Best practices for Messaging Ads

The following best practices can help you get the most out of your Messaging Ads campaigns.

Optimize for timing and responsiveness

• Respond quickly: Prospects are more likely to continue a conversation if they receive a reply within 3 minutes. Use automation (like greeting messages and suggested questions) to reduce delays, especially outside business hours.

• Set up after-hours automation: If you're not staffed to respond 24/7, consider setting up separate after-hours campaigns with automations that set clear expectations. Use a greeting message to let people know they’ll hear back during business hours. Try pairing it with suggested questions that answer your most common FAQs and include a pop-up form so prospects can leave their contact info for follow-up.

• Plan around your team's availability: If you only want to connect with people when your team is online, use dayparting to limit ad delivery to business hours.

Build a smarter conversation flow

• Customize your messaging to match the campaign context: Tailor welcome messages to match the ad’s content or audience. For example, you could highlight the product or limited-time offer mentioned in your creative.

• Use suggested questions to guide conversations and qualify leads: Tappable prompts make it easier for people to start the conversation and give you insight into their intent. Someone tapping “Book an appointment” likely has higher interest than someone browsing FAQs.

• Use pop-up forms to capture higher-intent leads: Pop-up forms let users share contact info mid-conversation. This is especially helpful for longer buying cycles, when follow-up is handled by a sales team over phone or email, or when you aren't available to respond in real time.

• Use clear naming conventions when creating multiple welcome messages: Use distinct names so you can stay organized and easily test or reuse message variations tied to specific campaigns or audience segments.

Optimize campaigns effectively

• Start with TikTok direct messages: They don't require third-party tools and create a smoother experience for your customers. That simplicity leads to more engagement and more conversions.

• Use the deepest optimization goal available to you: Optimizing for leads or conversations (instead of clicks) can help give better performance insights. These optimization goals are available for TikTok Direct Messaging ads and other messaging platforms if you've integrated with a Messaging Partner platform.