to be sure the matching rate and data flow are near 100%.
Most of the time your First Name, Last Name, and Email are sent automatically to the bot, along with your Messenger account information. So for example, if you want to enter a giveaway via the bot, it will most likely already have your information and you can just click “Enter” without needing to type your name and email. You also have the option to change your email address if you want to use another.
If you do an action such as taking a quiz, downloading a PDF, submitting a question, etc. the bot will try to validate your email with our validation script and make sure your information is correct.
As you enter the chatbot, if your contact information didn’t pass through, the bot can ask you for your information and knows if the values are empty. For example, if you came as a Guest via a website the bot will recognize this and ask “Hello my 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁! 
I just need a bit of information to be sure you are not a bot, or a cat for that matter. You 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲.” The user then enters their First and Last name.
All the information we collect can be sent back to Facebook via auto-updated audiences or Zapier which we will discuss next.
Auto-updated Audiences
We can make almost any audience imaginable in the chatbot backend (we use Chatfuel for our bots). For example, we can create an audience of people who completed a giveaway or scheduled a call.
This audience can be auto-updated in Facebook and it will appear in the Audiences section of Ads Manager.
You can use these audiences for retargeting, exclusion audiences, or lookalikes. Again the matching rate is much higher than if you rely on statistical modelling and the Conversions API. The reason is because Facebook already has your Messenger User ID to help with the matching to your Facebook account.
We can also download these audiences as CSV files and upload them manually to Facebook if necessary.
Facebook Conversions API via Zapier / Integromat
If someone completed an action (quiz, PDF, giveaway, etc.) we can then pass that conversion data to Facebook via Zapier or Integromat.
Not only can we include the contact information but also their Messenger ID, which allows Facebook to match up data with almost 100% efficiency.
Again, we don’t lose people because of the iOS update and this can improve conversion rates for campaigns as the algorithm is receiving all the data on who actually converted. No need to worry about “statistical modelling” to hope your conversions are happening.
Free Retarget within 24 Hours
You get 2 for 1 campaigns with chatbots because we can retarget users within 24 hours for free. You heard that right, absolutely free.
Here is an example - Let’s say you start a quiz via the bot but you don’t finish. The bot can send you a reminder later that day to ask if you want to finish. If you continue the bot will take you to the next question in the quiz so you don’t need to start over.
Finished the quiz? Great, then the bot will move to the next step in the customer journey and give a call-to-action such as “Did you want to schedule a call with our team?”
Lastly, if you received a call-to-action but didn’t take the next step in the customer journey, the bot can follow up to ask “Hey I see you didn’t schedule a call with our team. We are here to help answer any questions you might have. Did you want to schedule now or have me remind you later?” The user can schedule or set a day when the bot will remind them to schedule their call.
There are almost endless retargeting scenarios we can set up and these people are not lost because of the iOS privacy updates.
Free One-Time Notifications
This Messenger feature allows us to send a “one-time” message outside the 24 hour window. So if you sign up for a newsletter the bot can also ask you to opt-in to the One-Time Notifications.
Then let’s say you have a new blog post on your website you want to mention. Send your FREE one-time notification to tell opted-in users about the news. After you send your message we help you automatically re-optin your users for the one-time notification.
Cheap Sponsored Messages
Here is a great bonus with Messenger campaigns. For users who didn’t opt-in to One-Time Notifications you can run cheap Sponsored Messaging campaigns to people who are connected with your chatbot and are outside of the 24 hour window.
For example, let’s say you want to let users know about a sale you are having. The Sponsored message will show directly in Messenger (not as an Ad on Facebook).
Often the view rate is much higher on a message directly in Messenger vs an Ad shown on Facebook.
Website Integration
Still want to run Traffic & Conversion campaigns to your website? No problem! Add your bot into your website to help track your conversions better. You can add a Messenger pop-up or link on ANY page of your website and it can link to ANY part of your bot.
For example, on your homepage you could run a Giveaway or Sweepstakes.
The user never leaves the website and can even start a conversation in Guest Mode, where they don’t need a Facebook or Messenger account.
Adding your chatbot into your website can increase the conversion rate. It also offers users other options, while improving the user experience on the website. You can even boost your search rankings as Time On Site could go up as people interact with the bot.
Fits Almost Every Stage of the Customer Journey
Here are some examples of how Smart E Bots can fit almost any stage of the customer journey:
- Quiz
- Download PDF
- Giveaway
- Blog posts via WordPress
- Videos such as Testimonials
- Schedule a Call
- Sales via Shopify
- Customer Survey
- Spin to Win
- Random Discount Code
- Customer Loyalty Program
- Live Chat
- Case Studies
There are plenty of other options here and we can build custom experiences for your users.
In each experience we find a way to gather customer information and keep the data flow rate near 100%.
Offers a Better User Experience
Fast, friendly, and calls you by name. Bots can offer a better user experience than visiting a website.
The experience is personalized and users are more open to giving their contact information, which again means the data flow rate is very high compared with website visitors.
Want to have users fill out a form - no need to type your information as most likely the bot already has everything, including your phone number.
Better user experience = higher conversion rate!
Are your Facebook Ad campaigns struggling because of the iOS and browser privacy updates? Maybe a Facebook Messenger chatbot is the solution to your Facebook Ad woes!
Want to test drive a chatbot? Go Here to try one out.
